John Calvin Commentary Genesis 42:38

"And he said, My son shall not go down with you; for his brother is dead, and he only is left: if harm befall him by the way in which ye go, then will ye bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Sheol." — Genesis 42:38 (ASV)

My son shall not go down with you. Again we see, as in a vivid picture, the sorrow with which holy Jacob was oppressed. He sees his whole family famishing. He would rather be torn from life than from his son. From this, we gather that he was not iron-hearted. Yet his patience is all the more deserving of praise because he contended with the infirmity of the flesh and did not sink under it.

And although Moses does not use elaborate rhetoric in describing this, we nevertheless easily perceive that Jacob was overcome with excessive grief when he complained to his sons in this way: “You are too cruel to your father, taking from me a third son after I have been deprived of first one and then another.”

CHAPTER 43.