Joseph Detains Benjamin: Genesis 44.1-34
Joseph’s brothers again head home from Egypt, still unaware of their brother’s identity. Before they leave, however, Joseph has a steward put each man’s money back into his sack, along with the food. In addition, Joseph has his silver cup placed in Benjamin’s sack. Joseph has his steward pursue his brothers shortly after they leave, with a message that one of them has done the Pharaoh’s governor a wrong by stealing his silver cup, the one he uses for divination.
The servant heads out and stops the party. The brothers say the money at the top of their sacks they brought themselves. Furthermore, they would not steal their lord’s gold; if any of them is found with it, let him die and the others become slaves. The steward, however, says that the one it is found with should become slave, and the rest would go free. They are searched in order of their age, oldest to youngest. The cup is founding Benjamin’s sack. At this the brothers tear their clothes (the same action as their father at the discovery of Joseph’s “death.” The brothers load up their donkeys and head back to Joseph’s house.
The brothers again fall on the ground before Joseph. Joseph rebukes them: Why did you do this? Didn’t you know I can practice divination? Judah responds, “God has found out the guilt of your servants” (Gen. 44.16). Therefore all of them should be Joseph’s slaves. It is not God who is punishing the brothers for their guilt, but rather Joseph himself, a sort of intermediary of God. In any case, though, Joseph demands that only Benjamin should be his slave, for the cup was found in his bag only. The rest should return to their father. This should be even harder on them, as Judah has pledged his honor on the safe return of Benjamin.
Judah steps up to Joseph and recounts the entire history from the brothers’ first journey to Egypt to the present. In doing so he informs Joseph about his father’s sadness:
Now therefore, when I come to your servant my father and the boy is not with us, then, as his life is bound up in the boy’s life, when he sees that the boy is not with us, he will die; and your servants will bring down the gray hairs of your servant our father with sorrow to Sheol.(Gen. 44.30-31)
Judah asks that he instead becomes a slave to Joseph, so that his father will not die of sorrow.
Joseph’s Identity Revealed: Genesis 45.1-28
Overcoem with emotion, Joseph orders his servants out of the room and reveals himself to his brothers. He weeps so loudly that the Egyptians and even Pharaoh hear him. At first his brothers are afraid. When Joseph reveals, “I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?” his brothers are dismayed and cannot answer him (Gen. 45.3). Joseph, after all, still has the power to get revenge for that ill-conceived transaction with the Ishmaelites years ago. Joseph beckons his brother’s closer and reveals his name again. He bids them not to be distressed or angry with themselves; it was an act of God that they should appear before him. Joseph will save them and their families from poverty and starvation. “So it was not you who sent me here, but God; he has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt” (Gen. 45.8). Joseph is a very powerful man in Egypt, the father of Pharaoh himself!
Joseph asks his brothers to go up to Jacob and bring him down to Egypt for the remaining five years of the famine. Jacob’s family will settle in Goshen, near Joseph, who will provide for them.
So is it Joseph’s powers of divination or rather editorial insight that guides Pharaoh’s decision regarding Joseph’s brothers? Upon hearing that Joseph’s brother have arrived, he tells Joseph to move his family to Egypt, so that they may be given “the best of the land o Egypt, and you may enjoy the fat of the land…for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours” (Gen. 45.18-19).
Joseph’s brothers head out with wagons, twenty donkeys laden with goods and provisions for the return journey, and a new set of garments for each man. Benjamin, however, receives five sets of garments as well as three hundred pieces of silver and gold to compensate for the “stolen” silver cup. Presumably the brothers have learned their lesson and do not begrudge Benjamin for this favoritism. Nevertheless, Joseph tells his brothers as they leave, “Do not quarrel along the way” (Gen. 45.24).
The revelations of Joseph’s existence to Jacob parallels the revelation of Joseph’s identity to his brothers. At first Jacob is stunned and does not believe that his son is ruler over Egypt, let alone alive. After some explication and viewing the wagons of goods, Israel says in his classic pessimistic fashion, “Enough! My son Joseph is still alive. I must go see him before I die” (Gen. 45.28).
Tomorrow: Israel sees his son Joseph before he dies.
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