1Er aber gebot seinem Hauswart, sprechend: Fülle die Ranzen dieser Männer mit Eßware, soviel sie nur tragen können, und lege das Silber eines jeden an die Mündung seines Ranzens, 2und meinen Kelch, den Silberkelch, lege an die Mündung des Ranzens des jüngsten, mitsamt dem Silber, für das er ermarktet hat! Er tat nach Jossefs Rede, die er geredet hatte. 3Wie der Morgen licht ward, schickte man die Männer heim, sie und ihre Esel. 4Eben waren sie zur Stadt hinaus, noch nicht fern, als Jossef zu seinem Hauswart sprach: Mache dich auf, jage den Männern nach, und hast du sie eingeholt, sprich zu ihnen: Warum habt ihr Böses für Gutes gezahlt? 5ists nicht das, woraus mein Herr trinkt und woraus er Ahnung zu erahnen pflegt?! Böses habt ihr mit dem, was ihr tatet, verübt! 6Er holte sie ein und redete diese Rede mit ihnen. 7Sie sprachen zu ihm: Warum redet mein Herr solche Rede! weitab seis deinen Knechten, dergleichen zu tun! 8haben wir ja das Silber, das wir an der Mündung unsrer Ranzen fanden, dir zurückgebracht aus dem Lande Kanaan - wie sollten wir Silber oder Gold aus dem Haus deines Herrn stehlen! 9bei wems von deinen Knechten sich findet, er sterbe, und auch wir, wir seien fortan meinem Herrn verknechtet. Er sprach: 10Soll es jetzt wohl auch so nach eurer Rede geschehn, sei doch nur, bei wem es sich findet, mir verknechtet, ihr aber bleibt straffrei. 11Eilends ließen sie jeder seinen Ranzen zur Erde hinab und öffneten jeder seinen Ranzen, 12und er durchstöberte, beim Ältesten fing er an und beim Jüngsten hörte er auf, und der Kelch fand sich im Ranzen Binjamins. 13Sie zerrissen ihre Gewänder, jeder belud seinen Esel, und sie kehrten in die Stadt zurück. 14Jehuda kam mit seinen Brüdern in Jossefs Haus, der war noch dort, und sie fielen vor ihm nieder zur Erde. 15Jossef sprach zu ihnen: Was ist das für eine Tat, die ihr da getan habt! wußtet ihr nicht, daß ein Mann wie ich Ahnung erahnen kann? 16Jehuda sprach: Was sollen wir zu unserm Herrn sprechen! was sollen wir reden, wie uns bewahrheiten! Gott hat die Schuld deiner Knechte gefunden! Da verknechten wir uns meinem Herrn, so wir, so er, in dessen Hand der Kelch gefunden wurde. 17Er aber sprach: Weitab seis mir, das zu tun! der Mann, in dessen Hand der Kelch gefunden wurde, der sei mir verknechtet, ihr aber zieht in Frieden zu euerm Vater hinauf! 18Jehuda trat vor zu ihm und sprach: Ach, mein Herr, möge doch dein Knecht Rede in meines Herrn Ohren reden dürfen, und nimmer entflamme dein Zorn wider deinen Knecht, - denn du bist wie Pharao! 19Mein Herr hat seine Knechte gefragt, sprechend: Habt ihr noch Vater oder Bruder? 20und wir sprachen zu meinem Herrn: Wir haben einen alten Vater und einen jungen Sohn seines Alters, dessen Bruder ist tot, so ist er allein von seiner Mutter überblieben, und sein Vater liebt ihn. 21Und du sprachst zu deinen Knechten: Führt ihn herab zu mir, ich will mein Auge auf ihn wenden. 22Wir aber sprachen zu meinem Herrn: Nicht kann der Knabe seinen Vater verlassen, verließe er seinen Vater, der stürbe. 23Du aber sprachst zu deinen Knechten: Fährt euer jüngster Bruder nicht mit euch herab, seht ihr mein Antlitz nicht mehr. 24Wie wir hinaufgezogen waren zu deinem Knecht, meinem Vater, meldeten wir ihm die Rede meines Herrn. 