Joseph Part 12: The Brothers Return to Egypt

The Brothers Return to Egypt

We are gonna walk into the center of the center of the story of Yoseph and his brothers.

This large section is the center of the center of the story of Yoseph and his brothers. It consists of three larger units (Gen. 43:1-15, 43:15-44:13, and 44:14-34) designed as a symmetry.

The outer sections highlight a transformed Yehudah, who sees that their entire family is going to die if Yaaqov won’t surrender the life of Binyamin. He is compelled to do the opposite of what he did to Yoseph inand he offers his own life in the place of Yoseph’s brother. Genesis 37, 

The inner section focuses on the climactic additional test that Yoseph forces the brothers to undergo. With Binyamin now in Egypt, Yoseph can test their integrity even more precisely: he will create a scenario where they are forced to choose between Binyamin and a load of silver, just they did in Genesis 37.

This three-part section brings all the themes and conflict between Yoseph and his brothers to a climax, as the brothers’ evil comes full circle upon them.

It is also important to notice that Genesis 43-45 replays the main movements of the preceding Genesis 42. However, each step of the narrative in Genesis 42 is developed in greater detail and drama by its parallel in Genesis 43-45. In this way, the story feels like an intensified replay that forces the drama to its finish.

Yaaqov Sends His Sons Again, With Binyamin

Genesis 43:1–15 NASB95

1 Now the famine was severe in the land. 2 So it came about when they had finished eating the grain which they had brought from Egypt, that their father said to them, “Go back, buy us a little food.” 3 Judah spoke to him, however, saying, “The man solemnly warned us, ‘You shall not see my face unless your brother is with you.’ 4 “If you send our brother with us, we will go down and buy you food. 5 “But if you do not send him, we will not go down; for the man said to us, ‘You will not see my face unless your brother is with you.’ ” 6 Then Israel said, “Why did you treat me so badly by telling the man whether you still had another brother?” 7 But they said, “The man questioned particularly about us and our relatives, saying, ‘Is your father still alive? Have you another brother?’ So we answered his questions. Could we possibly know that he would say, ‘Bring your brother down’?” 8 Judah said to his father Israel, “Send the lad with me and we will arise and go, that we may live and not die, we as well as you and our little ones. 9 “I myself will be surety for him; you may hold me responsible for him. If I do not bring him back to you and set him before you, then let me bear the blame before you forever. 10 “For if we had not delayed, surely by now we could have returned twice.” 11 Then their father Israel said to them, “If it must be so, then do this: take some of the best products of the land in your bags, and carry down to the man as a present, a little balm and a little honey, aromatic gum and myrrh, pistachio nuts and almonds. 12 “Take double the money in your hand, and take back in your hand the money that was returned in the mouth of your sacks; perhaps it was a mistake. 13 “Take your brother also, and arise, return to the man; 14 and may God Almighty grant you compassion in the sight of the man, so that he will release to you your other brother and Benjamin. And as for me, if I am bereaved of my children, I am bereaved.” 15 So the men took this present, and they took double the money in their hand, and Benjamin; then they arose and went down to Egypt and stood before Joseph.

"Now, the famine was heavy in the land, and it came about when they finished eating the grain that they had brought from Egypt, their father said to them, 'Hey, go back, you know, return to Egypt. Buy grain for us, a little food.' And Yehudah said to him saying, 'That man swore an oath or a testimony to us saying, you all cannot see my face unless your brother is with you. If you are going to send our brother with us,'" remember earlier Yaaqov sent Yoseph to the brothers. 

Didn't go well. 

So he turned that upside down. He would not send Benyamin, so we're back there. "

'If you are going to send our brother with us, we'll go down and we'll get food for you. But if you're not going to send, we will not go down because that man said to us, you cannot see my face unless your brother is with you all.'

Yisrael said, 'Ah, why have you done evil to me?'" Well, which one could you be referring to, right? There's been multiple layers, right? So what he means by that is why have you done evil by telling the man you had another brother in the first place. 

Of course he's saying more than he knows.

And they said, "Well, here's the thing. That guy was just really intense and just asking all these questions about us and about our family, and he was saying, is your father still alive? And do you have another brother? And so, you know, we just told him the report of these words. And how could we know that he would say make your brother come down here?"

How you evaluate their words here?

Look at verse 7. I mean, they're recounting a version of what happened.

He said, why did you tell him you had another brother?

And then they give a reason why. What do you think about that reason?

Earlier it didn't record Joseph asking about another brother in the first account. They were just kinda like spilling their guts.

