Genesis 42:17

 Genesis 42:17

And he put them all together into ward three days.

a. NASB 1995: So he put them all together in prison for three days.  [New American Standard Bible 1995 (NASB1995) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved.]

b. NKJV: So he put them all together in prison three days.  [Scripture quotations marked "NKJV" are taken from the New King James Version®, Copyright© 1982, Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.]

c. Classic Amplified: Then he put them all in custody for three days.  [Amplified Bible, Classic Edition (AMPC) Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation]

d. Stone Edition Torah/Prophets/Writings: Then he herded them  into a ward for a three-day period. [The Artscroll Series/Stone Edition, THE TANACH--STUDENT SIZE EDITION Copyright 1996, 1998 by Mesorah Publications, Ltd.]

e. ESV:  And he put them all together in custody for three days. [Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001, 2007, 2011, 2016 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.]

f. Unless otherwise stated, all Greek and Hebrew definitions are from Blue Letter Bible

1. “And he put them all together into ward three days.”

a. [And he put] them [Strong: 853 'eth ayth apparent contracted from 226 in the demonstrative sense of entity; properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely):--(as such unrepresented in English).]

b. all together [Strong: 622 ʼâçaph, aw-saf'; a primitive root; to gather for any purpose; hence, to receive, take away, i.e. remove (destroy, leave behind, put up, restore, etc.):—assemble, bring, consume, destroy, fetch, gather (in, together, up again), × generally, get (him), lose, put all together, receive, recover (another from leprosy), (be) rereward, × surely, take (away, into, up), × utterly, withdraw.]

c. into [Strong: 413 ʼêl, ale; (but used only in the shortened constructive form אֶל ʼel, el); a primitive particle; properly, denoting motion towards, but occasionally used of a quiescent position, i.e. near, with or among; often in general, to:—about, according to, after, against, among, as for, at, because (-fore, -side), both...and, by, concerning, for, from, × hath, in (-to), near, (out) of, over, through, to (-ward), under, unto, upon, whether, with (-in).]

d. ward [Strong: 4929 mishmâr, mish-mawr'; from H8104; a guard (the man, the post or the prison); a deposit (figuratively); also (as observed) a usage (abstractly), or an example (concretely):—diligence, guard, office, prison, ward, watch.]

e. three [Strong: 7969 shâlôwsh, shaw-loshe'; or שָׁלֹשׁ shâlôsh; masculine שְׁלוֹשָׁה shᵉlôwshâh; or שְׁלֹשָׁה shᵉlôshâh; a primitive number; three; occasionally (ordinal) third, or (multiple) thrice:—+ fork, + often(-times), third, thir(-teen, -teenth), three, + thrice.]

1). Although he knew they were not spies, he accused them of being spies. This was one part of the plan that Joseph used in order to test them. He at first said that they would all be thrown in prison except the one who would go get the younger brother, then he threw them all in prison for three days perhaps to jolt their consciences.