The famine drives ten of Jacob’s sons to Egypt to buy grain, and they bow to the governor without recognizing him. Joseph knows them at once. He accuses them of spying, jails them, then binds Simeon and sends the rest home — and overhears them tell each other, in a language they think he cannot understand, that this is Joseph’s blood coming back on them. Their silver is in the sacks. Their father says no to sending Benjamin. Then the food runs out.
A study in Genesis 42-43 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 9 min read
They Bowed Down Themselves Before Him
“And Joseph’s ten brethren went down to buy corn in Egypt… and Joseph’s brethren came, and bowed down themselves before him with their faces to the earth… And Joseph knew his brethren, but they knew not him.”
Genesis 42:3, 6, 8
Twenty years earlier they had jeered, “Shalt thou indeed reign over us?” and thrown him in a pit to make sure he never would (Genesis 37). Now the sheaves bow. They do not know it — the governor is clean-shaven, Egyptian-dressed, speaking through an interpreter, called by a name that is not Joseph. He knows every face. The narrator says he “remembered the dreams which he dreamed of them” — the dreams are not a grudge to settle but a map he is now standing inside.
Ye Are Spies
“And Joseph remembered the dreams which he dreamed of them, and said unto them, Ye are spies; to see the nakedness of the land ye are come.”
Genesis 42:9
Joseph is not toying with them for sport. He needs to know two things: is Benjamin, his only full brother, still alive, and have these men changed. The spy charge forces them to talk about the family — “the youngest is this day with our father, and one is not” — and the demand to produce Benjamin puts them in the exact position they were once in with him: a younger, favored brother, and a choice about whether to protect him. Three days in an Egyptian cell gives them time to think about the last brother they held in a pit.
“The three days in the Egyptian prison were days of bitter sorrow as the brothers reflected upon their past sins.”
Ellen G. White · Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 225
We Are Verily Guilty
“And they said one to another, We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear; therefore is this distress come upon us… And they knew not that Joseph understood them; for he spake unto them by an interpreter. And he turned himself about from them, and wept.”
Genesis 42:21, 23-24
Here is the detail Genesis 37 withheld: “the anguish of his soul, when he besought us.” Joseph had pleaded from the pit, and they ate lunch. They confess it now to each other — not to God, not to the governor, just openly, because they assume no one in the room speaks Hebrew. Joseph hears every word, walks out, and weeps. Then he comes back and binds Simeon, the second-oldest, in front of them. It is measured, not vengeful: he keeps one hostage and lets nine sons carry grain home to a starving household.
“During the years since Joseph had been separated from his brothers, these sons of Jacob had changed in character. Envious, turbulent, deceptive, cruel, and revengeful they had been; but now, when tested by adversity, they were shown to be unselfish, true to one another, devoted to their father.”
Ellen G. White · Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 225
All These Things Are Against Me
“And Jacob their father said unto them, Me have ye bereaved of my children: Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away: all these things are against me.”
Genesis 42:36
Every man’s money is back in his sack, and instead of relief it reads as a trap. Jacob’s cry is the same shape as his complaint after Shechem — the accounting is about his own losses (Genesis 34:30). He is wrong about the facts on almost every point: Joseph is alive, Simeon will be freed, Benjamin will come home. “All these things are against me” is exactly backwards. Everything happening to him is the machinery of his own rescue.
If I Be Bereaved, I Am Bereaved
“And Judah said unto Israel his father, Send the lad with me, and we will arise and go; that we may live, and not die, both we, and thou, and also our little ones. I will be surety for him; of my hand shalt thou require him: if I bring him not unto thee, and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame for ever.”
Genesis 43:8-9
Reuben had offered his own two sons as forfeit and Jacob refused (Genesis 42:37). Judah offers himself — of my hand shalt thou require him — and that is the pledge Jacob accepts. It is the first sign of the man Judah is becoming, the one who will stand in front of the governor a chapter later and offer to take Benjamin’s place. The famine, not the argument, breaks Jacob’s resistance.
“And God Almighty give you mercy before the man, that he may send away your other brother, and Benjamin. If I be bereaved of my children, I am bereaved.”
Genesis 43:14
“Jacob could no longer withhold his consent, and he directed his sons to prepare for the journey.”
Ellen G. White · Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 227
His Bowels Did Yearn Upon His Brother
“And he lifted up his eyes, and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother’s son, and said, Is this your younger brother, of whom ye spake unto me? And he said, God be gracious unto thee, my son. And Joseph made haste; for his bowels did yearn upon his brother: and he sought where to weep; and he entered into his chamber, and wept there.”
Genesis 43:29-30
At the meal Joseph seats them by exact birth order — ten men who cannot work out how the Egyptian knew — and gives Benjamin five times the food of anyone else. It looks like careless favoritism, the very thing that started all of this. It is actually a test: given a spoiled youngest brother at the table, do these men seethe the way they once did, or have they changed? “They drank, and were merry with him.” No one begrudges Benjamin a thing. The last test comes next, with a silver cup.
“By this token of favor to Benjamin he hoped to ascertain if the youngest brother was regarded with the envy and hatred that had been manifested toward himself.”
Ellen G. White · Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 228
