Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Joseph recognizes his brothers coming to Egypt for grain, and treats them harshly, and finally at verse 25, retaining Simeon, he dismisses the others on the condition that they bring Benjamin to him.
Vulgate Text: Genesis 42:1-38
1. Now Jacob, hearing that food was being sold in Egypt, said to his sons: "Why are you negligent?" 2. "I have heard that grain is being sold in Egypt: go down and buy what we need, so that we may live and not be consumed by want." 3. So ten of Joseph's brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt, 4. Benjamin being kept at home by Jacob, who had said to his brothers: "Lest perhaps something evil befall him on the journey." 5. They entered the land of Egypt with others who were going to buy. Now there was famine in the land of Canaan. 6. And Joseph was ruler in the land of Egypt, and at his command grain was sold to the people. And when his brothers had bowed down to him, 7. and he had recognized them, he spoke to them harshly as though to strangers, asking them: "Where do you come from?" They answered: "From the land of Canaan, to buy food." 8. And although he recognized his brothers, he was not recognized by them. 9. And remembering the dreams he had once seen, he said to them: "You are spies: you have come to see the weak points of the land." 10. They said: "It is not so, my lord, but your servants have come to buy food." 11. "We are all sons of one man: we have come in peace, and your servants are plotting no evil." 12. He answered them: "It is otherwise: you have come to survey the undefended parts of this land." 13. But they said: "We your servants are twelve brothers, sons of one man in the land of Canaan: the youngest is with our father, the other is no more." 14. "This is," he said, "what I said: You are spies." 15. "Now I will put you to the test: by the life of Pharaoh, you shall not leave here until your youngest brother comes." 16. "Send one of you, and let him bring him: but you shall be kept in bonds until what you have said is proved, whether it be true or false: otherwise, by the life of Pharaoh, you are spies." 17. So he committed them to custody for three days. 18. And on the third day, bringing them out of prison, he said: "Do what I have said, and you shall live: for I fear God." 19. "If you are peaceable, let one of your brothers be bound in prison: but you go, and carry the grain that you have bought to your houses, 20. and bring your youngest brother to me, that I may be able to verify your words, and you shall not die." They did as he said, 21. and they spoke to one another: "We deserve to suffer these things, because we sinned against our brother, seeing the anguish of his soul when he begged us, and we did not listen: therefore this tribulation has come upon us." 22. And one of them, Reuben, said: "Did I not say to you: Do not sin against the boy, and you did not listen to me? Behold, his blood is required." 23. But they did not know that Joseph understood, because he spoke to them through an interpreter. 24. And he turned away for a little while and wept: and returning, he spoke to them. 25. And taking Simeon, and binding him in their presence, he commanded his servants to fill their sacks with grain, and to put each man's money back in his sack, giving them also provisions for the journey: and they did so. 26. And they, loading the grain on their donkeys, departed. 27. And one of them, opening his sack to give his beast fodder at the inn, saw the money in the mouth of the sack, 28. and said to his brothers: "My money has been returned; behold, it is in the sack." And they were astonished and troubled, and said to one another: "What is this that God has done to us?" 29. And they came to Jacob their father in the land of Canaan, and told him all that had happened to them, saying: 30. "The lord of the land spoke harshly to us, and took us for spies of the province." 31. "We answered him: We are peaceable, and we plot no treachery." 32. "We are twelve brothers born of one father: one is no more, the youngest is with our father in the land of Canaan." 33. "And he said to us: Thus I will prove that you are peaceable: leave one of your brothers with me, and take the food necessary for your houses, and go, 34. and bring your youngest brother to me, that I may know that you are not spies: and you may receive him who is held in bonds: and afterwards you may have leave to buy what you will." 35. When they had said this, as they were pouring out the grain, each one found his money tied in the mouth of his sack: and all being terrified, 36. their father Jacob said: "You have made me childless: Joseph is no more, Simeon is held in bonds, and you will take Benjamin: all these evils have fallen upon me." 37. Reuben answered him: "Kill my two sons if I do not bring him back to you; deliver him into my hand, and I will restore him to you." 38. But he said: "My son shall not go down with you: his brother is dead, and he alone is left: if any harm befall him in the land to which you go, you will bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave."
Verse 1: Food
In Hebrew it is sceber, that is, "that which is to be broken," that is, grain, or bread that is broken and distributed. Whence Joseph, selling and distributing grain, is everywhere here called in Hebrew masbir, that is, "breaking" or "fragmenting," that is, distributing and apportioning what is to be broken, namely provisions or grain; hence arose that phrase of Christ and Paul: "The bread which we break," as I said at 1 Corinthians 10:16; for to break bread among the Hebrews is the same as to divide and distribute bread.
