Commentaria in Genesim
Thirdly, observe here the wonderful and just providence and vengeance of God, by which he punishes Joseph’s brethren, who were innocent of that charge, with the same penalty, namely prison and captivity, by which they themselves had before afflicted the innocent Joseph. For it is just, says Rhadamanthus, that what one has done unjustly, this he himself should justly suffer.
A similar memorable example, nay many most clear examples, St. Ephrem relates, which befell himself as a petulant and wanton youth, and by which he was converted to amendment, nay to the monastic life. Hear him partly in his confession, partly in the narrative of his conversion. I, he says, doubted of the providence of God, and whether all things did not rather happen by chance and fortuitously. This doubt God wonderfully removed from me, not by words but by deeds. For one day, sent by my parents to the suburbs, and chasing and driving a heifer in calf with stones, I was the cause of her being torn by a wild beast; meeting then the poor man to whom she belonged, who asked me about her, I loaded him also with insults. A month later, sent again into the suburbs in Mesopotamia, I turned aside at night to some shepherds, on which night wild beasts, bursting into the fold, scattered the flock. Hence I was seized by the owners of the flock, as if I had brought in the robbers, and was handed over to the Praetor and to prison; where, when I had been for forty days, a young man of terrible aspect, standing by me as I slept, said: What art thou doing in this prison? When I had told him my misfortunes as an innocent man, he said: I know this, that thou art free of this fault; but think of the past, for thou knowest that by driving the beast of a poor little man thou didst kill it. That thou mayest therefore learn the providence and justice of God, ask those two men, of whom one is falsely accused of homicide, the other of adultery, and who are shut up in this same prison, and thou wilt understand that they are not in bonds without cause; but neither shall they, the authors of those crimes, escape unpunished. Having said this he vanished. When morning came, I turned to those men: Why, I said, are you here? And one said: Of the crime of which I am accused I am innocent; but lately, when a man was thrown from a bridge by an enemy in a fight, to the waves and to death, I did not rescue him, though I could. The other said: I am guiltless; but lately I received from two soldiers fifty coins to swear that their sister had committed adultery, and so to transfer the girl’s inheritance to the brothers. I perjured myself, and by a feigned adultery I stripped the poor girl of all her goods. Now in turn, young man, tell us of thyself. I obeyed the request, and declared the death of the heifer and the cause of my captivity. Then I began to be pricked in heart and to repent, and I understood that we were deservedly paying penalties, though we three were ignorant and innocent of the crime for which we were taken. The next day we were dragged before the judge. They were tortured; and when they were found innocent, they were dismissed. I was thrust back into prison, where, when I had passed alone another forty days, three other men were brought in bound, with whom I again dragged out thirty days. Then the same one who had appeared before stood by me in sleep, saying: What is it, Ephrem? Dost thou see the just judgment of God? But that thou mayest know who those three are who are today joined to thee, know that two of them falsely accused their sister of fornication, and deprived her of her patrimony; the third is he who cast a man into the river; and having said this he withdrew. Then at morning I asked them to tell me the cause for which they had been thrown into prison: and the brothers confessed that they had wickedly circumvented their sister, the other that he had thrown a man into the waters. Having heard this, I too told what had happened to me, and explained the misfortunes of the two men, of whom one had committed perjury, the other had refused his hand to one perishing (for these had consented to or cooperated with the authors of these very crimes). Thence the fear of the divine judgment drew abundant tears from all of us. The next day we were brought to examination, and the two brothers, besides the crimes already mentioned, also confessed that they were the authors of the adultery and homicide (which had falsely been imputed to the two spoken of a little before), and were put to death; and soon the other was visited with the same penalty, for the two murders committed by him. Afterward the judge ordered me also to be brought, weeping bitterly, and invoking God with these words: Save me, O Lord, from necessity, that I may be able worthily to become a monk and serve thee. The Praetor, however, ordered the executioners to stretch me and beat me with ox sinews. But the Praetor’s assessor said: Let him be reserved for another judgment, for now it is time for the meal. So I was led back to prison, bound in iron, where I spent alone another 25 days. A third time the young man seen before showed himself, and said: Art thou now certain that God governs the world by just judgment? Yes, I said, Lord; but thee, I pray and beg, lead me out of this prison, that I may deserve to become a monk and serve the Lord Christ. And he: Once more, he said, thou shalt be subjected to examination, and then at last be freed by another judge; but know that there is one eye surveying all things. After this I dragged out eight days in anxiety, until a new judge recognised me, brought out for trial, and dismissed me as falsely accused. And I without delay went up the mountain, and, casting myself at the feet of a venerable old man, and having told all that had happened, I was received by him as a monk. These things about himself St. Ephrem related somewhat prolixly to his brethren. Whence it is clear, first, that God leaves no crime unpunished; secondly, that God practises that saying of Christ: “With what measure you shall mete, it shall be measured to you again.”
