NONE OF THE BROTHERS KNEW; only Benjamin did. Their minds shuttled between doubt and conviction. Could he have done it? No. Yes. How could he have done it and gotten them into such trouble? Well, if it was his fault, maybe they should just leave him here. But that would kill their father. But it was not as if they still had a choice. Or was it God who had put the silver cup in his pack, as with the money? However this had happened, it spelled disaster. Reuben wanted to bite his tongue. Judah was even more appalled than the others. He had made a solemn promise to his father, and now there would be no way to keep it.
For Benjamin, however, there was no question of a theft. He pondered. Denying the theft would do no good, since the evidence would so clearly make him a liar. He knew to keep silent when there was nothing useful to say.
It might be God who had acted here, or it might be a human. If a human, it couldn’t have been one of his brothers. Who, then? The Egyptians were all under the command of the great lord, who had seemed to show such partiality to him. So in the end it would come down to the great lord.
But why would he have played such a nasty trick on them all? To make him his slave? Benjamin couldn’t believe that. The great lord seemed like a decent, generous man. He had to know that detaining Benjamin would kill their father. He would never do something like that.
Then why had he done it?