Commentaria in Genesim
Chapter Forty-two
Joseph recognises his brethren coming into Egypt for corn, and deals harshly with them, and at last, verse 25, keeping Simeon, dismisses the rest on the condition that they bring Benjamin to him.
1. Now Jacob hearing that food was sold in Egypt, said to his sons: Why are you careless? 2. I have heard that wheat is sold in Egypt: go ye down, and buy us necessaries, that we may live, and not be consumed with want. 3. So the ten brethren of Joseph went down to buy corn in Egypt: 4. Benjamin being kept at home by Jacob, who said to his brethren: Lest perhaps he take any harm in the journey: 5. And they entered into the land of Egypt with others that went to buy. For the famine was in the land of Chanaan. 6. And Joseph was governor in the land of Egypt, and corn was sold by his direction to the people. And when his brethren had bowed down to him, 7. He knew them, and speaking as to strangers somewhat roughly, asked them: Whence came you? They said: From the land of Chanaan, to buy necessaries. 8. And though he knew his brethren, he was not known by them. 9. And remembering the dreams, which formerly he had seen, he said to them: You are spies. You are come to view the weaker parts of the land.
10. They said: It is not so, my lord, but thy servants are come to buy food. 11. We are all the sons of one man: we are come as peaceable men, neither do thy servants practise any evil. 12. And he said to them: It is otherwise: you are come to consider the unfenced parts of this land. 13. But they said: We thy servants are twelve brethren, the sons of one man in the land of Chanaan: the youngest is with our father, the other is not living. 14. He said: This is it that I said: You are spies. 15. Now I shall try what you are: by the health of Pharao you shall not depart hence, until your youngest brother come. 16. Send one of you to fetch him: and you shall be in prison, until what you have said be proved, whether it be true or false: or else by the health of Pharao you are spies. 17. So he put them in prison three days. 18. And the third day he brought them out of prison, and said: Do as I have said, and you shall live: for I fear God. 19. If you be peaceable men, let one of your brothers be bound in prison: and go you, and carry the corn that you have bought, unto your houses: 20. And bring your youngest brother to me, that I may find your words true, and you may not die. They did as he had said, 21. And they talked one to another: We deserve to suffer these things, because we have sinned against our brother, seeing the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear him: therefore is this affliction come upon us.
22. And Ruben, one of them, said: Did not I say to you: Do not sin against the boy, and you would not hearken to me? Behold his blood is required. 23. And they knew not that Joseph understood, because he spoke to them by an interpreter. 24. And he turned himself away a little while, and wept: and he returned, and spoke to them. 25. And taking Simeon, and binding him in their presence, he commanded his servants to fill their sacks with wheat, and to put every man’s money again in their sacks, and to give them besides provisions for the way: and they did so. 26. But they, carrying the corn upon their asses, went their way. 27. And one of them opening his sack to give his beast provender in the inn, saw the money in the sack’s mouth, 28. And said to his brethren: My money is given me again: behold, it is in the sack. And they were astonished, and troubled, and said one to another: What is this that God hath done to us? 29. And they came to Jacob their father in the land of Chanaan, and told him all things that had befallen them, saying: 30. The lord of the land spoke roughly to us, and took us for spies of the province.
31. And we answered him: We are peaceable men, and we mean no plots. 32. We were twelve brothers born of one father: one is not living, the youngest is with our father in the land of Chanaan. 33. And he said to us: Thus shall I know whether you be peaceable men: Leave one of your brothers with me, and take the necessaries for your houses, and go your way, 34. And bring your youngest brother to me, that I may know you are not spies: and that this man, who is detained in prison, may be released: and then you shall have liberty to buy what you will. 35. When they had said these things, as they poured out their corn, every man found his money tied in the mouth of the sacks: and all being astonished together, 36. Jacob their father said: You have made me to be without children: Joseph is not living, Simeon is kept in bonds, and Benjamin you will take away: all these evils have fallen upon me. 37. And Ruben answered him: Kill my two sons, if I bring him not again to thee: deliver him into my hand, and I will restore him to thee. 38. But he said: My son shall not go down with you: his brother is dead, and he is left alone: if any mischief befall him in the land to which you go, you will bring down my grey hairs with sorrow to hell.