Beautiful moral reflections on the usefulness of tribulation, and that it teaches us to know, first, God; secondly, ourselves and our frailty; thirdly, the vanity of the world and of all its works and goods: Pererius has them here, no. 22 and following.
22. BEHOLD, HIS BLOOD IS REQUIRED.—For the brethren thought that Joseph, in so dire a servitude, had long since died of affliction and grief: for in twenty-three years they had not heard anything of him. “Blood” is therefore here put metonymically for the shedding of blood, that is, for slaying and death: for any killing and violent death, even if it be done by suffocation, drowning, bruising, or in any other way, is called among the Hebrews a shedding of blood, by synecdoche and catachresis, because violent death is most frequently wont to be inflicted by the shedding of blood.
25. SIMEON.—Joseph binds Simeon alone, before the others, because the guilt of the sale of Joseph rested chiefly in Simeon, say Philo, Theodoret and Gennadius. For if Simeon, born second, had joined with Ruben the firstborn and Juda, who excelled among the brethren in favour and dignity, these three could easily by their authority have restrained the other brethren and freed Joseph; perhaps also Simeon had been more insolent and iniquitous toward Joseph among the brethren: for his bold and insolent disposition sufficiently betrayed itself in the slaughter of the Sichemites, Genesis 34:25.
AND GAVE THEM BESIDES PROVISIONS FOR THE WAY,—a viaticum given besides the corn, namely loaves and other food for men as well as asses, that they might carry the corn whole and untouched home to their father in Chanaan.
29. THEY TOLD HIM ALL,—of their own accord and voluntarily, that their father might not be in suspense where Simeon had stayed; for, as Philo prudently says, “in unexpected misfortunes knowledge is lighter than doubt: for once the thing is known a way to safety can be found; hesitation avails nothing.” Truly the Poet:
Worse than war is the very fear of war.
35. AND ALL BEING ASTONISHED TOGETHER.—The sons had opened their sacks on the way, and knew that the money was in them; the father, however, did not know, but the sons before their father pretend that they too did not know it, lest they be rebuked by their father. The sons were therefore terrified here by a fear conceived before, or at least simulated and feigned; but Jacob was struck with a new and true fear, fearing namely lest some harm should come to Simeon on account of this money, if they did not return; but if they did return, lest it be inflicted upon themselves by Joseph.
36. YOU HAVE MADE ME TO BE WITHOUT CHILDREN.—This is the voice of a sorrowing man, says Abulensis, because the sorrowing make universal propositions for a small matter, so that if they have a few evils they say they have all; and if a few goods are lacking to them they say all are lacking: so Jacob, feeling that only three sons were missing, from the vehemence of his grief says that all will be wanting to him, though nine others still remained to him. This grief arose from the great love with which he loved above all the lost Joseph and the Benjamin who was to be taken away.
37. KILL MY TWO SONS.—Irrational, troubled and full of passion is this offer of Ruben: for it is not lawful for a grandfather to slay grandsons, and if it had been lawful, this would not have mitigated his grief, but rather increased it. But Ruben wished by this disordered and irrational proposition to signify that he would most certainly bring Benjamin back.
38. YOU WILL BRING DOWN MY GREY HAIRS WITH SORROW TO HELL—that is, you will bring it about that I, an old man, shall die of grief and sadness; indeed, you will hasten my death in my old age. So Abulensis and Vatablus. This was the eighth cross of Jacob.