14 And Judah and his brethren came to Joseph's house, (for he was yet there :) and they fell before him on the ground. d ch. 37. 7. d 15 And Joseph said unto them, What deed is this that ye have done? wot ye not that such a man as I can certainly divine? with shame when they saw what they probably remained at his house anxdid not expect to find. 12, 13. The cup was found in Benjamin's sack. Joseph's steward might have begun with the sack of the youngest, and saved himself the trouble of searching so many sacks in vain; but he thought it necessary still to put on the appearance of justice, although he knew he could not deceive the brethren, nor is it likely that he wished them to be deceived. Ten out of eleven are clear, and enjoy the triumph of a good conscience; but lo, in the sack of the youngest the cup is found! How soon was their joy turned into mourning, and their cheerful hopes into dismal fears! And what shall they now do? There was apparent danger in their returning to the city. Snares, it was too obvious, were laid for Benjamin. And what if all of them should be involved in these snares? Was it not safest to leave Benjamin to his fate, and to secure themselves by a speedy flight? But their bowels yearned over their poor brother, and over their father, who would be inconsolable under his loss. Rather than see the misery of their father, they will return, and try what can be done to save Benjamin. Thus they might not only make some little compensation to their father for bereaving him of Joseph, but they would also, by shewing themselves so deeply interested in Benjamin's misfortune dissipate Joseph's remaining doubts concerning them, and in a great measure repay him for all the injuries he had experienced at their hands. 14. And Judah and his brethren came to Joseph's house, &c. Joseph iously expecting their return, and the first thing they did upon their arrival was to fall down prostrate before him, doing obeisance again in the name of their father and their own. Judah is particularly mentioned because it was he who had persuaded Jacob to send Benjamin into Egypt, and he would feel that the chief responsibility rested upon him. But neither he nor his brethren seem capable of uttering a word. They can only wait in their humble posture to hear what is said to them. Thus,' says an ancient father, they bow down to him whom they sold into slavery lest they should bow down to him.' 15. Wot ye not that such a man as 1 can certainly divine? Here again it would seem that Joseph avails himself of the reputation in which he was popularly held. We cannot understand it as implying a claim on his part to the character of a real diviner. It is very possible that the Egyptian language had not words to distinguish between the pretended arts of their diviners, and the true gift of prophecy, with which the Hebrew patriarchs were blessed. As the prophets of Baal and the prophets of Jehovah are called by the general name of prophets, so the Egyptians might give to such a prophet as Joseph appeared to be, the same appellation which they gave to their own pretended prophets. Joseph, therefore, when he ostensibly laid claim to what was called divination in Egypt, did not mean that he was a diviner of the same kind with those of Egypt, but simply one that had the gift of discovering 16 And Judah said, What shall we say unto my lord? what shall we speak? or how shall we clear ourselves? God hath found out the iniquity of thy servants: behold we are my lord's servants, both we, and he also with whom the cup is found. e ver. 9. f 17 And he said, God forbid that I should do so: but the man in whose hand the cup is found, he shall be my servant; and as for you, get you up in peace unto your father. f Prov. 17. 15. things hidden from other men. Was it not to be supposed that he who could foretel that seven years of plenty would be followed by seven years of famine, could also discover the pilferer of the cup out of which he drank? How vain then would it be to think of escaping with his property in their hands undetected? It is plain, however, that he is merely carrying on to its final developement the trial which he was making of the temper of his brethren. He put on a stern aspect, and upbraided them with a pretended crime, but it was to give them occasion to show forth their innocency and their repentance. punish them for their former crimes. In saying 'God hath found out the iniquity of thy servants,' he does not mean to plead guilty to the present charge, nor make a definite acknowledgment of any particular offence, but to say in general, that it was in consequence of former misdeeds that God had suffered them to fall into this unhappy predicament, and to express a willingness that he should punish them in this way, if he saw fit. They well knew that they had sold Joseph for a slave, and filled up many of the years of their father's life with bitter anguish, and they admit that it were a righteous thing with God to make them all slaves for crimes which their consciences charged upon them, but of which they supposed Joseph to be profoundly ignorant. If Joseph had really been the character which he ap have gone far towards disarming him of his resentment. The simple and genuine utterance of the heart is the most irresistible of all eloquence. 