Verse 1: Why Are You Negligent?
In Hebrew: "Why do you look at one another?" That is, why do you idle and delay? For the lazy and sluggish are accustomed to look at one another and each to wait for the other to put his hand to the work and take care of the matter. "For sluggishness of mind arises from an imperfect will; as soon as you begin to will what is good, there will be ardor and energy." After the seven years of fertility had passed, the second year of the famine was already underway, as is clear from chapter 45, verse 6.
Why Joseph Remained Unknown for 23 Years
One may ask by what reasoning Joseph remained unknown in Egypt for so long, namely 23 years (for that many years elapsed from his 16th year to his 39th, which he was now living), so that he never in all that time sent any message about himself to his father, who was grieving so much on his account, especially in the last nine years during which he was ruler in Egypt?
St. Thomas and Pererius respond that God did not wish this to be reported to Jacob before the time and occasion ordained by Him, namely before this famine, by which the brothers were compelled to come to Joseph in Egypt. Moreover, Joseph understood this to be God's will, both from his dream, about which see chapter 37, verse 7, and from the course of events, and from God's inspiration and revelation, as Joseph himself indicates in chapter 45, verse 8.
You will say: Why did God wish this to happen and be concealed? I respond first, because God wished this quasi-purgatory of grief to be given to Jacob, although he was just, on account of certain light sins of his, both others and because he had loved Joseph too much and to the envy of the brothers. For God is accustomed to moderate the excessive affections of the Saints toward some thing or person by adversity, as wine is tempered by adding water, and indeed to cut back and mortify them. So St. Augustine, Sermon 82 On the Seasons.
Second, God wished to conceal from Jacob the life and condition of Joseph, in order to test both his and Joseph's virtue, resignation, patience, and love toward God, just as He had tested the obedience and virtue of Isaac and Abraham when He commanded Abraham to sacrifice his Isaac, Genesis 22:2.
Third, because if Jacob had known that his son Joseph had been captured, he would have ransomed him at any price, and so Joseph would never have been raised to the princedom in Egypt, by which nevertheless God had determined to reward his humiliation, Wisdom 10:13. So Theodoretus.
Fourth, God wished this so that by this means He might fulfill the dream He had sent to Joseph, Genesis 37:7, namely that the brothers, pressed by famine, might be compelled to come to Joseph and adore him.
Fifth, God wished this so that on this occasion Jacob with his entire family might descend into Egypt, and there be multiplied, and so that the great and wonderful things might befall him in Egypt which God had promised to his grandfather Abraham in chapter 15, verse 13, and which Exodus narrates.
Verse 6: Had Bowed Down
Behold, here the brothers unknowingly fulfill Joseph's dream and are compelled to adore him. So Procopius.
Verse 9: And Remembering the Dreams
Seeing his dreams fulfilled in this adoration of himself, not out of vengeance but in order to confirm them and their truth, by making the brothers who had treated him so badly into his suppliants; for this reason he addresses them more harshly, so that they themselves might recognize their impiety and the truth of Joseph's dreams; he says therefore:
Verse 9: You Are Spies
You will say: Joseph lies here; for he knew his brothers were not spies. Rupert responds first: "Spies," that is, thieves, "you are," because you stole me from my father and sold me. But a spy is one thing and a thief is another: for Joseph understands by a spy one who searches out the less fortified places in a province in order to betray them to the enemy.
Second, Pererius responds that Joseph is not lying here but joking, and speaking in jest and pretense.
Third and best, St. Thomas responds that Joseph is speaking not assertively but tentatively and probatively, just as judges assert a crime while questioning the accused by testing, in order to elicit the truth. In the same way Joseph tests his brothers here, so that he might compel them to tell the truth to him, as he was about to inquire about his father and his brother Benjamin.
Moreover, Joseph did no injustice to his brothers by charging them with this accusation and striking fear into them, because they had deserved far worse, and Joseph, as ruler of Egypt, could have punished them with death for the attempted murder and kidnapping committed against him. Even though Reuben was innocent of the sale of Joseph, yet because he was mixed in with the guilty brothers, he too is afflicted with them. For if Joseph had singled him out, he would have been recognized by the brothers. So Abulensis. Thus God, and indeed a ruler, involves and punishes the innocent along with the guilty in the common disaster of war.
