Genesis: Chapters 42 to 46

Joseph reunites with the family.  Awesome moments ensue. 

CHAPTER 42

Canaan is also feeling the famine – but Jacob has heard of Egypt.  He tells his sons “Why do you keep looking at one another?” and tell them to buy some grain in Egypt.  I just get a kick out of that line – why do you keep looking at one another?  Heh.  Careful guys, if you start running out of food, you’ll end up selling your birthright to your own father for some stew!

Jacob has the 10 eldest boys go out.  Benjamin stays behind because that’s the only surviving son of his favorite wife, and the full brother of the lamented Joseph.  They go and Joseph immediately recognizes them, because he’s the most competent man in Genesis.

They bow before him – just like in his dream.  He accuses them of being spies and they deny it, because they’re not.  But he insists and asks about their family. They confirm they have a brother who “is no more” and a youngest at home with their aged father.  Joseph insists they are spies and cuts a deal – leave one of you behind and come back with your youngest brother.  Then I’ll assume your family story is really true.  So they leave Simeon behind.  Not sure why Simeon – did he draw the short straw or something? – but he’s left behind and Joseph has him bound.

But before they leave Simeon behind, the brothers tell each other that they’re being punished for what they did to Joseph 20 years ago.  They don’t know that Joseph can understand every word.  Joseph has spoken to them only through an interpreter.  Smart lad, that Joseph.  This gets to him.  When he hears them talk like this, he turns away from them and weeps.  This won’t be the last time he’s overcome with emotions.

I wonder what Joseph’s initial plan was.  Did he just want to see his brother?  Did he want vengeance and punishment?  It’s unclear, but with this first crying, it’s clear that he isn’t looking just for punishment.  Maybe he himself doesn’t know what he wants.  But there will be a common emotional ground found, with mutual reconciliation.  Their guilt and Joseph’s emotions set the stage for it.

At any rate, they go home, and discover to their horror that their money has been put back in their sacks.  That wasn’t supposed to be the case and they’re afraid that the governor (Joseph) will punish them if he finds out. 

They go back home and break the bad news to Jacob, who is enraged.  He’s lost Joseph, and he won’t lose Benjamin.  He cannot let his surviving favorite risk being lost to him.  “Joseph is no more, Simeon is no more, and now you would take Benjamin away!”  So he’s assuming/deciding that Simeon is a lost cause?  That hardly seems fair.

Well, Reuben makes a counteroffer.  If we don’t bring Benjamin back, you may kill my two sons.  Wow!  A couple impressive things here.  First, Jacob is giving up Simeon just due to the possibility of losing Benjamin while Reuben is putting his children’s life on the line to help get Simeon out of Egypt.  And how is this a good deal for Jacob either way?  If he loses his favorite remaining son he ….gets to kill two grandsons?  Well, it does show how serious Reuben is, which is the point.  Also, Reuben is the leader here.  Back in Eygpt when the brothers spoke, Reuben has an I-told-you-so moment.  This story comes from the same author that made Reuben the good guy then; the author from the divided kingdom of Israel.

CHAPTER 43

Well, Jacob doesn’t want to send his kids down to Egypt, but the damn famine is entering its second year. Either go down there or everyone dies at home.  So he allows Benjamin to go, but boy is he not happy.  “Why did you bring this trouble on me by telling the man that you had another brother?” They have a nice response – how could we foresee all of this happening? 

Now Judah steps to the forefront.  So this must come from the author from the divided kingdom of Judea.  He says let Benjamin go with us and I will serve as his guardian and I’ll hold all the blame.  No offer to kill his children, though.  But Judah is again the leader.  Jacob, with some lingering savvy to him still, tells them to bring some of the best bling they have as gifts. 

They go down and are invited to eat in Joseph’s house.  They’re scared – does he know we brought the money back last time?  Man God – he’s going to have us all killed.  No, a servant tells them to all calm down.  The God of your father must’ve put the money there, so don’t worry about it. Simeon is released from being bound.  (He’s a pretty passive background character in all this, despite being the one brother who really has to suffer the most). 

Joseph talks with them and learns that Jacob lives still.  He also sees Benjamin for the first time in over 20 years – most of his life.  Benjamin, easily the youngest of the sons, must’ve been just a boy when the teenaged Joseph was sold into slavery.  No wonder Joseph has to hurry out and break down sobbing.  That’s the second time he’s done that.  A lot of this story’s power comes from how human and raw some of the emotions are.

