be found, let him die[1], and we will be the bondsmen of my lord.” The steward replied: “Be it according to your words.”
They immediately took down their sacks and opened them, and when the steward had searched them all, beginning with that of the eldest, he found the cup in Benjamin’s sack. The brothers, rending [2] their garments, loaded their asses again and returned to the city[3].
And falling down[4] before Joseph, they said: “Behold, we are all bondsmen[5] to my lord.” But Joseph answered: “God forbid! He that stole the cup, he shall be my bondsman, and go you away free to your father.”
Then Juda told Joseph how much it had cost their father to part with Benjamin. They would rather die, all of them, he said, than return to their aged father without his youngest son. Juda[6], moreover, offered to remain, and be the governor’s slave till death, if he would allow Benjamin to go back safe to his father.
COMMENTARY.
Sin is an ingratitude to God. Almighty God might well say to us, what the steward said to Joseph’s brethren: “Why have you returned evil for good? I have done good to you; I have given you life and health and grace, and you have repaid my bounties with ingratitude. You have done a very evil thing each time you have sinned.” Mortal sin, especially, is a base act of ingratitude towards God, our Father.
Love for our parents, brothers and sisters. Juda had evidently a very sincere love both for his father and for his brother Benjamin.
- ↑ Let him die . This they said, each feeling quite certain that no one of the others was capable of such an act.
- ↑ Rending. With grief.
- ↑ To the city. i. e. the city where Joseph dwelt. With what feelings of fear, grief and repentance must they have returned!
- ↑ Falling down. When, on other occasions, they had come into Joseph’s presence, they had bowed down to the ground before him, but this time, they prostrated themselves, for they felt that everything depended on propitiating this great man.
- ↑ Bondsmen. When first accused, they had said: “With whomsoever the cup shall be found, let him die.” But Juda makes no mention of this now. Once it is a question of Benjamin, they would all prefer being slaves, rather than that he should perish.
- ↑ Juda. Juda’s conduct was very noble. He was quite ready to give himself to be a slave, in Benjamin’s stead, so as to spare his father sorrow for the boy's loss. It was no longer possible for Joseph to doubt the change in his brothers’ dispositions.
