Brothers in Egypt
The Brothers in Egypt
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Jacob’s Favorite
Jacob also found out there was grain in Egypt, so he told his sons, “Why are you just standing around? Look, I found out there’s grain in Egypt. Go buy some for us there so we’ll live, not die.” Then ten of Joseph’s brothers went to Egypt to buy grain. But Jacob didn’t send Joseph’s brother Benjamin with his brothers because Jacob feared something might happen to him.
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During the second year of the famine, Jacob’s household began to run out of food.1 Jacob found out they could buy grain in Egypt, and the inaction of his ten oldest sons frustrated him. If the brothers did nothing, the entire camp would die, including their own wives and children. So Jacob sent them to Egypt.2
Jacob had no problem sending the sons of Leah and his concubines to Egypt, but he didn’t send his youngest son, Benjamin. At this point, Benjamin was an adult in his mid-twenties. But like Joseph, Benjamin was the son of Jacob’s favorite wife, Rachel.3 Rachel had died, and Jacob believed Joseph had too.4 So the thought of something happening to Benjamin terrified Jacob.
Jacob cared more about Benjamin than his ten older sons combined. He had taken Joseph’s place as his father’s favorite. And this time, Jacob would not let his favorite son out of his sight!
Spies
Israel’s sons arrived to buy grain among the others who came because the famine was also in the land of Canaan. Since it was Joseph who ruled the land and sold grain to everyone, his brothers came and bowed low before him. When Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them but acted as if he were a stranger. He spoke to them roughly. “Where have you come from?”
“From the land of Canaan. We came to buy food.”
Though Joseph recognized his brothers, they didn’t recognize him. He remembered the dreams he’d had about them and said to them, “You’re spies! You’ve come to search for where the land is vulnerable!”
“No, my lord!” they replied. “Your servants came to buy food. We’re all the sons of one man. Your servants are honest men, not spies!”
“No! You’ve come to search for where the land is vulnerable!”
“Your servants are twelve brothers,” they said. “We are the sons of one man in the land of Canaan. The youngest is with our father now, and another is gone.”
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When Jacob’s sons arrived in Egypt, they had to appear before Joseph to receive permission to buy grain. They bowed low before the man who could save them and their families. Joseph recognized them, but since he shaved and dressed like an Egyptian, his brothers didn’t recognize him. As he examined each familiar face and felt the rush of suppressed memories, one thought must have overwhelmed him. Where was Benjamin?
The absence of his only full brother would have upset Joseph. He had every reason to suspect his older brothers may have gotten rid of Rachel’s second son just like they got rid of her firstborn. But he also remembered his dreams.5 Seeing his ten older brothers bow before him fulfilled his first dream. But in his second dream, all eleven of his brothers, as well as his father and “mother” (probably meaning Leah), bowed down to him.
Joseph needed more information, but he didn’t trust these treacherous brothers of his. So he acted like the Egyptian stranger they thought he was. He accused them of spying to search for vulnerabilities in Egypt’s defenses, possibly to steal part of their grain supply. Of course, they had no intention of stealing grain, and Joseph knew it. But it gave him a pretense to interrogate them.
Terrified, the brothers began spilling forth information about themselves to refute the charge. As brothers, they had come from Canaan together to buy food for their family. This didn’t satisfy Joseph, so he kept up the pressure by repeating the accusations. Finally the brothers gave Joseph the information he wanted. They had two other brothers—one who was gone and one who was with their father in Canaan. Benjamin was alive. And so was Jacob.
The Test
But Joseph insisted, “As I said, you’re spies. You’ll be tested in this way: As assuredly as the pharaoh lives, you will not leave this place unless your younger brother comes. Send one among you to bring your brother while you remain in prison. Then your words will be tested. Do you speak the truth? If not, as assuredly as the pharaoh lives, you’re spies!” Then he put them under guard for three days.
On the third day, Joseph told them, “I fear God. So do this and you’ll live: If you’re honest, leave one of your brothers imprisoned where you’ve been kept under guard. Meanwhile you go take grain to your hungry households. Then bring your youngest brother to me so your words can be verified and you won’t die.” And they agreed to do so.