But Joseph is still playing his game.  He still hasn’t told anyone who he is.  His motivations are still a bit murky.  He clearly is happy to see them, but they’re still the ones who sold him into slavery.  He’s punishing them, but at the same time punishing himself to suppress all his emotions from within.

Side note – we’re told it’s abhorrent for Egyptians to eat with Hebrew.  OK then.

CHAPTER 44

No, Joseph isn’t done with …whatever it is he’s doing. Time for all 11 to leave.  Joseph still hasn’t told them who he is.  He has a silver goblet put in Benjamin’s bags, then accuses them of stealing it.  They offer to all be his slaves if anyone took it – and the person who took it should be killed.  No, Joseph says.  I’ll just make a slave of the one who took it. The rest can go.

Well, you can imagine their horror when the telltale goblet ends up in Benjamin’s bag.  Maybe this was Joseph’s plan all along.  Have his only full brother stay with him in Egypt.  However much he notes that the others feel bad for what they did to him, that doesn’t change what they did to him.

Now Judah steps up with the single longest speech in Genesis.  Much of it is recap.  There’s always some element of repeating and recapping in stories from oral traditions, and these early stories are oral tradition written down centuries after the fact. 

But after recapping, Judah gets to the real heart of the matter.  If we return home without Benjamin, our father will be inconsolable.  It will be enough to literally kill him.  I have guaranteed Benjamin’s safety. “How could I go back to my father if the boy were not with me?  I could not bear to see the anguish that would overcome my father?”  This part of the story must come from the Kingdom of Judea, after all, they're making their ancestor the big spokesperson. 

CHAPTER 45

And Joseph finally breaks.  He tells all his servants to leave so it’s just he and his brothers, and he reveals who they are.  “But his sobs were so loud that the Egyptians heard him”  Yeah, that’s a well-earned cry.  The brothers are too dumbfounded to respond.

He forgives them entirely, saying it was all the Lord’s plan.  It was He, not they, that sent him to Egypt.  It was His plan, in order that Joseph could figure out how to solve the famine in advance.  Everyone just played their role in this cosmic plan.  I wonder when Joseph came to this notion.  Probably not until just now, or else why make them go through this last bit of pain over the silver goblet?  He absolves them.

Then he tells them to hurry back home and get Jacob.  He wants to see his dad.  Yeah, that makes sense.  (I wonder if that was ever in his plan.  I’m sure it was in his hopes, but I wonder if it was in his plan.  Maybe that’s why he was going to take Benjamin. Huh.  That might make sense, actually). 

Benjamin weeps on Joseph’s shoulder and Joseph weeps again – that makes four times and counting.  Joseph invites them to stay with him in Egypt.  Then the Pharaoh invites them to do the same.  Little repeat there – one of the signs that the Torah is a combination of multiple sources added together. 

They go home and break the news: Joseph lives!  Jacob flatly doesn’t believe him, but they convince him.  “Enough” said Israel. “My son Joseph is alive!  I must go and see him before I die!”  That’s a nice little “HELL YEA!!” moment to end the chapter on.

CHAPTER 46

This is mostly a bookkeeping chapter where Jacob and family go to Egypt, so time for a catalog of peoples.  It’s pretty much entirely a catalogue of sons of Jacob’s sons.  Supposedly, there are 70, but it doesn’t quite add up.  The footnotes say the number 70 comes up a few times later, so it might be a symbolic number.  Or you could just note missing daughters.

Fewest sons: Dan, who has just one.  Most: Benjamin, with nine.  That’s interesting for several reasons.  First, he’s the youngest, and in the reunion stories was portrayed as barely more than a boy.  But he’s got nine kids.  Second, the tribe of Benjamin ends up as easily the smallest tribe in all Israel.  But he gets off to the best start.  My hunch on what’s going on?  In the divided kingdom days, Judah, which made up half of all Israelis (even though it was just one tribe) formed a southern kingdom w/ dinky old Benjamin while the other 10 tribes formed a separate kingdom.  My guess is that this is something put in during the divided kingdom days – throw a bone to Benjamin. 

None of the names of the grandsons have really caught on.  Among the more interesting ones: Zohar, Tola, Jahleel, Sered, Bela, Becher, and Guni. 

Jacob comes down and Joseph sees him, and boy is it emotional.  Joseph “threw his arms around [Jacob] and wept a long time on his should.  And Israel said to Joseph, `At last I can die, now that I have seen for myself that you are alive.’”  Yeah, that’s a nice scene there.

It ends with a weird note about Joseph telling his brothers – don’t tell the Egyptians who are shepherds, for shepherds are abhorrent to them.  Say you own livestock.

Click here for the end of Genesis.