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Joseph and His Brothers
141
The search began immediately. “Then each man speedily let
down his sack to the ground,” and the steward examined each, be-
ginning with Reuben’s, and taking them in order down to that of the
youngest. The cup was found in Benjamin’s sack .
The brothers tore their clothes in utter wretchedness and slowly
returned to the city. By their own promise, Benjamin was doomed
to slavery. They followed the steward to the palace, and finding the
governor still there, fell to the ground before him.
“What deed is this you have done?” he said. “Did you not know
that such a man as I can practice divination?” Joseph intended to
draw from them an acknowledgment of their sin.
Judah answered, “What shall we say to my lord? What shall we
speak? Or how shall we clear ourselves? God has found out the
iniquity of your servants; here we are, my lord’s slaves, both we and
he also with whom the cup was found.”
“Far be it from me that I should do so,” was the reply. “The man
in whose hand the cup was found, he shall be my slave. And as for
you, go up in peace to your father.”
Judah’s Plea
In his distress, Judah drew near the ruler. Vividly he described his
father’s grief at the loss of Joseph and his reluctance to let Benjamin
come with them to Egypt, as he was the only son left of his mother,
Rachel, whom Jacob so dearly loved. “Now therefore,” he said,
“when I come to your servant my father, and the lad is not with us,
since his life is bound up in the lad’s life, it will happen, when he
sees that the lad is not with us, that he will die. So your servants will
bring down the gray hair of your servant our father with sorrow to
the grave. For your servant became surety for the lad to my father,
saying, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, then I shall bear the blame
before my father forever.’ Now therefore, please let your servant
remain instead of the lad as a slave to my lord, and let the lad go up
with his brothers. For how shall I go up to my father if the lad is
not with me, lest perhaps I see the evil that would come upon my
father?”
Joseph was satisfied. He had seen in his brothers the fruits of
true repentance. He gave orders for all but these men to withdraw.