How does Joseph test his brothers’ account, and why does Jacob refuse to send Benjamin?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

Joseph recognises his brothers, accuses them of being spies, and requires their youngest brother as proof of their words. He keeps Simeon while the others carry food home. Jacob believes Joseph is dead and fears harm to Benjamin, so he refuses to let him go despite Ruben’s offer.

Chapter breakdown

Jacob hears that food is sold in Egypt. He asks his sons why they are careless and tells them to buy the wheat and supplies they need to live rather than perish from want. Ten brothers of Joseph go, while Jacob keeps Benjamin home for fear that he may be harmed on the journey. They enter Egypt with other buyers because the famine is in Chanaan. Joseph is governor, and grain is sold by his direction. His brothers bow to him. He recognises them, but they do not recognise him. He speaks somewhat roughly as if to strangers and asks where they came from. They say Chanaan, to buy food. Remembering his earlier dreams, Joseph calls them spies who have come to view the land’s weaker parts.

Challoner’s note says Joseph calls them spies to examine them and see how they answer.

They deny the charge, saying they are his servants who have come for food. All are sons of one man, peaceable and not seeking evil. Joseph repeats that they have come to inspect the unfenced, or unprotected, parts of the land. They say they are twelve brothers, sons of one man in Chanaan; the youngest is with their father and another is no longer living. Joseph again calls them spies. He says he will test them and swears by the health of Pharao that they cannot leave until their youngest brother comes. One must fetch him while the others remain imprisoned until their words are proved true or false; otherwise, again by the health of Pharao, they are spies.

Challoner explains that if their statements are proved false, their lying will cause them to be regarded and treated as spies. The note also says Joseph deals with them through affliction to bring them to recognise their former sin and sincerely repent of it.

Joseph puts them in prison for three days. On the third day he brings them out and says they will live if they do as he says, because he fears God. If they are peaceable men, one brother will remain bound in prison while the others take the grain they have bought to their households. They must bring their youngest brother so Joseph can find their words true and they may not die. They do as he says.

The brothers tell one another that they deserve this suffering because they sinned against their brother. They saw his anguish when he begged them, but would not listen; they connect their present affliction to that refusal. Ruben says he warned them not to sin against the boy and they would not hear him. Now, he says, the boy’s blood is required. They do not know Joseph understands because he speaks to them through an interpreter. Joseph turns away for a little while and weeps, then returns and speaks to them.

Joseph takes Simeon and binds him in their presence. He orders his servants to fill the sacks with wheat, put each man’s money back in his sack, and give them provisions for the journey. The servants do so. The brothers load their donkeys with grain and leave. At an inn one opens his sack to feed his animal and sees the money at the sack’s mouth. He tells the others it has been returned. They are astonished and troubled and ask what God has done to them.

Back with Jacob in Chanaan, they report what happened. The lord of the land spoke roughly and took them for spies. They answered that they were peaceable and meant no plot: twelve brothers of one father, one no longer living and the youngest with their father in Chanaan. They report his terms for proving them peaceable: leave one brother, take supplies home and bring the youngest. Then they can receive the detained man again and have permission to buy what they wish. After telling this, they empty the grain. Every man finds his money tied at his sack’s mouth, and they are all astonished.

Jacob says they have left him without children: Joseph is not living, Simeon is bound, and they will take Benjamin away. All these evils have fallen on him. Ruben offers his own two sons’ lives if he fails to bring Benjamin back, asking Jacob to entrust him with the boy. Jacob refuses. Benjamin’s brother is dead, he says, and Benjamin is left alone. If harm befalls him on the journey, they will bring Jacob’s grey hairs down in sorrow to hell. These are Jacob’s stated beliefs and fears; the reader has just seen Joseph alive in Egypt.

Challoner explains hell here as the place where the souls then remained, referring back to the note on Genesis 37:35.

The story inside

The test changes after the three days in prison. At first Joseph says that one brother should fetch the youngest while the others remain until their words are proved. On the third day he says he fears God and gives different terms: one will remain bound, while the others carry grain to their households and return with the youngest. The demand still concerns the truth of their words, but food can now be taken home. Simeon is bound in their presence, making the remaining obligation concrete. The brothers’ report to Jacob includes both his possible release and permission to buy again. Jacob’s refusal therefore leaves a real difficulty at the chapter’s end: food has reached the household, but Simeon remains detained and further dealings require the son Jacob will not send. Challoner’s separate explanation connects the affliction to repentance; the recorded terms show the actual test and its unresolved result.

Lessons worth keeping

1
Joseph knows who the brothers are, while they do not know him. The interpreter later helps explain why they assume he cannot understand their conversation. Preserving that difference in knowledge makes their confession and his turning aside to weep intelligible without inventing hidden thoughts.
2
The brothers state their own connection between past wrong and present suffering. They recall their brother’s anguish and their refusal to listen; Ruben adds his ignored warning. Their words supply the account’s evidence of recognising the wrong, rather than requiring an invented claim about decades of suppressed guilt.
3
The return home brings grain and money, but does not resolve the family’s situation. The brothers are astonished by the money, Simeon is still held, and Jacob fears losing Benjamin. His refusal remains the ending even after Ruben offers his sons as a pledge.

Test your recall

How do Joseph’s terms change after three days, what must happen for the detained brother to be returned, and why does Jacob refuse despite Ruben’s offer?