Let prelates note here what moderation they ought to observe in correction, and let them learn it from Joseph. Piously and prudently St. Gregory, Homily 21 on Ezekiel, says: "Piety conquered his [Joseph's] mind, when his brother appeared innocent, but harshness was maintained in outward appearance, so that the guilty brothers might be purified. A cup is hidden in the youngest's sack, a charge of theft is raised against them: it is found in the youngest's sack; Benjamin is brought back; all the afflicted brothers follow. O torments of mercy! He tortures, and he loves. Thus the holy man both forgave and avenged the crime of his brothers: thus he maintained clemency in severity, so that toward his offending brothers he was neither merciful without punishment, nor strict without tenderness. Behold, this is the mastery of discipline: to know how to spare faults discreetly, and to cut them away with devotion." Thus far St. Gregory.
Verse 14: This Is What I Said
As if to say: You pretend to be twelve brothers, and to have another brother at home: from this I conclude that you are fabricating everything else as well, and that you are spies; therefore, to show the contrary, bring your youngest brother to me, so that I may see him, and from that know that you have spoken the truth.
Again, Joseph says this not assertively but tentatively; and this in order to find out what had happened to Benjamin: for he feared that the brothers had done something similar to Benjamin (since he was his full brother, and the son of Rachel, whom Jacob had loved more than Leah) as what they had done to him. So St. Chrysostom.
Verse 16: By the Life of Pharaoh
You will ask first whether the expression "by the life of Pharaoh" is an oath, and whether it is lawful. Calvin denies it is an oath, and adds that this is merely a pagan expression that smacks of Egyptian idolatry. For thus the Romans swore by the genius of Caesar, in order thereby to flatter Caesar and virtually equate him with the gods. Second, Hamer responds that this is not an oath, because it is not made expressly by calling God to witness.
I say first, "by the life of Pharaoh" is an oath. This is clear because in Hebrew it is "Pharaoh lives," which among the Hebrews is a formula of swearing, just as when they say "The Lord lives." Our translator also signifies this when he renders it "by the life of Pharaoh"; for in a similar way we swear "by my soul."
I say second, this oath is lawful. The reason is that whoever swears by creatures is understood, by the common usage of nations and by the tacit intention of the one swearing, to swear by their Creator, as Christ explains in Matthew 23:21. Therefore Joseph does not swear in jest, as Hamer would have it, but seriously, by the life of Pharaoh, as his beneficent king, worthy of veneration and love in return; and as it were venerating God in Pharaoh, and at the same time the royal power given to him by God. Therefore, "by the life of Pharaoh" is the same as if he were to say: By God, who is the author and preserver of the life and welfare of Pharaoh. So St. Thomas and others.
You will object: Joseph seems to perjure himself here; for even if the brothers did not bring Benjamin, they were not for that reason spies.
I respond: Joseph does not swear that his brothers are spies, but says: "Otherwise you are spies," that is, you will be regarded by me, you will be presumed to be spies, as if to say: Unless you bring Benjamin, and thereby show your words to be true, I will regard, treat, and punish you as spies. So St. Augustine.
You will ask second, what kind of oath is this: "By the life" or welfare of Pharaoh? I respond first: It can be assertory, if you understand it thus: "By the life of Pharaoh," that is, I swear by God, who is the author and guardian of the life and welfare of Pharaoh, my most beloved king.
For thus when the Hebrews say: "The Lord lives," the meaning is: I call the living God to witness: what I say is as true as it is true that God lives, whom I call as witness and by whom I swear.
Second, and more likely, this phrase from common usage signifies an execration, by which one devotes oneself or one's own to punishment; therefore this oath seems rather to be execratory, so that the meaning is: "By the life of Pharaoh," that is, I swear, I call to witness, and I beseech God to take away the welfare and life of Pharaoh, my most dear king, unless I treat and punish you as spies, if you do not bring Benjamin to me. For in a similar manner and sense we swear "by my soul." So St. Thomas, Summa Theologiae II-II, Question 80, article 6. For just as we can pledge our own person, so also another person joined to us we can bind to God, so that He may punish us in that person if we deceive, by saying and swearing: "By my father's life; by my wife's life."
You will object: This is to wish evil upon one's father, wife, and king: but this is against charity. I respond: It is against charity if we swear what is false; but if what we say is true, it is not against but rather according to charity: for we show how much we value our king or father, and we thus honor him, and we do not only wish evil if we deceive, but also good if we do not deceive. And so, "by the life of Pharaoh" is the same as if you say: May God thus save, or not save, Pharaoh. May He save him, if I speak the truth, or if I perform what I say; may He not save him, if I deceive: for both are included, as our Lessius keenly and learnedly observes, treatise On Oaths, doubt 2.
