43:1–10 At the end of the previous chapter Jacob ruled out any possibility of sending Benjamin to Egypt, which was the precondition for Simeon’s release—effectively condemning Simeon to permanent enslavement in Egypt. Nothing that the brothers could say would change his mind, since Jacob saw them as the cause of the problem (“You have bereaved me of my children”; 42:36). But circumstances make inevitable the outcome that Jacob has resisted: “Now the famine was severe in the land” (43:1). The same situation that drove Abraham down to Egypt in 12:10 now leaves Jacob with few other choices. The food that the brothers brought back from Egypt was not going to last forever, and the day comes when Jacob tells his sons that the journey to Egypt is once again necessary. A hint of acknowledgment of the difficulty of this task is found in Jacob’s words: “Buy us a little food” (43:2). This is more modest than his earlier request for them to “go down [to Egypt] and buy grain” (42:2).

However, Judah immediately points out the problem. Unless they bring Benjamin with them to Egypt, they stand no chance of buying grain or even of being received into the presence of the mysterious man who controls the sale of grain. He had insisted that they must bring their younger brother with them (43:3–4).619 Jacob’s response is revealingly self-centered (“Why did you treat me so badly?”; v. 6), but the reality is that at this point he has no choice but to release Benjamin to go with his brothers. Whatever risks that course of action entails, the alternative is a slow death via starvation for the whole family.

Judah’s leadership of his brothers emerges as the passage unfolds. Whereas the other brothers merely reiterate the problem to their father in verse 7, Judah provides the solution in verse 8. Reuben had made a rather clumsy personal commitment of Benjamin’s safety at the end of the previous chapter, offering the death of his two sons (Jacob’s grandsons!) if he did not bring Benjamin home successfully. Judah, however, offers his own person rather than his two sons. If Benjamin does not come back, Judah will bear the blame forever. He declares that he will have sinned against his father forever (v. 9). He himself will be the pledge; his father can demand payment from him.

The mention of a pledge connects this story with Genesis 38:18 and the pledge (Hb. ʿerabon, the noun derived from the same Hebrew verb) that Judah offered Tamar in exchange for their brief sexual encounter. These similarities invite us to see the differences as well. In Genesis 37 and 38 Judah’s plan to sell Joseph and his offer of a pledge to Tamar were strategies designed to serve himself and advance his own interests by using others, while he seeks to serve others and bring them life, at whatever cost to himself. God is at work to change Judah even before he makes the trip back to Egypt. It is not yet a complete change, of course; there is no confession here by Judah of the ways in which he and his brothers have already “sinned against his father forever” in the matter of Joseph, for instance. But substantive change is rarely an immediate transformation. It usually happens in small steps.

From here onward Judah will be the prime spokesman for the brothers. He confidently asserts that there will be a positive outcome to their journey. Instead of the further bereavement that Jacob fears, “we [will] live and not die” (43:8), and by bringing home food they will secure the future not just of Jacob and his sons but also of “our little ones,” the children depending on them to provide food (v. 8). Indeed, Judah rebukes his father’s lack of faith in not sending them back to Egypt earlier; had they returned to Egypt immediately, they could have already returned (with Simeon in tow; v. 10). This is not mere self-confidence on the part of Judah but a growing faith in God’s power and protection.

43:11–14 Reluctantly Jacob sends the brothers off on their journey along with a selection of gifts for the mysterious man who is running Egypt. These gifts ironically mirror the cargo that the Midianites had carried down to Egypt along with Joseph: gum, balm, and myrrh (v. 11; cf. 37:25), along with honey,620 pistachio nuts, and almonds. There is no discrepancy between the existence of small quantities of these precious foods and the reality of a more general famine; they would have been preserved as ready currency for precisely such a situation as this. These gifts are described as a minkhah (“present”; 43:11), which could also be rendered “tribute”—these are the offerings required for entrance into the presence of an important figure (cf. 1 Kings 10:25).