25Dann sprach unser Vater: Kehrt nochmals zurück, ermarktet uns ein wenig Eßware! 26Wir aber sprachen: Wir können nicht hinab - wenn unser jüngster Bruder mit uns ist, wollen wir hinab, denn wir können das Antlitz des Mannes nicht sehn, ist unser jüngster Bruder nicht mit uns. 27Dein Knecht, mein Vater, sprach zu uns: Ihr selber wißt, daß zwei mir mein Weib geboren hat, 28der eine ist von mir hinweg, ich sprach: Wahrlich, zerfleischt ist er, zerfleischt! - ich habe ihn bislang nicht wieder gesehn! 29nähmt ihr auch diesen von meinem Antlitz hinweg - träfe ein Leides ihn, ihr ließet mein Grauhaar im Jammer zum Gruftreich hinabfahren! 30Und nun,wann ich zu deinem Knecht, meinem Vater, komme, und der Knabe ist nicht mehr mit uns - und mit dessen Seele ist seine Seele verknotet! - 31so wirds geschehn, wann er sieht, daß der Knabe nicht da ist, wird er sterben, und deine Knechte haben das Grauhaar deines Knechts, unsers Vaters, in Jammer zum Gruftreich hinabfahren lassen. 32Denn dein Knecht hat den Knaben von meinem Vater erbürgt, sprechend: Bringe ich ihn dir nicht, gesündigt habe ich meinem Vater alle Tage. 33Und so sitze doch nun dein Knecht statt des Knaben als meinem Herrn verknechtet, der Knabe aber ziehe mit seinen Brüdern hinauf. 34Denn wie sollte ich zu meinem Vater hinaufziehn, und der Knabe ist nicht mehr mit mir! Ich müßte ansehn das Übel, das meinen Vater befände!
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary 1 Joseph heaps further kindnesses upon his brethren, fills their sacks, returns their money, and sends them away full of gladness; but he also exercises them with further trials. Our God thus humbles those whom he loves and loads with benefits. Joseph ordered his steward to put a fine silver cup which he had (and which, it is likely, was used at his table when they dined with him) into Benjamin's sack's mouth, that it might seem as if he had stolen it from the table, and put it here himself, after his corn was delivered to him. If Benjamin had stolen it, it had been the basest piece of dishonesty and ingratitude that could be and if Joseph, by ordering it to be there, had designed really to take advantage against him, it had been in him most horrid cruelty and oppression; but it proved, in the issue, that there was no harm done, nor any designed, on either side. Observe,
I. How the pretended criminals were pursued and arrested, on suspicion of having stolen a silver cup. The steward charged them with ingratitude - rewarding evil for good; and with folly, in taking away a cup of daily use, and which therefore would soon be missed, and diligent search made for it; for so it may be read:
Is not this it in which my lord drinketh (as having a particular fondness for it),
and for which he would search thoroughly? Gen 44:5. Or, By which, leaving it carelessly at your table, he would make trial whether you were honest men or no.
II. How they pleaded for themselves. They solemnly protested their innocence, and detestation of so base a thing (
Gen 44:7), urged it as an instance of their honesty that they had brought their money back (
Gen 44:8), and offered to submit to the severest punishment if they should be found guilty,
Gen 44:9,
Gen 44:10.