Verse 17: Custody for Three Days
So that they might thus atone for their threefold crime: first, the death they had threatened; second, the throwing into the cistern; third, the selling of Joseph; and so that just as he himself had been in prison for three years, so they would be there for three days, says Delrio and others.
Verse 18: For I Fear God
As if to say: Do not fear, because I will do nothing unjust, nothing faithless, nothing inhuman to you, but I will faithfully perform what I have said: for even though I am a ruler, yet I fear and revere God, the Ruler of rulers, knowing that I will be judged by Him, and that I must render an account to Him of all my deeds.
Verse 21: We Deserve to Suffer These Things
From the Hebrew you may translate: truly we are desolate, that is, alone and destitute of all help, on account of our brother, whom we made desolate and sold alone to foreigners. Note here with St. Chrysostom how great is the force of conscience, before whose gaze all sins immediately present themselves and converge, when we see and feel the avenging hand of God: for no mention was made here of Joseph, and yet his memory and the injury done to him twenty-three years before immediately presents itself to the minds of all the brothers, when they sense that they are being punished for it.
"Just as a drunkard," he says, "when he swallows a great deal of wine, feels no harm from the wine, but afterwards feels how great the harm is: so sin, as long as it is being committed, darkens the mind, and like a dense cloud corrupts the mind; then conscience rises up, and gnaws at the mind more severely than any accuser, showing the absurdity of the deed." Namely, "the eyes which guilt closes, punishment opens," says St. Gregory; namely, "conscience is a thousand witnesses"; and as St. Gregory Nazianzen says, in his discourse on the plague of hail: "Conscience is a domestic and true tribunal." For as Wisdom 17:10 says: "A troubled conscience always presumes harsh things." On the contrary, Sirach 13:10: "Good is the substance," he says, "in which there is no sin on the conscience"; and chapter 30, verse 17: "There is no delight above the joy of the heart"; and the Apostle, 2 Corinthians 1:12: "This is our glory, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity of heart and in the sincerity of God we have lived in this world"; and St. Jerome: "A good conscience flees no one's eyes," fearless.
Again, these brothers in their affliction come to their senses and acknowledge their crime. Thus Manasseh, the most impious king, acknowledged his guilt in prison, 2 Chronicles 33. Thus Nebuchadnezzar, most proud, after he was transformed into a beast, acknowledged his own weakness and the power of God, "who can humble those who walk in pride," Daniel chapter 4. Thus Antiochus, the most wicked king, struck with a fatal illness: "Now," he says, "I remember the evils I did in Jerusalem. I know that because of these things, these evils have found me, and behold, I perish with great sorrow in a foreign land," 1 Maccabees 6:13. Thus famine taught the prodigal son to say: "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before You." Therefore the Psalmist rightly utters imprecations against the wicked, saying in Psalm 83: "Fill their faces with shame, and they shall seek Your name, O Lord."
Third, observe here the wonderful and just providence and vengeance of God, by which He punishes the brothers of Joseph, who were innocent of the charge, with the same punishment, namely prison and captivity, with which they had earlier afflicted the innocent Joseph. For it is just, says Rhadamanthus, that whatever one has unjustly done, this same thing one should justly suffer.
A similar memorable example, indeed many most illustrious examples, St. Ephrem relates, which befell a certain wanton and dissolute young man, by which he was converted to a better life, indeed to the monastic life. Hear him partly in his confession, partly in the narration of his conversion. I, he says, used to doubt God's providence, and whether all things did not rather happen by chance and accident. This doubt God removed from me, not by words but by deeds. For one day, having been sent by my parents to the suburbs, I chased and agitated a pregnant heifer with stones, and was the cause of its being torn apart by a wild beast; then encountering the poor man whose heifer it was and who was asking me about it, I even heaped insults upon him. A month later, sent again to the suburbs of Mesopotamia, I turned aside at night to some shepherds, and that night wild beasts rushing into the fold scattered the flock. Thereupon I was seized by the owners of the flock, as if I had let in the predators, and was handed over to the magistrate and to prison; where, after I had been for forty days, a young man of terrible appearance stood by me as I slept and said: "What are you doing in this prison?" When I had recounted to him my misfortunes as an innocent man, he said: "I know this, that you are free of this charge; but think back on the past, for you know that by driving the poor man's beast you caused its death. Therefore, that you may learn the providence and justice of God, question those two men, one of whom is falsely accused of murder, the other of adultery, and who have been thrust into this same prison, and you will understand that they are not in chains without cause; but neither will the actual perpetrators of those crimes escape unpunished." When he had said this, he vanished. And in the morning, turning to those men, I said: "Why are you here?" And one of them said: "Of the crime of which I am accused, I am innocent; but recently, when a certain man was