Chapter Overview
Jacob realizes they need to buy food and sends his remaining sons (sans 1) down to buy food. Joseph recognizes them because he’s personally overseeing all sales (apparently) and messes with them. They return home without Simeon to tell the tale to their father. He refuses to follow orders though (reasonably enough).
Additional Thoughts
Why do the brothers think this is connected to their selling of Joseph at all? The entire chapter has the brothers feeling on-edge about the whole selling Joseph thing, but… he’s been gone for years. Why do they still act this way? Sure, feeling guilty is one thing, but they seem to tie EVERYTHING that goes wrong back to selling off Joseph. They have no reason to believe that’s the case though.
Also, what would Joseph’s “test” prove to anyone who thought that the brothers were spies? The brothers could easily be lying and just bring back some random kid from their home country. People tend to have trouble differentiating faces that are different from the norm they see on a daily basis, so grabbing some kid with a similar hair and skin color would be enough to confuse many people. All Joseph’s little test proves is that a group of people could bring back a kid from another country. Without any external verification, such as sending a group of soldiers along with them to verify what they do, the test is worthless.
Why are we supposed to be rooting for Joseph here? Sure, he was sold into slavery, but he’s just being a dick at this point and causing his father, who is blameless in this particular matter, additional grief.
Chapter 42: Toss a Coin to Your Brother
AKA: Joseph is a Dick
- Now when Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt, Jacob said unto his sons, Why do ye look one upon another?
- And he said, Behold, I have heard that there is corn in Egypt: get you down thither, and buy for us from thence; that we may live, and not die.
- And Joseph’s ten brethren went down to buy corn in Egypt.
- But Benjamin, Joseph’s brother, Jacob sent not with his brethren; for he said, Lest peradventure mischief befall him.
- And the sons of Israel came to buy corn among those that came: for the famine was in the land of Canaan.
- And Joseph was the governor over the land, and he it was that sold to all the people of the land: and Joseph’s brethren came, and bowed down themselves before him with their faces to the earth.
- And Joseph saw his brethren, and he knew them, but made himself strange unto them, and spake roughly unto them; and he said unto them, Whence come ye? And they said, From the land of Canaan to buy food.
- And Joseph knew his brethren, but they knew not him.
- And Joseph remembered the dreams which he dreamed of them, and said unto them, Ye are spies; to see the nakedness of the land ye are come.
- And they said unto him, Nay, my lord, but to buy food are thy servants come.
- We are all one man’s sons; we are true men, thy servants are no spies.
- And he said unto them, Nay, but to see the nakedness of the land ye are come.
- And they said, Thy servants are twelve brethren, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan; and, behold, the youngest is this day with our father, and one is not.
- And Joseph said unto them, That is it that I spake unto you, saying, Ye are spies:
- Hereby ye shall be proved: By the life of Pharaoh ye shall not go forth hence, except your youngest brother come hither.
- Send one of you, and let him fetch your brother, and ye shall be kept in prison, that your words may be proved, whether there be any truth in you: or else by the life of Pharaoh surely ye are spies.
- And he put them all together into ward three days.
- And Joseph said unto them the third day, This do, and live; for I fear God:
- If ye be true men, let one of your brethren be bound in the house of your prison: go ye, carry corn for the famine of your houses:
- But bring your youngest brother unto me; so shall your words be verified, and ye shall not die. And they did so.
- And they said one to another, We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear; therefore is this distress come upon us.
- And Reuben answered them, saying, Spake I not unto you, saying, Do not sin against the child; and ye would not hear? therefore, behold, also his blood is required.
- And they knew not that Joseph understood them; for he spake unto them by an interpreter.
- And he turned himself about from them, and wept; and returned to them again, and communed with them, and took from them Simeon, and bound him before their eyes.
- Then Joseph commanded to fill their sacks with corn, and to restore every man’s money into his sack, and to give them provision for the way: and thus did he unto them.
- And they laded their asses with the corn, and departed thence.
- And as one of them opened his sack to give his ass provender in the inn, he espied his money; for, behold, it was in his sack’s mouth.
- And he said unto his brethren, My money is restored; and, lo, it is even in my sack: and their heart failed them, and they were afraid, saying one to another, What is this that God hath done unto us?
- And they came unto Jacob their father unto the land of Canaan, and told him all that befell unto them; saying,
- The man, who is the lord of the land, spake roughly to us, and took us for spies of the country.