So that's it's interesting dynamic where this happens a lot in biblical narrative, where the narrative will say, report one thing and it's the narrator. And then you'll have a character who will offer their own report of what happened, and very often there's little differences. And usually there's magic in those differences or there's the clues. 

It's the people's character being revealed. So it was they overshared. We are 10 and two brothers, sons of one father. Well, of course there's only 10 of us here now, 'cause one's with the father and one is no more.

So they're misrepresenting the exchange here.

"He intensely inquired about us." Well, he was intense, but it was the brothers, you know, that put the foot in their mouth so to speak. So it's interesting. 

Remember earlier, we had a sense that they really were honest. They didn't keep the money, they brought back the food, they didn't lie about anything, and you're like, okay, this is different. But this is starting to feel like old habits die hard

The other words that jumped out to me were the phrase, "you cannot see my face unless your brother's with you," because that wasn’t used earlier when they were actually talking to Joseph.

But it sounds like it's almost like what you would say about seeing God. 

Seeing God's face. About dwelling in God's presence, seeing his face, being put away from the face of God.

When Jacob wrestles with the man and he says, he names it face of El. "I have seen the face of El," and that's the first time that motif occurs. 

And then Moses asks to see God's face and God says, "No, you'll die, so you can see my back." And so he looks at the back of God. But okay, but it becomes a shorthand for being right in the divine presence.

the earlier sections established this analogy between Elohim and human, the human image of Elohim, on parallel with Pharaoh and Joseph as an image, and then now.

you won't see the face.

When Jacob wrestles with the man, this is in Genesis 32. He wrestles with the man, and then what his name is changed to is Yisrael because you've wrestled with Elohim. And he names the place Peniel, Face of El, because I've seen Elohim face to face.

Now, this is the night before he meets Esau, and what he's called, Yisrael, because he has not just wrestled with God, he's wrestling with God and wrestling with humans. 

And this is the image of how everybody in his life he's wrestling with, he's wrestled with his father to get the blessing that was supposed to be his, then he wrestled with Esau, getting the firstborn right and the blessing. Then he wrestles with his uncle Laban trying to get blessing, and in so doing, all these wrestling matches with people are his struggle with God. 

So he says, "I've seen God's face."

so when he meets Esau in the next paragraph right after that, Esau runs to meet him and instead of killing him out of anger, and this is gonna be relevant for Joseph and his brothers. They embrace, he falls on his neck, kisses him, and he weeps. 

Jacob says, "No, no, no, let me give you all these animals. Take my offering." It’s like he's offering to appease his brother. "Because seeing your face is like seeing the face of Elohim." So he's been wrestling with humans, and that's his wrestling with Elohim. And he's seeing his estranged brother that he wronged, and now they're reconciling. 

And the moment that he sees that he's reconciled to his brother is the moment he realizes he's been on this journey of struggle with God, and to reconcile with your brothers is to reconcile with Elohim, seeing your face is like seeing the face of Elohim. So here's, here are the brothers who betrayed Yoseph, but really what they were doing was betraying Elohim, 'cause he's the one who God rose up to save them. The rebellion against Yoseph's dreams is a rebellion against God. And so to look upon the face of Yoseph is to look upon the face of Elohim

and to be restored back to his brother Benjamin as well.

Matthew 5:23–24 CSB

23 So if you are offering your gift on the altar, and there you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, 24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled with your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift.

In the Sermon on the Mount in the six "you have heard it said, but I say to you" sayings, he has this line where he says, "If you are presenting your offering on the altar, and there remember your brother has something against you, leave your offering on the altar, go be reconciled to the brother, then come and present your offering." And this particular point is developing something from the beatitudes, the blessings at the beginning, which is "blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God."

So if you're not reconciled to a brother, don't think you're gonna like waltz into the temple and see the face of God.

To reconcile with your brother is to reconcile and vice versa. So this is a good example of these themes are so deep in Jesus' way of seeing the world that when he speaks, he speaks in the language and imagery of these analogies from, the Genesis scroll.

Yaaqov and Yehudah Go Head to Head

"So Judah said to Yisrael his father, 'Send the young man with me, and we will get up and we will go so that we can live and not die.'" Remember that's when he sent them down in the first place, go get food so we will live and not die. But notice this is Judah now bringing it up. He's like, dad, this is life and death situation.

And not just us, both we and you and all our children, all of your seed is in a life and death scenario here. "So send him with me. I myself will become the down payment for him.

You can require it from my hand. If I don't bring him back to you and set him in front of you, then it will be my sin against you for all of my days. And listen, dad, if we hadn't delayed, we would've come back and forth two times by now." So which is both like, you know, a rhetorical little jab right there, but also the doubling. Yeah, the doubling here. So down payment, so this is my translation down payment.