Since the brothers had discovered that their money had been returned in their sacks on their previous journey, Jacob instructs them to take twice the money with them this time, in case there had been some mistake or their lack of proper payment had been observed (Gen. 43:12; cf. 42:35). Along with the money they may take Benjamin—though Jacob is not able to speak his name here, instead calling him “your brother” (43:13). Without Benjamin there is no prospect of being able to see the man who had made that demand of them. Finally, Jacob gives the brothers his blessing in the name of ʾEl-Shaddai (“God Almighty”; v. 14), a poetic title emphasizing God’s power, as the English translation suggests.621 The request for God to grant someone mercy before a great ruler is a common motif later in the OT (1 Kings 8:50; Neh. 1:11; Jer. 42:12); it presupposes that the hearts of rulers are in the hands of the Lord to direct wherever he wills (Prov. 21:1). Jacob’s favoritism is still evident from the fact that in the blessing Benjamin is now named, while Simeon is simply called “your other brother” (Gen. 43:14).

Jacob’s blessing ends in a self-pitying cry: “If I am bereaved of my children, I am bereaved” (v. 14). This hardly has the heroic ring of an Esther, risking her own death before the potentially hostile King Ahasuerus with the words “If I perish, I perish” (Est. 4:16). On the contrary, Jacob’s sole concern is himself. It is clear that the term “my children” extends only to the offspring of Rachel—Joseph, whom he thinks already dead, and Benjamin, whom he fears losing above all else. After all, he has been apparently untroubled about being bereaved of Simeon and makes no effort to rescue him from Egypt. Meanwhile, if Jacob were to be bereaved of his children, that would mean that the brothers themselves would be dead, which is surely a much worse fate. To Jacob, life without Joseph and Benjamin would become a living Sheol: a gray, hopeless, shadowy existence, without meaning or purpose (cf. Gen. 42:38). Yet in reality the Lord’s purpose is not to bereave him but to unbereave him—to restore to him the sons he has lost, not to take more sons from him.

In the meantime God takes away all Jacob’s sons, leaving him completely alone, so that he will once again be forced to trust in God alone to fulfill the Abrahamic promise that he will have descendants like the sand of the sea (32:12). God puts Jacob in a situation in which he will have to walk by faith in the promise of God over the many weeks that have to pass before he will see his sons again. He is old, and their journey is long and perilous. He is left with nothing to comfort him in this situation except his faith in the bare word of God’s promise.

43:15–25 Verse 15 is transitional, bridging the gap between Egypt and Canaan. It records the fact that the brothers take the present, double the money, and Benjamin—as though Benjamin were simply one more object to carry with them—and that they arrive safely in Egypt and present themselves before Joseph. The lengthy journey is covered briefly, but the subsequent events will be played out almost in slow motion in order to build suspense.622

From verse 15 onward the brothers are referred to simply as “the men” rather than “Joseph’s brothers” (cf. 42:6–8), since their relationship to Joseph going forward is precisely the question. The relationship will be confirmed in Genesis 45:1–3, after they pass the test that Joseph devises for them. Seeing that they have indeed brought Benjamin with them, as instructed, Joseph commands his steward to bring the brothers into his house and leave them cooling their heels while they await the noon meal, which they will eat together with Joseph (43:16). In Genesis 37 the brothers and Joseph met in the open field, and he was in their power; now they meet indoors, where they are in his power.

This unusual invitation to dine with the mysterious ruler of Egypt causes the brothers considerable concern (v. 18). The fact that high Egyptian officials were known to have dungeons in their houses probably adds to their alarm. They immediately remember the strange occurrence on the first trip, when they found their money returned to them in their sacks (v. 18; cf. 42:26–28). They conjecture that perhaps Joseph wants to appropriate their donkeys, a rather quaint idea considering he has all the power and riches of Egypt at his disposal. If he were merely interested in their animals, he could be considerably more direct about it. The same is true if Joseph is concerned simply with enslaving him—the brothers are entirely in his power. Their fears reflect the fact that they earlier dispossessed Joseph and sold him into slavery: if the Egyptian does the same to them, it would be no more than they deserve.