- And we said unto him, We are true men; we are no spies:
- We be twelve brethren, sons of our father; one is not, and the youngest is this day with our father in the land of Canaan.
- And the man, the lord of the country, said unto us, Hereby shall I know that ye are true men; leave one of your brethren here with me, and take food for the famine of your households, and be gone:
- And bring your youngest brother unto me: then shall I know that ye are no spies, but that ye are true men: so will I deliver you your brother, and ye shall traffick in the land.
- And it came to pass as they emptied their sacks, that, behold, every man’s bundle of money was in his sack: and when both they and their father saw the bundles of money, they were afraid.
- And Jacob their father said unto them, Me have ye bereaved of my children: Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away: all these things are against me.
- And Reuben spake unto his father, saying, Slay my two sons, if I bring him not to thee: deliver him into my hand, and I will bring him to thee again.
- And he said, My son shall not go down with you; for his brother is dead, and he is left alone: if mischief befall him by the way in the which ye go, then shall ye bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave.
- It’s been years since Joseph was sold into slavery, and the brothers are STILL cagey when Egypt comes up? I don’t buy it.
- AKA: Go get us some food because we’re kinda hungry here.
- Why are so many people needed? Protection from bandits?
- First we’ve heard about Benjamin… and since he’s been introduced this way, we know something will happen to him.
- What responsible brothers… they go to do exactly what was asked of them so they can live.
- He was in charge of selling this by himself? That is a HUGE bottleneck. There’s no way that one person would be able to do everything by himself. He’d need some hired help for this.
- This is sounding like a slightly different take on the whole “She’s my sister” narrative we got in other chapters. These people just LOVE to lie to others. How is this a good thing?
- To be fair, last time Joseph saw them, they sold him into slavery.
- Sounds like Joseph is still bitter about the entire ordeal still. If only someone could have told the brothers that actions have consequences…
- Also… how would Joseph recognize them? Presumably it’s been YEARS.
- AKA: Please don’t hurt us
- It sounds like Joseph just wants to mess with them. Fair enough for what they did.
- This is a very strange protestation to being called a spy. “We can’t be spies because we come from another country and are all brothers. 2 aren’t here right now”
- Here we see a little something called “No Evidence” for this claim.
- How would this prove anything? The brothers should be calling him out for just being weird.
- This is surely the most convoluted way to get too-good-for-this-world Benjamin back into the main questline. The devs need to work on their narrative storywriting skills or hire an outside contractor.
- But why? Didn’t he want them to go and fetch Benjamin? This makes no sense.
- They should really ask him which god. That would clear things up.
- AKA: Take your stuff home, but I’m keeping one of you here.
- And make sure to bring Benjamin back. He’s very important because reasons and I said so.
- They’re feeling remorseful still? It was years ago. I’m surprised they think this little event has anything at all to do with selling Joseph into slavery. There is NO logical link between the two from their point of view.
- There’s still no reason to believe that there is any link between this situation and selling Joseph, especially since Joseph disguised himself.
- See? Exactly what I was saying. They shouldn’t see any link between this. 1/5 Hieroglyphs. Needs better plot.
- The “He” in this situation is Joseph, just in case you got lost.
- So… everyone gets a refund for the grain that they buy? That’s no way to run a business. Seems like they should be feeling somewhat suspicious about this little escapade by now.
- Time to move out.
- Yeah, we were told that earlier.
- Were the brothers not there when the money was put into the sacks? This is somewhat convoluted. Also, god did nothing. This is the work of men. Stop blaming god you ninny’s.
- Hopefully we don’t have the authors about to pad out their word count again…
- Dadgummit… at least it’s not padded out too much.
- This is unnecessary. Were I the editor of the original, I’d take this out.
- And this. Why repeat yourself? We, the audience, already know this information.
- Additional blathering on about what we already know.
- Seems like they really should be very confused about HOW this is supposed to prove anything to any reasonable person. They could come back with a random kid and claim it’s their brother.
- They really must not have been present when the sacks were loaded or something.
- AKA: I don’t want to lose yet another kid. Benjamin isn’t going nowhere (and of course, the double negative means he WILL be going somewhere… but in the next chapter.)
- This is stupid in the extreme. “You lost Joseph, and if I don’t bring benjamin back, kill my sons”. Do the sons have any say in this?
- AKA: Benjaminny ain’t going nowhere.