It's the Hebrew word "'arabbon." Do you remember when he and Tamar were having their exchange and he wants sex? And she says, what is the pledge?

That's, the Hebrew word is built from the same root, just different vowels, "'eravon." But it's the same three letters of ayin, resh, bet. 

In Paul's letter to the Ephesians, he uses a word when he describes the Holy Spirit.

Ephesians 1:14 CSB

14 The Holy Spirit is the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of the possession, to the praise of his glory.

in Ephesians 1:14, he talks about the promised Holy Spirit in whom you were sealed. So he's using the image of like a scroll or a package that has an owner's seal on it. So you have the seal language, and then that sealing is the pledge, it's the Greek word "arrabon." So it's a Hebrew loan word into Greek spelled with Greek letters. 

Paul's adopted this word into his vocabulary about the down payment seal pledge of the Spirit. But the source of this in his vocabulary and imagination is the Judah and Tamar story. And remember, him offering his seal and cord and staff, these are images of his identity, of his authority.

And so now when Yehudah is offering his own life, his own life is now the 'arabbon, the down payment pledge. So he's upping the game here. 

What he was willing to give up for quick sex, now he's willing to give up his whole life as a pledge for the wellbeing of another. So it's a full transformation of his character. And the repetition of the same word is kind of the link between those.

This unit consists of alternating dialogues between Yaaqov and his sons, but the narrative especially highlights Yehudah, who becomes the successful intercessor on behalf of the entire family.

The thematic focus points are the need to “return” to get food so that they can live and the necessity of giving up the “son/brother” to make the journey to Egypt.

This scene shows Yehudah’s transformation of character since chapters 37-38. Just as Yehudah compelled the brothers to sell Yoseph to the traders who took him to Egypt, so now Yehudah compels his father to send Binyamin so they can go down trade in Egypt. That similarity also highlights a contrast.

In Genesis 37, Yehudah profited at the expense of the beloved son. 

In  Genesis 38, Y ehudah spared his only remaining son Shelah, though he gave a down payment(ערב) to gain sexual pleasure with Tamar.  (ערב) 

In Genesis 43, Yehudah asks Yaaqov to risk the loss of his beloved and only remaining son of Rachel by giving his own life as a down payment(ערב).   

Notice the contrast between Reuven and Yehudah’s intercession with Yaaqov.

Reuven’s offer to his father shows he is ready to offer something of extreme value—the lives of his two sons. However, the idea backfires. Yaaqov would lose not only Binyamin, but also two of his grandsons (not to mention that the son making this offer is the one who betrayed him by sleeping with his wife in 35:20-22).

Yehudah’s offer, by contrast, shows a deep change of character, with an allusion back to Genesis 38:17-18. Yehudah offers his own life as a “down-payment” (ערב), reminding the reader of his self-oriented down-payment for quick sex in chapter 38. In this story, Yehudah’s pledge shows a focus on the well-being of others, his father, and the life of Binyamin, as well as the lives of the children of the entire family (“our little ones”).

These narrative plot elements make a powerful point that links back to the overall themes of Genesis.

Yehudah’s offer of his own life as a substitute for the beloved son is what rescues the family from death and opens up the chance for life.

Yaaqov sends the brothers and the beloved son to offer “as an offering, a little balm (צרי) and a little honey, aromatic gum (נכאת) and myrrh (לט), pistachio nuts and almonds” (Gen. 43:11). These are precisely the objects that the Yishmaelites were carrying when they took Yoseph down to Egypt (Gen. 37:25<)

Verse 11. There's always more we could do. "Yisrael their father said to them, 'Oh, if this is so, then do it.

Take from the strength of the land in your bags, bring it down to the man as an offering.

Take a bunch of food and give it as an offering." Listen, I did this with my brother once, Esau. It worked really great with him. So how about you guys do that thing too?

"Take a little balm, a little honey, maybe some spice gum, and myrrh, pistachios, almonds." Anybody, do you recognize those items?

it's the same items that the Ishmaelites were bringing down.

"Take two times the silver in your hand, the silver that was returned in the mouth of your sacks, 'cause maybe that was a mistake, you know?  and take your brother with you. Get up and return to the man, and may El Shaddai make you an object of compassion before the man that he would send out to you your other brother and also Benyamin. And as for me, if I lose another son, I lose another son."

So he's surrendering to what he perceives is gonna be another lost son. This is his Mount Moriah.

The father surrendering yet another son.

