قَالَ هَلْ ءَامَنُكُمْ عَلَيْهِ إِلَّا كَمَآ أَمِنتُكُمْ عَلَىٰٓ أَخِيهِ مِن قَبْلُ ۖ فَٱللَّهُ خَيْرٌ حَـٰفِظًا ۖ وَهُوَ أَرْحَمُ ٱلرَّٰحِمِينَ
Qaala hal aamanukum 'alihi illaa kamaa amintukum 'alaaa akheehimin qabl; fal laahu khairun haafizanw wa Huwa arhamur Raahimeen
He said, "Am I to entrust him to you as I entrusted his brother to you before? God is the best guardian, and he is the most merciful of the merciful."
Yaʿqub's sons have just offered the same guarantee they gave the first time, that they will guard the boy, and their father answers by moving that word off them and onto God. The reply is shaped as a question, and the decision stays unmade until they swear an oath two verses later. Reciters differ over whether the word there reads ḥāfiẓan or ḥifẓan, guardian or guarding, with the sense landing in nearly the same place.