The Sting - Genesis 44

44:1-13 - The super personal and bizarre dinner is over and I bet the brothers all sigh with relief while they pack and plan for their journey home the next day. Joseph, however, is up to some shenanigans during the night by telling his head servant to not only fill the brothers’ sacks with food “as much as they can carry,” but also return the men’s money in the sacks just like last time, and additionally “put my cup, the silver cup, in the sack’s mouth of the youngest.” TB notes that this isn’t just some random piece of Joseph’s housewares, but instead is a large silver bowl which is used by Egyptian leadership for divination, which is a type of false seership. It’s not just like Benjamin put a fork into his pocket during dinner, this would have been equivalent to Rachel stealing her father’s household gods, these pieces are expensive, and have a deep spiritual implication.

The men leave the city to head home, “and when they were gone out of the city, and not yet far off,” Joseph told his main servant, the one who had been his right-hand henchman in all of this, to go after the group of men and when he catches up to them give a speech about repaying good with evil, etc. This goes as expected, with the brothers all being outraged by the accusation, but not outraged at the Egyptian servant, but with each other, vowing, “with whomsoever of thy servants is be found, both let him die, and we also will be my lord’s bondmen.”

TB notes the frequency with which all these brothers are ready to punish the offender with death. They killed all the men of Shechem, they almost killed Joseph, they were willing to kill whoever stole the cup here, Reuben’s offered the life of his sons as collateral for Benjamin’s safety, Judah demanding that Tamar be burned alive for her out of wedlock pregnancy, and other examples that I can’t remember right now. But TB notes that this is all demonstrative of their complete lack of respect for life, which is an interesting thought.

As generous as the offer of death and 10 slaves is, Joseph’s servant declines their offer and instead stipulates that the offender shall be taken into servitude, and the others will go free. TB notes that there is a lot of drama perpetrated by Joseph’s servant here, as he “speedily took down every man his sack to the ground, and opened every man his sack. And he searched, and began at the eldest, and left at the youngest.” This guy has a flair for theatrics.

Alas, “the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack,” and the brothers are horrified, “then they rent their clothes, and laded every man his add, and returned to the city.” TB notes that it’s interesting here because at this point, only Benjamin is guilty and required to return to the city, but instead of taking their freedom when they get the chance, they ALL saddle up and go back, not knowing what consequences await them.

44:14-34 - When they get back to Joseph’s house, they are totally distraught, and interestingly Judah, apparently the most humbled by life, takes the lead here. It’s interesting to consider that the reason why Judah’s encounter with Tamar may have been included in the narrative is to show the process through which Judah had gone to transform from the kid who convinced his brothers to sell Joseph into slavery, to the man who accepted all responsibility for his family as he groveled in front of Pharoah’s governor.

Anyway, Judah asks if he can speak to Joseph privately, and when they are alone, Judah recaps the who story, about how Joseph had asked so many questions about their family and required them to bring the youngest brother back, and so they did, but that his father was terrified that he would lose this other son as well, especially considering what happened with this younger son’s brother. Judah reveals to this governor that he personally guaranteed Benjamin’s safe return with his own life and begs “let thy servant (Judah) abide instead of the lad a bondsman to my lord; and let this lad go up with his brethren. For how shall I go up to my father, and the lad be not with me? Lest peradventure I see the evil that shall come on my father.”

If I were Joseph, I would have considered the events since my sale into slavery as horrific for me, but I probably would have thought that my lost in the family would have made my father temporarily sad, but that everyone would pretty much go back to business as usual at some point. That’s how I imagine the family dynamics going, everyone moving on after this quick, but emotional, disruption. What we can see here from Judah though is a sense that the family never went back to normal, that Jacob never recovered from the loss of Joseph and that every relationship with every member within that family was strained and complicated by Joseph’s loss. Judah can not bear to see his father go through that kind of loss again, and that’s saying something considering that selling Joseph in the first place was Judah’s idea.