Yoseph Tests His Brothers a Second Time

Genesis 43:15–25 CSB

15 The men took this gift, double the amount of silver, and Benjamin. They immediately went down to Egypt and stood before Joseph. 16 When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to his steward, “Take the men to my house. Slaughter an animal and prepare it, for they will eat with me at noon.” 17 The man did as Joseph had said and brought them to Joseph’s house. 18 But the men were afraid because they were taken to Joseph’s house. They said, “We have been brought here because of the silver that was returned in our bags the first time. They intend to overpower us, seize us, make us slaves, and take our donkeys.” 19 So they approached Joseph’s steward and spoke to him at the doorway of the house. 20 They said, “My lord, we really did come down here the first time only to buy food. 21 When we came to the place where we lodged for the night and opened our bags of grain, each one’s silver was at the top of his bag! It was the full amount of our silver, and we have brought it back with us. 22 We have brought additional silver with us to buy food. We don’t know who put our silver in the bags.” 23 Then the steward said, “May you be well. Don’t be afraid. Your God and the God of your father must have put treasure in your bags. I received your silver.” Then he brought Simeon out to them. 24 The steward brought the men into Joseph’s house, gave them water to wash their feet, and got feed for their donkeys. 25 Since the men had heard that they were going to eat a meal there, they prepared their gift for Joseph’s arrival at noon.

 "So the men took the offering." So the food is the offering at least for the moment.

"And they took that silver, and they took Benyamin, the offering, the money, Benyamin, they go down and stand before him. Now Yoseph saw Benyamin with them, and he said to the one over his house, 'Ah, bring all these guys into the house. Slaughter a slaughtered animal and prepare it 'cause the men will eat with me at noon.'" He was betrayed over a meal. Now he's gonna bring it all to a head over a meal.

"So this man did just as Yoseph said, he brought them into the house and the men, that is the brothers, were freaked out. They're being brought into the house of Joseph. And they say, 'Oh no, this is about the silver that we found in our sacks at the beginning. We're being brought in so he can roll over on us.'"

 "'And he will take us as his slaves and also our animals.' So they went near to that man over the house of Yoseph and they spoke to him near the door of the house."

Near the door, conversation by the door. "'Please master, you know we came down a long time ago to get grain, and it was really strange when we left. We went to the night stop and we opened our sacks and, well, our silver was still there right by its weight. And so, well, we are bringing it back in our hands along with the other silver that we brought down this time to buy grain. 

It's really strange though. We have no idea who put the silver in our sacks.' And the man said, 'Oh, peace, peace. Don't be afraid. 

The Elohim of your fathers gave you a little treasure in your sacks. I got your silver. Elohim has paid you back.'"

But remember, who put the money there in the first place? Yoseph, but Yoseph is the Elohim. 

"He brought out Shimon to them and the man brought the men into the house of Yoseph, and he got his revenge by washing their feet." He washes the feet of his brothers.

"And he gave food to their donkeys." And so here they are preparing this offering, 'cause, you know, they're gonna appease their brother with this offering, until Yoseph came at noon because they heard that that's where they were going to eat bread with their brother.

Can you just feel the tension building? So they have this offering that is made of items, the same items of what the Yishmaelites were carrying at the betrayal when they sat down to eat bread, and then they're bringing that stuff to the meal where they're going to eat bread here.

The Brothers Prepare Their Offering

Notice how this section begins and ends with references to the “offering” (מנחה) that the brothers have prepared for Yoseph (Gen. 43:15, 25). This is the same word first used to describe the offerings of Cain and Abel (Gen. 4:3-4<),/bp-scripture-link> and it also alludes to the sacrifice of Noah (“offering” has the letters of Noah's name in the middle) that turned the curse of the flood into a blessing of new creation.

After this section, however, all mention of the food offering falls away because Yehudah’s offering of his own life takes center stage. It’s as if Yehudah becomes the real “offering” in place of the food offering.

God at Work in Hidden Ways

The brothers' fear is highlighted in Genesis 43:18. They are convinced that Yoseph is setting them up for a trap because of the mistaken silver. How ironic, because Yoseph is in fact testing them with this silver, but not in the way they assume.

This scene highlights the brothers’ developing characters yet again, by focusing on the silver in their bags. They know that they are innocent regarding the money, and ironically so does Yoseph, but they assume Yoseph will use it as evidence of their dishonesty. The conversation at the “door of the house” becomes the pivot point, as their fears and honesty are expressed to Yoseph’s servant, who ironically tells them that “God has given you treasure!”

The irony, of course, is that while they are innocent regarding this particular silver, they are guilty of taking the silver for selling their brother in chapter 37, which this silver recalls. But in this case, the brothers show that they value honesty and their brother’s safety over the money, a big contrast from chapter 37.