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sence of the king. In Egypt every thing was prescriptive. There can hardly be a doubt that this was a point of court etiquette. If it were so, Joseph's brethren, we may be sure, were subjected to this discipline. In effect, it is not at all probable that a company, upon which such a charge was imputed as that made by Joseph against his brethren, would in the ancient world have escaped with no more grievous corporal inflictions than those of bonds and imprisonment. Even in the days of the Romans, the entire tone of society, and the collective mode of thought, would render it improbable that any individual, however exalted in rank, would be committed to prison upon a serious charge without being previously examined by scourging. When we call to mind the cruel wrong that Joseph had suffered from the unfeeling men who were now in his power, and also that he was utterly ignorant of the design of poor Reuben for his deliverance, we shall perceive that even if such were the case, his rigorous deportment would be amply justified by the circumstances. The precaution taken by Joseph on this memorable occasion would also be rendered needful by the political relations of the kingdom of Lower Egypt in the times of Aphophis. The Arvadites and Hittites were the two clans of the Canaanitish confederacy by whose aid the Mencherian Pharaohs had been expelled from Memphis.

But with the other Canaanitish nations they were frequently at war. The Canaanites in Egypt even confederated with the Egyptians for the purpose of invading Canaan. Of this fact we have the irrefragable evidence of the monuments. It was therefore highly important to the safety of the throne of Pharaoh that this vast tide of immigrants from Canaan should be closely watched, lest under the pretext of purchasing corn, some formidable force might be gradually introduced, and thus a double danger arise from within as well as from without. Under these circumstances, there would be nothing at all remarkable in the rough greeting wherewith Joseph challenged his brethren. It was the ordinary course with all large bodies of travellers from Canaan.

"And Joseph said to them the third day, This do, and live, for I fear God, If ye be true, let one of your brethren be bound in the house of your prison; go ye, carry corn for the famine of your houses. But bring your youngest brother unto me; so shall your words be verified, and ye shall not die. And they assented. And they said one to another, We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul when he besought us, and we would not hear; therefore is this distress. come upon us. And Reuben answered them, saying, Spake I not unto you, saying, Do not sin against

the child; and ye would not hear? Therefore behold also his blood is required. And they knew not that Joseph understood them: for he spake unto them by an interpreter. And he turned himself about from them and wept, and returned to them again, and spake unto them [repeating his decision], and took from them Simeon, and bound him before their eyes." Gen. xlii. 18—24.

The brethren of Joseph had now been for three days in prison, expecting hourly to be led forth to suffer an ignominious death at the hands of the public executioner. It was by this severe discipline that the compunctious visitings, (which all the anguish of their father, of which for so many years they had witnessed the daily proofs, had failed to awaken), first wrung their flinty hearts. It is quite clear from this passage that Reuben, as well as his father, had been completely deceived by the stratagem of the torn and bloody coat; nevertheless the conduct of this patriarch on the occasion, exactly squares with the general tone of his character (see Gen. xlix. 3, 4), and offers another internal evidence, if such be wanted, of the genuineness of the history before us. He did not (as was his clear duty) apprize his father of the lawless violence of his brethren towards Joseph, of which he himself was cognizant. Had he done so, it would have led to inquiries, whence doubtless the whole truth would

have been elicited. It is a vain question to ask in reply, How then would the purposes of God have been fulfilled by Joseph? It is perfectly true that God was pleased to accomplish them by the moral infirmity of Reuben, as well as by the relentless cruelty of Simeon and the cold calculating avarice of Judah. Nevertheless Simeon and Judah, yea, and Reuben also, shall each bear his own sin. Man can incur God's displeasure, but he cannot counterwork his purposes.

It is sufficiently evident from the passage before us, that Joseph used the Egyptian language in this colloquy, and that it was unintelligible to his brethren. So clearly is this implied by the scope of the text, and so unanswerably is it demonstrated by the etymology of the word rightly translated " interpreter," and also by the comparison of the two languages, for which we have such ample materials, that we can only regret that an opposite statement, by commentators generally well entitled to the confidence of their readers, should have rendered this rectification needful.*

"Then Joseph commanded to fill their sacks with corn, and restore every man's money into his sack; and to give every man provision for the way: and thus did he unto them. And they laded their asses with corn and departed thence. And as one * See, inter alias, Bagster's Comprehensive Bible on Gen. xlii. 23.

of them opened his sack to give his ass provender at the resting-place [in the desert] he saw his silver [in rings] for behold it was at his sack's mouth. And he said unto his brethren, My money is restored; and, lo, it is even in my sack and their heart failed them, and they were afraid, saying one to another, What is this that God hath done

unto us?

“And they came unto Jacob their father unto the land of Canaan, and told him all that befel unto them; saying, The man, who is the lord of the land, spake roughly to us, and took us for spies of the country. And we said unto him, We are true men; we are no spies: we be twelve brethren, sons of our father; one is not, and the youngest is this day with our father in the land of Canaan. And the man, the lord of the country, said unto us, Hereby shall I know that ye are true men; leave one of your brethren here with me, and take food for the famine of your households, and be gone and bring your youngest brother unto me: then shall I know that ye are no spies, but ye are true men: so will I deliver you your brother, and ye shall traffic in the land.

"And it came to pass, as they emptied their sacks, that, behold, every man's bundle of money was in his sack: and when both they and their father saw the bundles of money, they were afraid. And Jacob

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