1. FOOD.—In Hebrew it is seber, that is, “to be broken,” that is, corn, or bread which is broken and distributed. Whence Joseph, selling and distributing the corn, is here everywhere called mashbir, that is, one who breaks or divides, that is, distributes and apportions the corn that is to be broken, namely the provision or grain; hence flowed that phrase of Christ and Paul: “The bread which we break,” as I said on 1 Cor. 10:16; for to break bread among the Hebrews is the same as to divide and distribute bread.
WHY ARE YOU CARELESS?—In Hebrew, “Why do you look at one another?” that is, why do you idly delay? For the idle and sluggish are wont to look at one another, and each to wait for the other to put his hand to the work and dispatch the matter. “For torpor of mind arises from an imperfect will; as soon as you begin to will the good, there will be ardour and impetus.” The seven years of fertility having elapsed, the second year of barrenness was now going on, as is plain from chap. 45, verse 6.
You will ask by what reason Joseph remained so long unknown in Egypt, namely for 23 years (for so many there are from his 16th year to his 39th, which he was now living), so that in all that time he never sent word of himself to his father, who was mourning so much for him, especially in the last nine years, in which he himself was prince in Egypt?
St. Thomas and Pererius answer that God did not wish this to be made known to Jacob before the time and occasion ordained by himself, namely before Joseph for 23 years concealed from his parent that he survived in Egypt, and before this famine, by which the brethren were compelled to come to Joseph in Egypt. That this was God’s will Joseph understood, both from his dream, of which in chap. 37, verse 7, and from the event of things, and from God’s instinct and revelation, as Joseph himself indicates, chap. 45, verse 8. You will say: Why did God will it to be done and concealed thus? I answer first, because God willed this sorrow to be given to Jacob, though just, as a kind of purgatory, on account of certain light sins of his, both for other reasons and because he had loved Joseph too much and with the envy of his brethren. For God is wont in this way, by adversity, to temper, nay to cut back and mortify, the excessive loves of saints toward some thing or person, as wine is tempered by water poured in. So St. Augustine. Secondly, God willed to conceal from Jacob the life and state of Joseph, that he might prove the virtue, resignation, patience, and love toward God of both Jacob and Joseph, as he proved the obedience and virtue of Isaac and Abraham, when he commanded Abraham to sacrifice his Isaac, Genesis 22:9.
Thirdly, because if Jacob had known that his son Joseph was a captive, he would have ransomed him at any price, and so Joseph would never have been raised in Egypt to the principality, by which God had decreed to reward his humiliation, Wisdom 10:13. So Theodoret.
Fourthly, God willed this, that in this way he might verify the dream sent by himself to Joseph, Genesis chap. 37, verse 7, namely that the brethren, pressed by famine, should be compelled to come to Joseph and adore him.
Fifthly, God willed this, that on this occasion Jacob with all his family should go down into Egypt, and there be multiplied, and that those great and wonderful things should befall him in Egypt which God had promised to his grandfather Abraham, chap. 15, verse 13, and which Exodus narrates.
6. HAD BOWED DOWN.—Behold here the brethren, without knowing it, fulfil Joseph’s dream, and are compelled to adore him. So Procopius (1).
9. AND REMEMBERING THE DREAMS.—Seeing in this adoration of himself his dreams fulfilled, not out of revenge, but to confirm them and their truth, by making the brethren who had deserved so ill of him suppliants to himself, for this cause he speaks to them rather harshly, that they themselves may acknowledge their impiety and the truth of Joseph’s dreams. He says therefore:
YOU ARE SPIES—You will say: Joseph lies here; for he knew that his brethren were not spies. Rupert answers first: “Spies ” that is, thieves, “you are,” because you stole me from my father and sold me. But one thing is a spy, another a thief: for Joseph understands by a spy one who searches out the less fortified places in a province, in order to betray them to the enemy.