Genesis 42-45

Joseph and his brothers

This is a very emotionally charged series of events. I think Joseph has not completely forgiven his brothers, but rather the hoops he puts them through are his way of exacting revenge. I think he crosses the line a few times, particularly in that he drags Benjamin and Jacob into it. Eventually, he lets them off the hook and the ending is very powerful.

It is about two years into the seven year famine. Joseph's family heard there is grain in Egypt and Jacob sends his ten eldest sons. Benjamin remains with dad, in a similar way to how Joseph remained with dad while his brothers watched the flocks by Shecham. We get two different reasons for the preference for Benjamin - Jacob had him in his old age and that Benjamin is the son of Jacob's favorite wife Rachel.

Benjamin is still alive, so the other ten did not act with jealousy and sell Benjamin off to slavery. Perhaps they learned their lesson after doing it with Joseph.

Judah is also with him, so he may have returned to the family after the events with Tamar.

Upon their arrival, Joseph immediately recognizes them, but they don't recognize him. They bow to him, fulfilling the gist of both his dreams. Note, the son, moon, and 11 stars bowing to him cannot precisely happen as we know his mother, Rachel, is long dead. But the gist of both dreams happen repeatedly in that the brothers bow to him. Another possibility is that God's decision about his mom and dad bowing to him might not have been a final one, as that element only happened once in the dreams. It was the eleven brothers bowing that was common between the two dreams of his youth.

He talks to them without an interpreter. He accuses them of spying and throws them all in jail for 3 days. Joseph weeps in private as he is overcome with emotion. The ten brothers are in jail, which gives him some time to think of his next move. Likewise, each of the ten in jail had a role in him being sold to slavery.

Meanwhile, the brothers make the connection that this is punishment for what they did to Joseph. We get a flashback to the anguish on Joseph's face when they sold him into slavery and they claim they feel the same anguish now. On no, Joseph is just warming up.

Joseph releases all but one of them (Simeon) on the condition that they bring Joseph's younger brother Benjamin next time.

They return to Jacob, but discover that the money used to buy grain is with the actual grain. I suppose they got hungry along the way and opened the sacs eat some of the grain.

Jacob fears he lost a second son, Simeon, and refuses to let Benjamin go. OK. The issue is settled. Simeon is going to just sit in jail for a while. Eventually, they run out of food and have to return to this issue.

The nine brothers refuse to go back to Egypt unless they take Benjamin. Reuben puts the lives of his own sons up for collateral for the life of Benjamin. Overheard ifrom Reuben's house - "what?!". Jacob declines this offer but asks "why did you guys even tell him you had a younger brother?" Judah speaks up, saying he will just go alone with Benjamin, which would protect the lives of the other eight brothers should things turn south. Judah's reaction seems to show some maturity after the Tamar incident.

Eventually, Jacob relents, and tells them to return the original money, plus take gifts of the finest produce from Canaan. Considering a famine has raged the land for two years, these items were probably quite valuable.

The ten brothers return to Joseph. Simeon is released and treats them like guests, their feet are washed and invited to a big banquet with him. They are arranged in birth order which freaks them out. This is a light-hearted prank among much more serious events of his quasi-revenge. Birth order would have been impressive to guess for eleven guys from four different mothers (people have actually asked if my younger brother is older than me). But Joseph knows the order and I can picture Joseph hiding behind a curtain to catch their reaction to that.

Joseph sends them on their way again, filling their grain sacs with the money and putting his silver cup in Benjamin's bag. They don't check their bags before leaving and this time, Joseph sends police to stop them, and upon searching the bags, they are brought before Joseph again. It is interesting that it is stated that the traffic cops says that silver cup was used for divination.

Finally, Joseph had enough tormenting his brothers and when alone with them, he reveals himself. He repeats himself and the brothers just stand there. He weeps so loud that people outside the room hear him and soon all Egypt talks about his weeping. We a closeup of Joseph embracing Benjamin. We get Jospeh's reaction, b but not Benjmain's but we can guess since he believed his older brother has been dead for years.

He sends them back to Jacob with carts or grain and tells them to move to Goshen, Egypt. Jacob at first does not believe the story, but the carts of grain help prove its veracity.