the dreams [1] he had dreamed. He wished to know whether they were now sorry[2] for their sin; so he spoke to them, as if they were strangers to him, and said: “You are spies.”[3]
They answered: “It is not so, my lord, but we have come to buy food. We, thy servants, are twelve brethren, the sons of one man in the land of Chanaan. The youngest is with our father; the other[4] is not living. Joseph then cast them into prison[5] for three days.
On the third day, he brought them out and said: “If you be peaceable men, let one of your brethren be bound in prison, and go ye your ways, and carry the corn, that you have bought into your houses; and bring your youngest brother to me, that I may find your words to be true, and you may not die.”
Then they said one to another: “We deserve[6] 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; therefore is this affliction come upon us.” They thought that Joseph did not understand them, for he spoke to them through an interpreter[7]. But he understood all that they said, and his heart was moved with pity, so that, turning aside from them, he wept[8].
But in order to see if their repentance was sincere, he returned to them and ordered Simeon[9] to be bound before their
- ↑ Dreams. The first of which was then fulfilled.
- ↑ Sorry. And if they had improved. Above all things, he wished to find out if they treated his younger brother Benjamin as harshly and unlovingly as they had treated him. This was why he forced them to bring Benjamin back with them, so that he might be convinced with his own eyes that he was still alive.
- ↑ Spies, i. e. you are foreign informers, and wish to find out how this country could be most easily invaded and conquered.
- ↑ The other. The brothers might well have hesitated and wondered what to say about Joseph.
- ↑ Into prison. He did this, so that they might have time to enter into themselves, and confess the sin which they had committed against him.
- ↑ We deserve. We can see by these words that they had entered into themselves in prison, and now confessed their guilt towards Joseph.
- ↑ Interpreter. A man who understood and translated both the Hebrew and Egyptian languages. In order not to betray himself to his brethren, he spoke to them in Egyptian, and the interpreter translated what he said to his brethren.
- ↑ He wept. He was moved by the penitent dispositions of his brothers. We can see by Joseph’s tears that his harshness to his brothers arose from no desire of revenge, but from the very best intentions.
- ↑ Simeon. Simeon was the brother next in age to Reuben. Joseph would not have Reuben bound, because he had wished to save him; therefore he kept the next eldest as a hostage. Very likely Simeon had been the chief instigator of Joseph’s ill-treatment, and therefore a longer captivity was necessary to bring him to repentance.