16. And Judah said, &c. It was no doubt by common consent that Judah took the lead and acted as spokesman on this occasion. No wonder that he was at a loss what to say. How could he justify or excuse Benja-peared to be, such an answer would min without seeming to criminate the governor, whose favor it was so necessary to court? But if he confessed that his brother were guilty of the baseness imputed to him, how could he, in view of such black ingratitude, claim any favor for him? His perplexity was indeed excruciating. On the one hand, appearances were so strongly against Benjamin as to warrant his detention, and yet how could they return without him? What can he say or do? He can only suggest that it is a mysterious providence, in which it appears to be the design of God to 17. And he said, God forbid that 1 should do so, &c. The words both of Joseph and the steward, v. 10, declare their detestation of extending punishment beyond the offence or the of fender. Joseph had no complaint against Benjamin's brethren, and therefore they might return in peace to their father. But what an alternative was this! Better all be detained than he; for it will in all probability be the death 18 Then Judah came near unto him, and said, O my lord, let thy servant, I pray thee, speak a word in any lord's ears, and let not thine anger burn against thy servant: for thou art even as Pharaoh. 19 My lord asked his servants, saying, Have ye a father, or a brother? g ch. 18. 30, 32. Exod. 32. 22. of their father. Joseph, however, had the pleasure to find that his permission to return was not accepted. 18. Judah came near unto him and said, &c. The surety here becomes the advocate, and presents one of the most powerful pleas ever uttered. Though he knew nothing of the schools or the rules of the rhetoricians, yet no orator ever pronounced a more moving oration. His good sense, and his affection for his venerable father, taught him the highest strains of eloquence. Learning that one only of their number was to be detained he conceives a hope of releasing Benjamin, and accordingly forms his speech with the most admirable adroitness to compass this end with the governor of Egypt.'A company of people have always some one among them, who is known and acknowledged to be the chief speaker; thus, should they fall into trouble, he will be the person to come forward and plead with the superior. He will say, 'My lord, I am indeed a very ignorant person, and not worthy to speak to you: were I of high caste, perhaps my lord would hear me. May I say two or three words?' (some of the party will then say, 'Yes, yes, our lord will hear you.') He then proceeds :-'Ah, my lord, your mercy is known to all; great is your wisdom; you are even as a king to us: let, then, your servants find favor in your sight.' 20 And we said unto my lord, We have a father, an old man, and a child of his old age, a little one: and his brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother, and his father loveth him. 21 And thou saidst unto thy servants, i Bring him down unto me, that I may set mine eyes upon him. hi ch. 37. 3. ich. 42. 15, 20. He then, like Judah, relates the whole affair, forgetting no circumstance which has a tendency to exculpate him and his companions; and every thing which can touch the feelings of his judge will be gently brought before him. As he draws to a conclusion, his pathos increases, his companions put out their heads in a supplicating manner, accompanied by other gesticulations; their tears begin to flow, and with one voice they cry, 'Forgive us, this time, and we will never offend you more.' Roberts. Thou art even as Pharaoh. That is, invested with all but royal authority; having the power to punish and to pardon; standing in the place of Pharaoh, and therefore to be equally reverenced. 19-21. My lord asked his servants, &c. Judah, it will be observed, closes his pathetic address, v. 33, with the request to be permitted to remain instead of Benjamin. In order to introduce and enforce this petition, he here enters upon a detailed statement of facts sufficient to have moved a heart of stone. Some of these facts Joseph had heard before, when his brethren had no such purpose as the present to serve by relating them. He had been informed by them that they had a younger brother, the only surviving son of a muchbeloved mother, and therefore doubly dear to his gray-haired father. If Joseph then had any regard for venerable, 22 And we said unto my lord, | be with us, then will we go down; The lad cannot leave his father: for we may not see the man's for if he should leave his father, face, except our youngest brother his father would die. be with us. k 23 And thou saidst unto thy servants, Except your youngest brother come down with you, ye shall see my face no more. 24 And it came to pass, when we came up unto thy servant my father, we told him the words of my lord. 25 And our father said, Go again, and buy us a little food. 26 And we said, We cannot go down if our youngest brother k ch. 43, 3, 5. 1 ch. 43. 2. age, any pity for an old man whose life was bound up in the life of his son, he would not bereave him of the solace of his declining days. Bring him down unto me that I may set mine eyes upon him. Gr. 'And I will have a care of him.' The phrase 'to set one's eyes upon a person,' is evidently synonymous, in the following passages, with 'exercising a tender care towards him.' Jer. 39. 