7 They said to him, "Why does my lord speak such words as these? Far be it from your servants that they should do such a thing!
It happened on the third day, when they were sore, that two of Jacob's sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, each took his sword, came upon the unsuspecting city, and killed all the males. They killed Hamor and Shechem, his son, with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah out of Shechem's house, and went away. Jacob's sons came on the dead, and plundered the city, because they had defiled their sister. They took their flocks, their herds, their donkeys, that which was in the city, that which was in the field; and all their wealth. They took captive all their little ones and their wives, and took as plunder everything that was in the house. Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, "You have troubled me, to make me odious to the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites. I am few in number. They will gather themselves together against me and strike me, and I will be destroyed, I and my house." They said, "Should he deal with our sister as with a prostitute?"
They saw him afar off, and before he came near to them, they conspired against him to kill him. They said one to another, "Behold, this dreamer comes. Come now therefore, and let's kill him, and cast him into one of the pits, and we will say, 'An evil animal has devoured him.' We will see what will become of his dreams." Reuben heard it, and delivered him out of their hand, and said, "Let's not take his life." Reuben said to them, "Shed no blood. Throw him into this pit that is in the wilderness, but lay no hand on him"-- that he might deliver him out of their hand, to restore him to his father. It happened, when Joseph came to his brothers, that they stripped Joseph of his coat, the coat of many colors that was on him; and they took him, and threw him into the pit. The pit was empty. There was no water in it. They sat down to eat bread, and they lifted up their eyes and looked, and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites was coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing spices and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt. Judah said to his brothers, "What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? Come, and let's sell him to the Ishmaelites, and not let our hand be on him; for he is our brother, our flesh." His brothers listened to him. Midianites who were merchants passed by, and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. They brought Joseph into Egypt. Reuben returned to the pit; and saw that Joseph wasn't in the pit; and he tore his clothes. He returned to his brothers, and said, "The child is no more; and I, where will I go?" They took Joseph's coat, and killed a male goat, and dipped the coat in the blood. They took the coat of many colors, and they brought it to their father, and said, "We have found this. Examine it, now, whether it is your son's coat or not."
He turned to her by the way, and said, "Please come, let me come in to you:" for he didn't know that she was his daughter-in-law. She said, "What will you give me, that you may come in to me?" He said, "I will send you a kid of the goats from the flock." She said, "Will you give me a pledge, until you send it?" He said, "What pledge will I give you?" She said, "Your signet and your cord, and your staff that is in your hand." He gave them to her, and came in to her, and she conceived by him.
The Mighty One, God, Yahweh, the Mighty One, God, Yahweh, he knows; and Israel he shall know: if it be in rebellion, or if in trespass against Yahweh (don't save us this day), that we have built us an altar to turn away from following Yahweh; or if to offer thereon burnt offering or meal-offering, or if to offer sacrifices of peace-offerings thereon, let Yahweh himself require it; and if we have not [rather] out of carefulness done this, [and] of purpose, saying, In time to come your children might speak to our children, saying, What have you to do with Yahweh, the God of Israel? for Yahweh has made the Jordan a border between us and you, you children of Reuben and children of Gad; you have no portion in Yahweh: so might your children make our children cease from fearing Yahweh. Therefore we said, Let us now prepare to build us an altar, not for burnt offering, nor for sacrifice: but it shall be a witness between us and you, and between our generations after us, that we may do the service of Yahweh before him with our burnt offerings, and with our sacrifices, and with our peace-offerings; that your children may not tell our children in time to come, You have no portion in Yahweh. Therefore said we, It shall be, when they so tell us or to our generations in time to come, that we shall say, Behold the pattern of the altar of Yahweh, which our fathers made, not for burnt offering, nor for sacrifice; but it is a witness between us and you. Far be it from us that we should rebel against Yahweh, and turn away this day from following Yahweh, to build an altar for burnt-offering, for meal-offering, or for sacrifice, besides the altar of Yahweh our God that is before his tent.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on Genesis 44
Commentary on Genesis 44 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
The Test. - After the dinner Joseph had his brothers' sacks filled by his steward with corn, as much as they could hold, and every one's money placed inside; and in addition to that, had his own silver goblet put into Benjamin's sack.