III. How the theft was fastened upon Benjamin. In his sack the cup was found to whom Joseph had been particularly kind. Benjamin, no doubt, was ready to deny, upon oath, the taking of the cup, and we may suppose him as little liable to suspicion as any of them; but it is in vain to confront such notorious evidence: the cup is found in his custody; they dare not arraign Joseph's justice, nor so much as suggest that perhaps he that had put their money in their sacks' mouths had put the cup there; but they throw themselves upon Joseph's mercy. And,
IV. Here is their humble submission,
Gen 44:16. 1. They acknowledge the righteousness of God:
God hath found out the iniquity of thy servants, perhaps referring to the injury they had formerly done to Joseph, for which they thought God was now reckoning with them. Note, Even in those afflictions wherein we apprehend ourselves wronged by men yet we must own that God is righteous, and finds out our iniquity. 2. They surrender themselves prisoners to Joseph:
We are my lord's servants. Now Joseph's dreams were accomplished to the utmost. Their bowing so often, and doing homage, might be looked upon but as a compliment, and no more than what other strangers did; but the construction they themselves, in their pride, had put upon his dreams was,
Shalt though have dominion over us? (
Gen 37:8), and in this sense it is now at length fulfilled,; they own themselves his vassals. Since they did invidiously so understand it, so it shall be fulfilled in them.
V. Joseph, with an air of justice, gives sentence that Benjamin only should be kept in bondage, and the rest should be dismissed; for why should any suffer but the guilty? Perhaps Joseph intended hereby to try Benjamin's temper, whether he could bear such a hardship as this with the calmness and composure of mind that became a wise and good man: in short, whether he was indeed his own brother, in
spirit as well as
blood; for Joseph himself had been falsely accused, and had suffered hard things in consequence, and yet kept possession of his own soul. However, it is plain he intended hereby to try the affection of his brethren to Benjamin and to their father. If they had gone away contentedly, and left Benjamin in bonds, no doubt Joseph would soon have released and promoted him, and sent notice to Jacob, and would have left the rest of his brethren justly to suffer for their hard-heartedness; but they proved to be better to Benjamin than he feared. Note, We cannot judge what men are by what they have been formerly, nor what they will do by what they have done: age and experience may make men wiser and better. Those that had sold Joseph would not now abandon Benjamin. The worst may mend in time.
18 We have here a most ingenious and pathetic speech which Judah made to Joseph on Benjamin's behalf, to obtain his discharge from the sentence passed upon him. Perhaps Judah was a better friend to Benjamin than the rest were, and more solicitous to bring him off; or he thought himself under greater obligations to attempt it than the rest, because he had passed his word to his father for his safe return; or the rest chose him for their spokesman, because he was a man of better sense, and better spirit, and had a greater command of language than any of them. His address, as it is here recorded, is so very natural and so expressive of his present feelings that we cannot but suppose Moses, who wrote it so long after, to have written it under the special direction of him that made man's mouth.
I. A great deal of unaffected art, and unstudied unforced rhetoric, there is in this speech. 1. He addresses himself to Joseph with a great deal of respect and deference, calls him his
lord, himself and his brethren his
servants, begs his patient hearing, and ascribes sovereign authority to him:
Thou art even as Pharaoh, one whose favour we desire and whose wrath we dread as we do Pharaoh's. Religion does not destroy good manners, and it is prudence to speak respectfully to those at whose mercy we lie: titles of honour to those that are entitled to them are not flattering titles. 2. He represented Benjamin as one well worthy of his compassionate consideration (
Gen 44:20); he was
a little one, compared with the rest of them; the youngest, not acquainted with the world, nor ever inured to hardship, having always been brought up tenderly with his father. It made the case the more pitiable that he alone was left of his mother, and his brother was dead, namely,
Joseph. Little did Judah think what a tender point he touched upon now. Judah knew that Joseph was sold, and therefore had reason enough to think that he was alive; at least he could not be sure that he was dead: but they had made their father believe he was dead; and now they had told that lie so long that they had forgotten the truth, and begun to believe the lie themselves. 3. He urged it very closely that Joseph had himself constrained them to bring Benjamin with them, had expressed a desire to see him (