12, 'Take him and look well to him, and do him no harm; Heb. 'set thine eyes upon him.' Jer. 40. 4, If it seem good unto thee to come with me into Babylon, come; and I will look well unto thee; Heb. 'I will set mine eyes upon thee.' 'Has a beloved son been long absent, does the father anxiously desire to see him, he says, 'Bring him, bring him, that the course of mine eyes may be upon him.' Ah, mine eyes, do you again see my son? Oh, mine eyes, is not this pleasure for you?' Roberts. 22. The lad cannot leave his father. That is, his father cannot consent to part with him. The inability was rather on the part of Jacob than of Benjamin; but the idea is sufficiently obvious. He is called a 'lad' from his 27 And thy servant my father said unto us, Ye know that my wife bare me two sons: 28 And the one went out from me, and I said, "Surely he is torn in pieces; and I saw him not since: 29 And if ye take this also from me, and mischief befall him, ye shall bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave. m ch. 46. 19. n ch, 37, 33. o ch. 42. 36, 38. being the youngest of the brethren, though he was now married and had ten children, Gen. 46. 21. So the three companions of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, though old enough to be 'set over the affairs of the province,' yet are spoken of as the three children who were cast into the fiery furnace. See Note on Gen 22. 5. 27-29. Ye know that my wife bare me, &c. Sorrow is ever entitled to respect. No one possessed of the common feelings of humanity but will be disposed to alleviate the grief of him whom God has wounded by singular afflictions. He must have the spirit of a fiend who wilfully doubles those sorrows of an innocent man which are already great. It is a dreadful affliction to have one of two favorite sons torn in pieces by wild beasts. The person who, without indispensable necessity, bereaves him of the other is more merciless than the beasts of prey which deprived him of the first. Judah was far from thinking that the brother supposed by the father to be torn of wild beasts, was the very man before whom he was now pleading with such affectionate earnestness. Yet it is ob 30 Now therefore when I come | saying, If I bring him not unto to thy servant my father, and the thee, then I shall bear the blame lad be not with us; (seeing that to my father for ever. P his life is bound up in the lad's life ;) 31 It shall come to pass, when he seeth that the lad is not with us, that he will die: and thy servants shall bring down the gray hairs of thy servant our father with sorrow to the grave. 32 For thy servant became surety for the lad unto my father, p 1 Sam. 18. 1. servable that he said nothing but what was true, although he did not tell all the truth. It was not to be expected that he would tell how Benjamin's brother was lost. He only told his father's opinion concerning it, and that was enough to melt any man's heart into compassion for a father bereaved in such a cruel manner of one son, and trembling in apprehension of the loss of another. He had indeed many other sons left, but none of them by the best-beloved of his wives. When he lost the son whom he believed to have been the prey of ravenous beasts, his body was not so much enfeebled by the infirmities of age. But in his present state of weakness, it was impossible, to all appearance, that he could survive a second shock more grievous than the first. 30, 31. Seeing that his life is bound up in the la's life. Or, Heb. 12 100 naphsho keshurah benapsho, his soul is bound up in his (the lad's) soul. Gr. 'His soul hangeth on this man's soul.' Chal. 'His (Benjamin's) soul is beloved unto him as his own soul.' If we love our lives or if we regard the commandment which requires us to use all lawful endeavors to preserve them, let us beware of immoderate attachment to any worldly 33 Now therefore, I pray thee, let thy servant abide instead of the lad a bond-man to my lord; and let the lad go up with bis brethren. 34 For how shall I go up to my father, and the lad be not with me? lest peradventure I see the evil that shall come on ny father. q ch. 43. 9. r Exod. 32. 32. object. If our lives are bound up in any created enjoyment in this changeable world, we subject not only our peace and comfort, but our lives themselves, to great hazard. Jacob's life was bound up in the life of Benjamin, and therefore there was great danger, if any mischief had befallen the young man, that his father's precious life would have been cut off by inconsola ble grief. Many parents have, without intending it, shortened their days, by giving an unbounded scope to parental fondness. We pity them, but we cannot commend them. They reap according to that they have sown. 33, 34. Let thy servant abide instead of the lad. Judah became bound to restore Benjamin to his father, and he wishes to perform his word although by his fidelity he should make himself a slave for life. He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not, is a man of tried integrity. Comparatively but little praise is due to him who keeps his promises when he has no temptation to break them. But that man is a lover of truth and righteousness, who prefers a pure conscience, not only to gold and silver, but to his pleasure, his family, his liberty, and his life. It is probably to be inferred that Judah had not at this time a wife, as otherwise it |