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Benjamin had stayed behind in Canaan. But Joseph wanted his younger brother in Egypt, where he could protect him. He also wanted to test whether his older brothers had changed in the previous twenty years. Could they possibly reconcile? Joseph needed time to come up with a plan. So he told the “spies” that one of them must return and fetch their younger brother from Canaan to prove they had told the truth. The rest would remain in prison. While they chose who would go, they would all remain under guard.
Three days later, Joseph had formed his plan. He knew he couldn’t send only one brother back to Canaan with enough food to feed the entire family. But he had to detain at least one to ensure the others would return. So he summoned his brothers and explained the revised terms of their release.
Joseph told them he feared God (or the gods, as the brothers probably thought he meant). He gave them a chance to prove their innocence because he feared divine punishment if he convicted honest men.6 Yet though the brothers weren’t spies, they and Joseph all knew they weren’t honest either. They had no choice but to agree to the trial. They just had to decide which brother would stay in Egypt.
Anguish
Then the brothers said to each other, “We’re surely being punished because of our brother! We saw his anguish, but when he begged for mercy, we refused to listen. That’s why this anguish has happened to us.”
Reuben said, “Didn’t I tell you not to sin against the boy? But you refused to listen! Now look! We must answer for his blood.”
Because Joseph spoke to them through an interpreter, they didn’t realize he understood. He moved away from them and wept. When he returned, he spoke to them. He took Simeon and had him bound as they watched. Then he commanded their bags be filled with grain and each one’s silver returned to his sack. He also ordered they be given provisions for the journey.
When he had done this for them, they loaded their grain on their donkeys and left.
Image by Peggy und Marco Lachmann-Anke from Pixabay
Jacob’s sons found themselves trapped. They needed to return home with grain soon. To do that, one of them would have to wait in prison for three or four weeks, long enough for the others to make the round trip between Egypt and Canaan. No one volunteered for the role. But to their credit, they didn’t fight about it either. Instead they admitted they deserved the anguish they felt because they showed no mercy to Joseph in his anguish.
Reuben only made matters worse by rebuking his frightened brothers. He selfishly professed his innocence in Joseph’s disappearance. Because he didn’t participate in the crime of selling Joseph, he shouldn’t be the one to remain in prison. In a time of crisis, he once again showed his lack of leadership qualities, protecting himself instead of his younger brothers. Nonetheless, he spoke the truth, and the others couldn’t deny it.7
If Joseph didn’t already know Reuben had tried to save him, he knew now. He heard the entire conversation as he waited for them to choose who would stay behind. The brothers had assumed the Egyptian ruler couldn’t understand them because Joseph spoke Egyptian and used an interpreter to communicate with them. Overwhelmed hearing his brothers talk about him, Joseph quickly stepped away so they wouldn’t see him cry.
With no one willing to stay, Joseph chose for them. He had Simeon, the second born, bound and taken away. Joseph then commanded his servants to fill the bags with grain, give the brothers provisions for their journey, and even secretly put the silver they had paid for the grain back into their bags. He likely meant to test whether his brothers would return the silver after discovering the supposed error. But it would end up causing them even more anguish and delaying their return.
An Act of God
At the place where they stayed the night, one of them opened his sack to feed his donkey. He found his silver at the top of his sack and told his brothers, “My silver has been returned. Look! Here it is in my sack.”
Then they lost heart and asked each other, trembling, “What has God done to us?”
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On their way back to Canaan, the brothers stopped and set up camp to rest for the night. The Egyptian ruler had given them provisions for themselves, but one brother opened his sack of grain to feed his donkey. When he did, he found his money bag sitting on top, still full of silver! The money he had paid for his grain had somehow returned.
The events in Egypt aroused the brother’s feelings of guilt because of their crime against Joseph. They already felt God intended to punish them, so they took the reappearance of the silver as an ill omen. If the Egyptians hadn’t received the payment for their grain, it would seem to confirm the accusation of spying.8 But they knew they had paid, so they attributed the strange occurrence to an act of God.
Spooked, the brothers didn’t dare open the other sacks.9 Believing God himself opposed them, they lost hope. Their past had caught up with them. But while God was indeed moving, he intended something far different from the disaster the brothers expected.