The brothers’ guilty consciences force them to go to Joseph’s steward and confess that their money had been returned to them on the previous visit by person or persons unknown (Gen. 43:20–22). The steward,623 presumably following a script given to him ahead of time by Joseph, explains it as an act of God—and not just any god but specifically “the God of your father” (v. 23),624 a remarkably Israelite turn of phrase for an Egyptian. The steward seeks to calm their fears by claiming that he had received their money.625 Their God could apparently multiply silver, even in faraway Egypt! The steward also brings out Simeon to them and provides the brothers with water with which to wash their feet and straw for their donkeys (v. 24), as though deliberately rebuking their concern that Joseph’s secret goal is to enslave them and steal their donkeys. He then leaves them to await Joseph’s arrival at noon.

43:26–34 When the meal is finally served, the brothers bring their gifts and bow before Joseph, once again fulfilling the dream of Genesis 37 (43:26; cf. 37:7–8; 42:6). Joseph inquires after the brothers’ shalom—the same shalom they had been unwilling to give him at home (37:4) and that he had been sent to seek after in 37:14—as well as the shalom of their elderly father (43:27). Restoring the family shalom is the key focus of this narrative unit. It is surely considerable comfort to Joseph to find out that Jacob is still alive and in good health (shalom), just as it is to see his brother Benjamin unharmed. He feigns ignorance of Benjamin’s identity, asking, “Is this your youngest brother?” but he surely knows who he is. The sight of Benjamin is too much for his composure, so after a brief blessing (“God be gracious to you, my son!”; v. 29) Joseph withdraws to find a place to weep (v. 30).626 In verse 14 Jacob had prayed for the Egyptian ruler to have compassion on the brothers; now his prayer has been answered. At the same time, if the fire of jealousy is still powerfully present in the brothers’ hearts, Joseph’s special attention to Benjamin is calculated to stoke it further.

When the meal is served, Joseph eats separately from the brothers, according to Egyptian custom that regarded the presence of foreigners as defiling (v. 32), a custom also reported by Herodotus.627 Joseph heightens the effect of mysterious divine forces at work by arranging the brothers in exact order of age in the seating plan for the meal, a feat that the brothers find to be astonishing and unnerving (v. 33). Meanwhile, Joseph ensures that, even though his guests all have plenty of food, Benjamin is visibly favored with the best of the best: five times the portions of the other brothers (v. 34). It is plain for all to see which of the brothers is the favorite, not merely of the mysterious man but of the God who is apparently pulling all the strings of this encounter. Once again, if there is still jealousy and enmity at work among the brothers, this behavior would surely stir it up. Then on the next day Joseph will provide the brothers with a perfect opportunity to dispose of this unloved favorite, in circumstances for which they need not be held liable. The brothers would be able to return to Canaan with the food they need, without the brother they hate, and with an unimpeachable excuse.

To lend maximum credibility to the story about a stolen cup that the brothers will be told the next day, Joseph arranges for them to “drink and make merry”—to get drunk (vayyishkeru; Gen. 43:34), as this word combination signifies elsewhere (e.g., Jer. 25:27).628 Joseph wants the brothers to have only hazy memories of the previous night’s celebration in order to make them believe it is entirely possible that Benjamin has stolen the cup while under the influence of alcohol.

Joseph’s motive throughout this chapter is for his brothers’ shalom: anything less would not require such a costly interplay with them on Joseph’s part; he could simply have condemned them from a distance. What is more, the abundant feast provides a picture of what restored shalom looks like.629 Yet the shalom has not yet been completely restored; the brothers and Joseph still consume their feasts separately. The fullness of shalom requires that gap also to be bridged.