1And the famine was heavy in the land.
2And it was when they had finished eating the grain that they had brought from Egypt: and their father said to them, “Go back. Buy us a little food.”
3And Judah said to him, saying, “The man certified to us, saying, ‘You won’t see my face unless your brother is with you.’
4If you’re sending our brother with us, we’ll go down and buy food for you,
5and if you’re not sending, we won’t go down, because the man said to us, ‘You won’t see my face unless your brother is with you.’”
6And Israel said, “Why have you done me wrong, to tell the man that you have another brother?”
7And they said, “The man asked about us and about our birthplace, saying, ‘Is your father still alive? Do you have a brother?’ And we told him about these things. Could we have known that he would say, ‘Bring your brother down’?”
8And Judah said to Israel, his father, “Send the boy with me, so we may get up and go, and we’ll live and not die, we and you and our infants as well.
9I’ll be security for him. You’ll seek him from my hand. If I don’t bring him to you and set him before you, then I’ll have sinned against you for all time.
10For, if we hadn’t delayed, by now we would have come back twice.”
11And Israel, their father, said to them, “If that’s how it is, then do this: Take some of the best fruit of the land in your containers and take a gift down to the man, a little balm and a little honey, gum and myrrh, pistachios and almonds.
12And take double the silver in your hand, and take back in your hand the silver that was put back in the mouth of your bags. Maybe it was a mistake.
13And take your brother. And get up, go back to the man.
14And may El Shadday give you mercy before the man, so he’ll send your other brother and Benjamin to you. And I: if I’m bereaved I’m bereaved!”
15And the men took this gift and took double the silver in their hand and Benjamin and got up and went down to Egypt and stood before Joseph.
16And Joseph saw Benjamin with them and said to the one who was over his house, “Bring the men to the house, and slaughter and prepare an animal, because the men will eat with me at noon.”
17And the man did as Joseph said, and the man brought the men to Joseph’s house.
18And the men were afraid because they were brought to Joseph’s house, and they said, “We’re being brought on account of the silver that came back in our bags the first time, in order to roll over us and to fall upon us and to take us as slaves—and our asses.”
19And they went over to the man who was over Joseph’s house and spoke to him at the entrance of the house
20and said, “Please, my lord, we came down the first time to buy food,
21and it was when we came to the lodging place, and we opened our bags, and here was each man’s silver in the mouth of his bag, our money in its full weight. And we’ve brought it in our hand,
22and we’ve brought down additional silver in our hand to buy food. We don’t know who put our silver in our bags.”
23And he said, “Peace to you. Don’t be afraid. Your God and your father’s God put treasure in your bags for you. Your silver came to me.” And he brought Simeon out to them.
24And the man brought the men to Joseph’s house, and he gave water, and they washed their feet, and he gave fodder for their asses.
25And they prepared the gift until Joseph’s arrival at noon because they heard that they would eat bread there.
26And Joseph came to the house, and they brought the gift for him that was in their hand to the house, and they bowed to him to the ground.
27And he asked if they were well, and he said, “Is your old father whom you mentioned well? Is he still alive?”
43:27. he asked if they were well. Recall that the brothers were described earlier as being unable to speak to Joseph of š
lôm, that is, to say “hello” or “how are you?” (see the comment on 37:4). Now they and Joseph finally speak of šlbm (vv. 23,27–28). Even though it is unwitting, it is the beginning of their reconciliation with their brother.
43:27. Is he still alive? Here is an exceptional example of the emotional power that looms in the background in the Torah’s stories. From the point of view of the brothers and the Egyptians who are present, Joseph is just making polite conversation, graciously asking about “your old father whom you mentioned.” But, inside, Joseph is about to find out—with anticipation, dread, even guilt?—whether his own father, who loved him the most, is alive or dead.
28And they said, “Your servant, our father, is well. He’s still alive.” And they knelt and bowed.
43:28. He’s still alive. In the Septuagint and Samaritan, Joseph responds to this news about Jacob. They read: “And he said, ‘Blessed of God is that man.’” This line presumably was lost from the Masoretic Text as a result of haplography when a scribe’s eye jumped from the ivy at the beginning of wayy’
mer to the beginning of wayyiqq
d
.
29And he raised his eyes and saw Benjamin, his brother, his mother’s son, and said, “Is this your youngest brother whom you mentioned to me?” And he said, “May God be gracious to you, my son.”
30And Joseph hurried because his feelings for his brother were boiling, and he looked for a place to weep and came to his room and wept there.
31And he washed his face and went out and restrained himself and said, “Put out bread.”
32And they put it out for him by himself and for them by themselves and for the Egyptians who were eating with him by themselves, because the Egyptians could not eat bread with the Hebrews because that is an offensive thing to Egypt.
33And they sat before him, the firstborn according to his birthright and the youngest according to his youth. And the men looked amazed at one another.
34And he conveyed portions from before him to them, and he made Benjamin’s portion five times more than the portions of all of them, and they drank and were drunk with him.