Reporting to Jacob
When they returned to Jacob, their father, in the land of Canaan, they told him everything that had happened. “The man, the lord of the land, spoke roughly to us and treated us like spies in the land. We told him, ‘We are honest men, not spies. We are twelve brothers, the sons of our father. One is gone, and the youngest is now with our father in the land of Canaan.’
“Then the man, the lord of the land, said, ‘This is how I’ll know you’re honest: Leave one of your brothers with me. Take what you need for your hungry families and go. Then bring your youngest brother to me so I’ll know you’re not spies but honest men. I’ll give you back your brother, and you can trade in the land.’”
Later they emptied their sacks, and each man’s bag of silver was in his sack. When they and their father saw the bags of silver, they were afraid. Jacob, their father, cried, “You’ve robbed me of my children! Joseph is gone! Simeon is gone! Now you want to take Benjamin! Everything is against me.”
Edited from Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay
The brothers finally arrived back in Canaan. But returning home did nothing to relieve the stress of their trial. They had to explain Simeon’s disappearance to their father and convince him to let them take Benjamin to Egypt. So they told Jacob what happened when they met with “the lord of the land.” Though they wisely left out some unnecessary details, they made it clear that to save Simeon and acquire more grain, Jacob would have to risk letting Benjamin go.
When it came time to store the grain, the brothers could no longer avoid opening their sacks. As they feared, they all found their silver had returned. When Jacob saw the silver, he began to fear foul play and cried out accusingly against his sons. He had believed a wild animal killed Joseph.10 Yet the evidence in front of him suggested his own sons had sold Simeon. It certainly made more sense than a crazy Egyptian lord taking Simeon and the silver just magically reappearing. It also explained why they insisted on taking Benjamin.
Joseph kept Simeon in prison to ensure his brothers would return with Benjamin as soon as possible. But instead Simeon’s disappearance made Jacob suspicious and all the more determined to hold on to his beloved Benjamin. In addition to the guilt of selling Joseph into slavery, the brothers had to wonder if they had inadvertently doomed Simeon to life in prison. Their relationship with their father had never been worse, and his mistrust prevented them from returning to save Simeon and buy more food for their families. Once again, they found themselves trapped by their past.
Reuben’s Pledge
Then Reuben said to his father, “If I don’t bring him back to you, kill two of my sons. Place him under my authority, and I will return him to you.”
“My son will not go with you!” Jacob replied. “His brother is dead, and he’s the only one left. If anything should happen to him on the way, you would send this old man down to the underworld in sorrow.”
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As Jacob’s firstborn, Reuben took charge and tried to convince his father to trust him with Benjamin’s safety. But Reuben’s offer was ill-timed and ill-conceived, serving only to further heighten Jacob’s suspicions. He should have given Jacob time to calm down first. Worse, Reuben’s rash vow endangered two of his own sons should anything happen to Benjamin during the trip.
Reuben wanted to return to Egypt and rescue Simeon as soon as possible. And he had no intention of losing his sons since he believed he could protect Benjamin. He would succeed with Benjamin where he had failed with Joseph.11 But why would he even suggest that Jacob murder two of his grandsons as consolation over losing Benjamin? Reuben’s foolish pledge had no chance of convincing Jacob to allow Benjamin to leave, and Jacob rightly refused such a repulsive offer.
Once again, Reuben proved lacking in the leadership qualities expected of the firstborn. His sin with his father’s concubine Bilhah had cost him his inheritance rights.12 After that, he attempted to earn back his father’s favor, first by trying to save Joseph, then by trying to protect Benjamin. But at no point did he show any sign of repentance. As a result, he completely lost his father’s trust, and from this point on, he falls into the background as his brothers take charge.
- Genesis 45:11.
- They were likely accompanied by servants since this would allow them to carry more grain. But the story focuses only on the brothers.
- See Rachel; Benjamin.
- See Mourning for Joseph.
- See Joseph’s Dreams.
- See The Fear of God.
- See Joseph Sold.
- See Spies.
- Genesis 42:35.
- See Mourning for Joseph.
- See Joseph Sold.
- See The Fall of Reuben.