Then as soon as it was light ( אור , 3rd pers. perf. in o: Ges. §72, 1), they were sent away with their asses. But they were hardly outside the town, “not far off,” when he directed his steward to follow the men, and as soon as he overtook them, to say, “ Wherefore have ye rewarded evil for good? Is it not this from which my lord drinketh, and he is accustomed to prophesy from it? Ye have done an evil deed! ” By these words they were accused of theft; the thing was taken for granted as well known to them all, and the goblet purloined was simply described as a very valuable possession of Joseph's. נחשׁ : lit., to whisper, to mumble out formularies, incantations, then to prophesy, divinare . According to this, the Egyptians at that time practised λεκανοσκοπίη or λεκανομαντεία and ὑδρομαντεία , the plate and water incantations, of which Jamblichus speaks ( de myst . iii. 14), and which consisted in pouring clean water into a goblet, and then looking into the water for representations of future events; or in pouring water into a goblet or dish, dropping in pieces of gold and silver, also precious stones, and then observing and interpreting the appearances in the water (cf. Varro apud August. civ. Dei 7, 35; Plin. h. n. 37, 73; Strabo , xvi. p. 762). Traces of this have been continued even to our own day (see Norden's Journey through Egypt and Nubia). But we cannot infer with certainty from this, that Joseph actually adopted this superstitious practice. The intention of the statement may simply have been to represent the goblet as a sacred vessel, and Joseph as acquainted with the most secret things (Genesis 44:15).
In the consciousness of their innocence the brethren repelled this charge with indignation, and appealed to the fact that they brought back the gold which was found in their sacks, and therefore could not possibly have stolen gold or silver; and declared that whoever should be found in possession of the goblet, should be put to death, and the rest become slaves.
The man replied, “ Now let it be even ( גּם placed first for the sake of emphasis) according to your words: with whom it is found, he shall be my slave, and ye (the rest) shall remain blameless .” Thus he modified the sentence, to assume the appearance of justice.
They then took down their sacks as quickly as possible; and he examined them, beginning with the eldest and finishing with the youngest; and the goblet was found in Benjamin's sack. With anguish and alarm at this new calamity they rent their clothes (vid., Genesis 37:34), loaded their asses again, and returned to the city. It would now be seen how they felt in their inmost hearts towards their father's favourite, who had been so distinguished by the great man of Egypt: whether now as formerly they were capable of giving up their brother, and bringing their aged father with sorrow to the grave; or whether they were ready, with unenvying, self-sacrificing love, to give up their own liberty and lives for him. And they stood this test.
Result of the Test. - Genesis 44:14-17. With Judah leading the way, they came into the house to Joseph, and fell down before him begging for mercy. Joseph spoke to them harshly: “ What kind of deed is this that ye have done? Did ye not know that such a man as I (a man initiated into the most secret things) would certainly divine this? ” נחשׁ augurari . Judah made no attempt at a defence. “ What shall we say to my lord? how speak, how clear ourselves? God ( Ha-Elohim , the personal God) has found out the wickedness of thy servants (i.e., He is now punishing the crime committed against our brother, cf. Genesis 42:21). Behold, we are my lord's slaves, both we, and he in whose hand the cup was found .” But Joseph would punish mildly and justly. The guilty one alone should be his slave; the others might go in peace, i.e., uninjured, to their father.
But that the brothers could not do. Judah, who had pledged himself to his father for Benjamin, ventured in the anguish of his heart to approach Joseph, and implore him to liberate his brother. “I would give very much,” says Luther , “to be able to pray to our Lord God as well as Judah prays to Joseph here; for it is a perfect specimen of prayer, the true feeling that there ought to be in prayer.” Beginning with the request for a gracious hearing, as he was speaking to the ears of one who was equal to Pharaoh (who could condemn or pardon like the king), Judah depicted in natural, affecting, powerful, and irresistible words the love of their aged father to this son of his old age, and his grief when they told him that they were not to come into the presence of the lord of Egypt again without Benjamin; the intense anxiety with which, after a severe struggle, their father had allowed him to come, after he (Judah) had offered to be answerable for his life; and the grievous fact, that if they returned without the youth, they must bring down the grey hairs of their father with sorrow to the grave.
To “ set eyes upon him ” signifies, with a gracious intention, to show him good-will (as in Jeremiah 39:12; Jeremiah 40:4).
“ That my wife bore to me two (sons):” Jacob regards Rachel alone as his actual wife (cf. Genesis 46:19).
ואמר , preceded by a preterite, is to be rendered “ and I was obliged to say, Only (nothing but) torn in pieces has he become .”
“ His soul is bound to his soul: ” equivalent to, “he clings to him with all his soul.”
Judah closed his appeal with the entreaty, “ Now let thy servant (me) remain instead of the lad as slave to my lord, but let the lad go up with his brethren; for how could I go to my father without the lad being with me! (I cannot,) that I may not see the calamity which will befall my father! ”