As it turns out, Jacob sometimes called Israel didn’t let
Reuben go back to Egypt with Benjamin just then. He waited until they were all out of grain
again before thinking about sending back his sons. The brothers insist that
Benjamin has to go because Joseph-incognito won’t sell them any more grain
unless Benjamin is proven to exist. They go back and forth about Benjamin going
or not going, and eventually Judah convinces Israel to let them all go back. Israel insists that they
bring a gift, the original returned money as well as new money for payment, and
lets them leave with Benjamin.
When the caravan of brothers gets to Egypt, Joseph sees
Benjamin from afar. He has his steward begin preparations for a feast and bring
the travel weary men to his house to get cleaned up. When the brothers see the
steward, they freak out. Obviously they’re all going back to jail, right? Well,
that’s what they thought. They confess about the returned money, that they
brought it back, and have gads more for grain. The steward calms them down,
gets them inside, and brings out Simeon. You remember him. The long
incarcerated brother that’s very clearly less important than Benjamin.
Joseph-incognito eventually makes his appearance, and the
brothers bow before him. He asks about his dad, and discovering that Jacob/Israel
is alive and kickin’, takes a closer look at his brothers. Seeing Benjamin
there, Joseph just about loses it. He manages to keep his mask on until he has
a private moment to cry, wash his face, and order dinner served. Joseph’s brothers eat separately from the
Egyptians, as was the custom, and Joseph eats separately from everyone. One
kind of weird thing happened: Benjamin’s portion was five times what everyone
else’s was. Either way, it was apparently a pretty great party.
This chapter was really the first one to really smack me over the
head with literary tricks. Just about everything, including the language used, came
in twos, or was doubled, or represented a pairing. Almost everything the brothers
said, they said it twice, whether within the same conversation or repeated at someone
else. Jacob’s second name, Israel, was used instead. Judah, a second brother,
is the one that convinced Israel to let them bring Benjamin back, and even says
to Israel that if they’d been allowed to go already, they’d have already
returned twice. The gift that he compiled was a set of four item/monetary
pairings. The brothers brought back double the money to compensate what was
returned to them. This was the brothers second trip to Egypt for a second load
of grain. It called back Joseph and Pharaoh’s two dreams each. This trip
represented the second time Joseph’s brothers bowed down to him, fulfilling his
second dream. And the brother’s return trip to Egypt because they ran out of
grain a second time? Well, that brings to mind Pharaoh’s two dreams of
plenteousness becoming famine. Oh, and one more thing. Joseph’s double life and
his secret identity of, well, himself.
<3 Agnostic in the Pews
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