Genesis 42:15

⁵⁵When Saul saw David go out against the Philistine, he said to Abner, the captain of the army, “Abner, whose son is this youth?” Abner said, “As your soul lives, O king, I can’t tell.”

¹⁶“Woe to you, you blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obligated.’ ¹⁷You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold? ¹⁸And, ‘Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obligated.’ ¹⁹You blind fools! For which is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifies the gift? ²⁰He therefore who swears by the altar, swears by it and by everything on it. ²¹He who swears by the temple, swears by it and by him who has been living^[+] in it. ²²He who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by him who sits on it.

³⁰“The man, the lord of the land, spoke roughly with us, and took us for spies of the country.

²⁰We said to my lord, ‘We have a father, an old man, and a child of his old age, a little one; and his brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother; and his father loves him.’ ²¹You said to your servants, ‘Bring him down to me, that I may set my eyes on him.’ ²²We said to my lord, ‘The boy can’t leave his father, for if he should leave his father, his father would die.’ ²³You said to your servants, ‘Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you will see my face no more.’ ²⁴When we came up to your servant my father, we told him the words of my lord. ²⁵Our father said, ‘Go again and buy us a little food.’ ²⁶We said, ‘We can’t go down. If our youngest brother is with us, then we will go down: for we may not see the man’s face, unless our youngest brother is with us.’ ²⁷Your servant, my father, said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons. ²⁸One went out from me, and I said, “Surely he is torn in pieces;” and I haven’t seen him since. ²⁹If you take this one also from me, and harm happens to him, you will bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Sheol.’^30[+] Now therefore when I come to your servant my father, and the boy is not with us; since his life is bound up in the boy’s life; ³¹it will happen, when he sees that the boy is no more, that he will die. Your servants will bring down the gray hairs of your servant, our father, with sorrow to Sheol.^32[+] For your servant became collateral for the boy to my father, saying, ‘If I don’t bring him to you, then I will bear the blame to my father forever.’ ³³Now therefore, please let your servant stay instead of the boy, my lord’s slave; and let the boy go up with his brothers. ³⁴For how will I go up to my father, if the boy isn’t with me?—lest I see the evil that will come on my father.”

¹²But above all things, my brothers, don’t swear—not by heaven, or by the earth, or by any other oath; but let your “yes” be “yes”, and your “no”, “no”, so that you don’t fall into hypocrisy.

⁷Joseph saw his brothers, and he recognized them, but acted like a stranger to them, and spoke roughly with them. He said to them, “Where did you come from?” They said, “From the land of Canaan, to buy food.”

⁷“How can I pardon you? Your children have forsaken me, and sworn by what are no gods. When I had fed them to the full, they committed adultery, and assembled themselves in troops at the prostitutes’ houses.

³Judah spoke to him, saying, “The man solemnly warned us, saying, ‘You shall not see my face, unless your brother is with you.’

²Though they say, ‘As the LORD lives,’ surely they swear falsely.”

¹³You shall fear the LORD your God; and you shall serve him, and shall swear by his name.