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17. First journey of
the sons of Jacob to Egypt.
But how did Jacob and
his eleven sons fare in Canaan at that time? The price increase came, as
Joseph had predicted, and spread also over the land of Canaan. When
Jacob heard that grain was on sale in Egypt, he sent his sons to Egypt
to buy it. Only Benjamin, the youngest, he kept at home. The brothers
had long since stopped thinking about Joseph. They did not know where
the foreign merchants had taken him or what had become of him.
When they came to Egypt, they were brought before Joseph and did not
know him, but prostrated themselves before him as before a noble
Egyptian gentleman. But Joseph knew them at once that they were his
brothers who had sold him. But he turned on them as a stranger and spoke
to them in Egyptian through an interpreter. He now had them in his power
and could repay them for all the cruelty they had committed against him.
But Joseph did not do that. A pious man does not do such things to his
brothers, to his father's children, and to no one. He spoke harshly to
them: ‘Who are you and where do you come from?’ They said, ‘We come from
the land of Canaan to buy food.’ - Joseph said: ‘You are spies,
dangerous people! You want to see where the land is open, to invade it
with a hostile force.‘
They replied: ‘No, my lord; we have never been spies. We are honest
people, eleven brothers, sons of one man. The youngest is still at home
with his father; one is no more.’
This speech gave Joseph an opportunity. He said, ‘Now I will test you to
see if you are dealing with the truth; send one of you to get your
youngest brother; the rest of you are to be imprisoned in the meantime.’
Joseph had a special love for Benjamin because he was the son of his
mother Rachel and the most pious and youngest of his brothers. He was
not like the others. With these words he had them put in prison as
suspects.
But on the third day he said to them again: ‘I fear God!’ That was a
word worthy of respect. ‘If you are honest men, leave one of you bound
here in prison. The rest of you go and bring home what you have bought.
But bring your youngest brother to me, so that I may believe your words
and you may not die.’ It is no small thing to stand before a powerful
and noble man who speaks like this, so far away from home, where no one
knows you and no one knows you. The brothers felt this and said to each
other in Hebrew: ‘We are to blame for our brother Joseph, because we saw
the anguish of his soul when he pleaded with us, and we would not listen
to him. That is why this tribulation has come upon us.’
But Joseph had to turn round and weep when he heard this speech. Then he
had Simeon bound before their eyes and taken back to prison. The others
bought grain, paid for it and went home again.
But on the way, when one of them opened his sack to feed his animal, he
realised that the money he had paid was back in his sack, as were the
rest of the brothers. For Joseph had secretly let each of them put his
money back into his sack. Joseph did not want to take anything from his
father, but he did not yet want to reveal himself. But his brothers were
very frightened when they found their money back in their sacks. When
the sons of Jacob returned to Canaan, and there were only nine of them
left, they told their father everything that had happened to them. There
was great lamentation in Jacob's house because of Simeon and Benjamin.
‘It's all about me,’ said the distraught father; he didn't want to let
Benjamin go.
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