Show answer

At first Joseph says that one brother must fetch Benjamin while the others stay in prison. After three days, he allows the others to take grain home and keeps one brother, Simeon, bound. They must bring Benjamin to prove their account and recover Simeon. Jacob refuses because he believes Joseph is dead and fears that harm to Benjamin would bring him overwhelming sorrow. Ruben’s offer of his own sons does not change that fear.

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 4841–4873
Genesis Chapter 42 Jacob sendeth his ten sons to buy corn in Egypt. Their treatment by Joseph. 42:1. And Jacob hearing that food was sold in Egypt, said to his sons: Why are ye careless? 42:2. I have heard that wheat is sold in Egypt: Go ye down, and buy us necessaries, that we may live, and not be consumed with want. 42:3. So the ten brethren of Joseph went down, to buy corn in Egypt: 42:4. Whilst Benjamin was kept at home by Jacob, who said to his brethren: Lest perhaps he take any harm in the journey. 42:5. And they entered into the land of Egypt with others that went to buy. For the famine was in the land of Chanaan. 42:6. And Joseph was governor in the land of Egypt, and corn was sold by his direction to the people. And when his brethren had bowed down to him, 42:7. And he knew them, he spoke as it were to strangers, somewhat roughly, asking them: Whence came you? They answered: From the land of Chanaan, to buy necessaries of life. 42:8. And though he knew his brethren, he was not known by them. 42:9. And remembering the dreams, which formerly he had dreamed, he said to them: You are spies. You are come to view the weaker parts of the land.
Lines 4874–4876
You are spies.... This he said by way of examining them, to see what they would answer.
Lines 4877–4898
42:10. But they said: It is not so, my lord; but thy servants are come to buy food. 42:11. We are all the sons of one man: we are come as peaceable men, neither do thy servants go about any evil. 42:12. And he answered them: It is otherwise: you are come to consider the unfenced parts of this land. 42:13. But they said: We thy servants are twelve brethren, the sons of one man in the land of Chanaan: the youngest is with our father, the other is not living. 42:14. He saith, This is it that I said: You are spies. 42:15. I shall now presently try what you are: by the health of Pharao, you shall not depart hence, until your youngest brother come. 42:16. Send one of you to fetch him: and you shall be in prison, till what you have said be proved, whether it be true or false: or else by the health of Pharao you are spies.
Lines 4899–4904
Or else by the health of Pharao you are spies.... That is, if these things you say be proved false, you are to be held for spies for your lying, and shall be treated as such. Joseph dealt in this manner with his brethren, to bring them by the means of affliction to a sense of their former sin, and a sincere repentance for it.
Lines 4905–4916
42:17. So he put them in prison three days. 42:18. And the third day he brought them out of prison, and said: Do as I have said, and you shall live: for I fear God. 42:19. If you be peaceable men, let one of your brethren be bound in prison: and go ye your ways, and carry the corn that you have bought, unto your houses. 42:20. And bring your youngest brother to me, that I may find your words to be true, and you may not die. They did as he had said.
Lines 4917–4931
42:21. And they talked one to another: We deserve to suffer these things, because we have sinned against our brother, seeing the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear: therefore is this affliction come upon us. 42:22. And Ruben, one of them, said: Did not I say to you: Do not sin against the boy; and you would not hear me? Behold his blood is required. 42:23. And they knew not that Joseph understood, because he spoke to them by an interpreter. 42:24. And he turned himself away a little while, and wept: and returning, he spoke to them.
Lines 4932–4945
42:25. And taking Simeon, and binding him in their presence, he commanded his servants to fill their sacks with wheat, and to put every man’s money again in their sacks, and to give them besides provisions for the way: and they did so. 42:26. But they having loaded their asses with the corn went their way. 42:27. And one of them opening his sack, to give his beast provender in the inn, saw the money in the sack’s mouth, 42:28. And said to his brethren: My money is given me again; behold it is in the sack. And they were astonished, and troubled, and said to one another: What is this that God hath done unto us?
Lines 4946–4968
42:29. And they came to Jacob their father in the land of Chanaan, and they told him all things that had befallen them, saying: 42:30. The lord of the land spoke roughly to us, and took us to be spies of the country. 42:31. And we answered him: We are peaceable men, and we mean no plot. 42:32. We are twelve brethren born of one father: one is not living, the youngest is with our father in the land of Chanaan. 42:33. And he said to us: Hereby shall I know that you are peaceable men: Leave one of your brethren with me, and take ye necessary provision for your houses, and go your ways, 42:34. And bring your youngest brother to me, that I may know you are not spies: and you may receive this man again, that is kept in prison: and afterwards may have leave to buy what you will. 42:35. When they had told this, they poured out their corn, and every man found his money tied in the mouth of his sack: and all being astonished together,
Lines 4969–4980
42:36. Their father Jacob said: You have made me to be without children: Joseph is not living, Simeon is kept in bonds, and Benjamin you will take away: all these evils are fallen upon me. 42:37. And Ruben answered him: Kill my two sons, if I bring him not again to thee: deliver him into my hand, and I will restore him to thee. 42:38. But he said: My son shall not go down with you: his brother is dead, and he is left alone: if any mischief befall him in the land to which you go, you will bring down my grey hairs with sorrow to hell.
Lines 4981–4984
To hell.... That is, to that place, where the souls then remained, as above, chapter 37. ver. 35.