Gen 44:21), and had forbidden them his presence unless they brought Benjamin with them (
Gen 44:23,
Gen 44:26), all which intimated that he designed him some kindness; and must he be brought with so much difficulty to the preferment of a perpetual slavery? Was he not brought to Egypt, in obedience, purely in obedience, to the command of Joseph? and would he not show him some mercy? Some observe that Jacob's sons, in reasoning with their father, had said,
We will not go down unless Benjamin go with us (
Gen 43:5); but that when Judah comes to relate the story he expresses it more decently:
We cannot go down with any expectation to speed well. Indecent words spoken in haste to our superiors should be recalled and amended. 4. The great argument he insisted upon was the insupportable grief it would be to his aged father if Benjamin should be left behind in servitude:
His father loveth him, Gen 44:20. This they had pleaded against Joseph's insisting on his coming down (
Gen 44:22):
If he should leave his father, his father would die; much more if now he be left behind, never more to return to him. This the old man, of whom they spoke, had pleaded against his going down:
If mischief befal him, you shall bring down my gray hairs, that crown of glory,
with sorrow to the grave, Gen 44:29. This therefore Judah presses with a great deal of earnestness:
His life is bound up in the lad's life (
Gen 44:30); when he sees that the lad is not with us, he will faint away, and die immediately (
Gen 44:31), or will abandon himself to such a degree of sorrow as will, in a few days, make an end of him. And,
lastly, Judah pleads that, for his part, he could not bear to see this:
Let me not see the evil that shall come on my father, Gen 44:34. Note, It is the duty of children to be very tender of their parents' comfort, and to be afraid of every thing that may be an occasion of grief to them. Thus the love that descended first must again ascend, and something must be done towards a recompense for their care. 5. Judah, in honour to the justice of Joseph's sentence, and to show his sincerity in this plea, offers himself to become a bondsman instead of Benjamin,
Gen 44:33. Thus the law would be satisfied; Joseph would be no loser (for we may suppose Judah a more able-bodied man than Benjamin, and fitter for service); and Jacob would better bear the loss of him than of Benjamin. Now, so far was he from grieving at his father's particular fondness for Benjamin, that he was himself willing to be a bondman to indulge it.
Now, had Joseph been, as Judah supposed him, an utter stranger to the family, yet even common humanity could not but be wrought upon by such powerful reasonings as these; for nothing could be said more moving, more tender; it was enough to melt a heart of stone. But to Joseph, who was nearer akin to Benjamin than Judah himself was, and who, at this time, felt a greater affection both for him and his aged father than Judah did, nothing could be more pleasingly nor more happily said. Neither Jacob nor Benjamin needed an intercessor with Joseph; for he himself loved them.
II. Upon the whole matter let us take notice, 1. How prudently Judah suppressed all mention of the crime that was charged upon Benjamin. Had he said any thing by way of acknowledgment of it, he would have reflected on Benjamin's honesty, and seemed too forward to suspect that; had he said any thing by way of denial of it, he would have reflected on Joseph's justice, and the sentence he had passed: therefore he wholly waives that head, and appeals to Joseph's pity. Compare with this that of Job, in humbling himself before God (
Job 9:15),
Though I were righteous, yet would I not answer; I would not argue, but petition;
I would make supplication to my Judge. 2. What good reason dying Jacob had to say,
Judah, thou art he whom they brethren shall praise (
Gen 49:8), for he excelled them all in boldness, wisdom, eloquence, and especially tenderness for their father and family. 3. Judah's faithful adherence to Benjamin, now in his distress, was recompensed long after by the constant adherence of the tribe of Benjamin to the tribe of Judah, when all the other ten tribes deserted it. 4. How fitly does the apostle, when he is discoursing of the mediation of Christ, observe, that
our Lord sprang out of Judah (
Hebre 7:14); for, like his father Judah, he not only
made intercession for the transgressors, but he became a surety for them, as it follows there (
Gen 44:22), testifying therein a very tender concern both for his father and for his brethren.