And Back Again - Genesis 42:29-38, 43:1-15

42:29-38 - Nine of the ten brothers who left Jacob in Canaan show back up after going to Egypt to buy grain during the famine and of course they have to tell their father what happened and explain why they came back without Simeon. They tell him about being accused as spies and that this crazy governor guy kept Simeon in prison until they come back to Egypt with their youngest brother Benjamin. Now I’m not exactly sure how they justified to themselves that this made sense at all, or how they thought that bringing another man that they say is their brother will somehow prove that they are not spies. I don’t even know if it did make sense to them or if these demands were just as bizarre to them as they are to me.

Jacob reacts about as expected basically saying that if they take Benjamin to Egypt and something happens to him, then he will have lost both of his favorite sons, Joseph and Benjamin, and Simeon and that he will literally die. Reuben, as TB describes him, the consummate politician assures his father that if he send Benjamin to Egypt with him that Rueben will personally guarantee his safe return or else “slay my two sons.” The more I learn about Reuben, the more I find him terrible, like what kind of solution is that, not only will Jacob have lost three of his children, but Reuben’s solution is for him to murder his grandchildren now? Jacob declines to send Benjamin to Egypt at this point and apparently life goes on as normal.

43:1-15 - It doesn’t say exactly how long it takes for Jacob’s clan to run out of the new food that was brought, but the time comes when they need more food and the only option is to return to Egypt and buy more. Jacob tells his sons to go back and buy more food, but Judah reminds him that the crazy governor told them not to come back without the youngest brother. Jacob is pissed at his boys for running their big mouths and even telling the crazy guy that they had another brother, but Judah finally convinces Jacob to allow Benjamin to go with his other brothers back to Egypt by personally guaranteeing “if I bring him not unto thee, and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame for ever.”

TB brings up a good point about why Jacob was convinced by Judah argument when he had previously refused Reuben’s offer of the same thing, Benjamin’s safe return. TB reminded us that Reuben had already lost his birthright, and that at this point, it appeared as though Judah was the one who was going to be getting it. By personally guaranteeing Benjamin’s safe return, he knew that to return without him meant that he would also lose the birthright and give it up to another brother. When Reuben offered, he offered with collateral being someone else’s life, when Judah offered, he offered with the collateral being his entire inheritance. Judah had skin in the game, and Jacob was convinced that it was best for the rest of the family for Benjamin to go on this next expedition.

Jacob allows the boys to go back but sends them with a lot of stuff to take as gifts for this crazy governor, TB listed a lot of stuff but I don’t see it in the text here but it was like honey, pistachios, olive oil, things like that. But importantly, the brothers returned to Egypt with not only the same amount of money that was mysteriously returned to them for the purchase of the grain the first time, but also enough to buy more grain. There wasn’t going to be any of this “let’s wait and see if he brings it up” business. They are going to face up to the mistake immediately and pay the full price again to make sure that they were square.

It's important to note here that Joseph still had Simeon locked up in Egyptian prison, and they are hoping he doesn’t do something crazy to Benjamin, and they want to buy a bunch of food too. Now how much of all those reasons played into the decision to return all the money, who knows, but at least they are being honest. TB also pointed out that this might have been a test to see if they were willing to trade money for their brother. Joseph sent them back to Canaan with all their money secretly returned, but they knew that if they came back to Egypt, they would have to repay this money. If they never came back to Egypt then they would have been able to keep all that money, but Simeon would have been left to rot and die there, so essentially, they traded their brother for money, which is exactly what they did to Joseph all those years ago. He wanted to see if they would do the same thing again.