_JOSEPH COMMANDS HIS STEWARD TO HIDE HIS CUP IN THE SACK OF BENJAMIN, AND THEN TO PURSUE HIS BRETHREN. HE DECLARES THAT HE WILL RETAIN BENJAMIN WITH HIM FOR HIS SERVANT: JUDAH PLEADS WITH HIM, AND OFFERS HIMSELF AS A BONDMAN IN THE PLACE OF BENJAMIN._ _Before Christ 1706._... [ Continue Reading ]
MY CUP— See on Genesis 44:5. Joseph ordered this cup to be privately put into Benjamin's sack, in order to make a further trial of his brethren's temper, and to see whether, moved with envy, they would give up Benjamin, or help him in his danger. But I cannot think, with some, that he really designe... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEREBY INDEED HE DIVINETH— This cup, which the Septuagint call κονδυ, _kondu,_ the AEgyptian name for _a cup,_ was a goblet or bowl, it is thought, with a great belly. It is plain, this was a cup used for common purposes; for the steward says, _is not this it in which my lord drinketh?_ It is evide... [ Continue Reading ]
BEHOLD, THE MONEY— Joseph's brethren urge, as a good proof of their honesty, and of the improbability of the charge laid against them, that it could never be supposed that they, who so faithfully restored the money found in their sacks, which they might so easily have concealed, would scandalously p... [ Continue Reading ]
LET IT BE ACCORDING UNTO YOUR WORDS— There appears a contradiction in this translation; the steward offering to accept their terms, and yet immediately proposing different ones; compare the ninth verse. Calmet is for rendering the verse thus: _Certainly at present it would be just to treat you accor... [ Continue Reading ]
RENT THEIR CLOTHES— Loniginus lays it down in his Treatise on the Sublime, that one of the first means to attain it, is an accurate and judicious choice of the most suitable circumstances. We cannot have a higher instance of this excellence, than in that striking circumstance in the present narratio... [ Continue Reading ]
JUDAH AND HIS BRETHREN— Judah, though not the eldest, is mentioned first, as being the principal actor in this scene, and as having particularly engaged with Jacob for Benjamin. It must have been peculiarly affecting to Joseph to have seen his brethren thus prostrate before him, covered with shame,... [ Continue Reading ]
WOT YE NOT— i.e.. _Knew ye not. Wot,_ is an old English word, the preterite of _weet, to know,_ though itself often used for the present. It is of Saxon original.... [ Continue Reading ]
GOD HATH FOUND OUT THE INIQUITY OF THY SERVANTS— There is no doubt from the context, that Judah here speaks of the iniquity of the fact in question, which he confesses, and speaks of as the iniquity of them all, though one only was guilty. Josephus understands it in this sense, though many commentat... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN JUDAH CAME NEAR UNTO HIM— After the terrible sentence which Joseph had passed, Genesis 44:17. Judah became more immediately interested, and was concerned to plead the cause of his brother; and every man, who reads to the close of this chapter, must confess, that Judah acts here the part both of... [ Continue Reading ]