# said to us, 'You know that my wife bore me two sons. One of them went out from me and I said, "Surely he is torn in pieces, and I have not seen him since." Now if you also take this one from me, and harm comes to him, you will bring down my gray hair with sorrow to Sheol.'
This has a two level and three level quotation. They can be stated as indirect quotations. AT: "said to us that we know that his wife, Rachel, bore him only two sons, and that one of them went out and an animal tore him to pieces, and he has not seen him since. Then he said that if we take his other son and something bad happens to him, then we would cause him to die of sorrow." (See: [[rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-quotesinquotes]] and [[rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-quotations]])
Something bad happening to a person is spoken of as if "harm" were something that travels and comes to a person. (See: [[rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-metaphor]])
# you will bring down my gray hair with sorrow to Sheol
To "bring down ... to Sheol" is way of saying they will cause him to die and go to Sheol. He uses the word "down" because it was commonly believed Sheol is somewhere underground. AT: "then you will cause me, an old man, to die of sorrow" (See: [[rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-idiom]])
# my gray hair
This stands for Jacob and emphasizes his old age. AT: "me, an old man" (See: [[rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-synecdoche]])
See in Reader