thrown from a bridge by his enemy in a fight into the waves and to his death, I did not rescue him, though I could have." The other said: "I am innocent of the charge; but recently I accepted fifty coins from two soldiers so that I would swear that their sister had committed adultery, and thereby transfer the girl's inheritance to her brothers. And so I committed perjury and ruined the poor girl with a fabricated adultery charge, stripping her of all her goods. Now in turn, young man, tell us about yourself." I complied with the request and declared the death of the heifer and the cause of my imprisonment. Then I began to feel remorse and come to my senses, and I understood that we were rightly paying the penalty, even though all three of us were ignorant and innocent of the crime for which we had been seized. The next day we are dragged before the judge. They are tortured, and when found innocent, are released. I am thrust back into prison: where, after I had spent another forty days alone, three other men were brought in chains, with whom I spent another thirty days. Then the same one who had appeared before stood by me in my sleep, saying: "What is the matter, Ephrem? Do you see the just judgment of God? And that you may know who those three are who have been joined to you today, know that two of them falsely accused their sister of fornication and robbed her of her inheritance; the other is the one who threw a man into the river," and having said this, he departed. Then in the morning I asked them to tell me the reason for which they had been thrown into prison: and the brothers indeed confessed that their sister had been wickedly circumvented by them, while the other admitted that a man had been thrust into the water. When I heard this, I in turn narrated what had happened to me, and I set forth the cases of the two men, one of whom had committed perjury, the other had refused a hand to a dying man (for these men had consented or cooperated in those very crimes committed by those perpetrators). Then the fear of divine judgment wrung abundant tears from all of us. The next day we are brought to trial, and the two brothers, besides the crimes already mentioned, also confessed to being the perpetrators of the adultery and homicide (which had been falsely imputed to the two previously mentioned men), and were punished with death: and soon the other was subjected to the same penalty for the two murders he had committed. Then the judge ordered me also to be brought forward, weeping bitterly and invoking God with these words: "Save me, Lord, from this distress, that I may worthily become a monk and serve You." But the magistrate commanded the torturers to beat me, stretched out, with ox sinews. But the magistrate's assessor said: "Let this one be reserved for another hearing, for now it is time for lunch." And so, bound in irons, I am led back to prison, where alone I spent another 25 days. Then the young man appeared a third time and said: "Are you now certain that God governs the world by just judgment?" "Indeed, Lord," I said; "but I pray and beseech you, lead me out of this prison, that I may deserve to become a monk and serve the Lord Christ." And he, smiling, said: "Once more you will be subjected to examination, and then at last you will be freed by another judge; but know that there is one Eye surveying all things." After this I spent eight anxious days, until a new judge, having brought me to trial, recognized me and dismissed me as falsely accused. And I without delay ascended the mountain and threw myself at the feet of a venerable elder.
Verse 22: His Blood Is Required
For the brothers believed that Joseph, in such harsh servitude, had long since died from affliction and grief; for in twenty-three years they had heard nothing about him. "Blood" therefore is used here metonymically for the shedding of blood, that is, for killing and death: for every slaying and violent death, even if it happens by suffocation, drowning, crushing, or any other means, is called among the Hebrews "shedding of blood," by synecdoche and catachresis, because violent death is most frequently inflicted through the shedding of blood.
Verse 25: Simeon
Joseph bound Simeon alone before all others, because the guilt of selling Joseph resided chiefly in Simeon, as Philo, Theodoret, and Gennadius say. For if Simeon, the second-born, had joined himself with Reuben the firstborn and Judah, who excelled among the brothers in grace and dignity, these three would easily have restrained the other brothers by their authority and freed Joseph; perhaps also Simeon had been the more insolent and unjust among the brothers toward Joseph: for his bold and insolent character revealed itself well enough in the slaughter of the Shechemites, Genesis 34:25.
Provisions for the Journey
"Having given provisions for the journey" -- having given, besides the grain, food for the road, namely bread and other foods for both men and donkeys, so that they might carry the grain whole and untouched home to their father in Canaan.
Verse 29: They Told Him All Things
Willingly and of their own accord, lest their father be left in suspense about where Simeon had remained; for, as Philo prudently says, in unexpected misfortunes, knowledge is lighter than doubt: for once the matter is known, a way to safety can be found; hesitation accomplishes nothing. Truly the Poet says: "The fear of war is worse than war itself."
Beautiful moral reflections on the usefulness of tribulation, and how it teaches us to know first, God; second, ourselves and our own fragility; third, the vanity of the world and all its works and goods: Pererius has these at number 22 and following.
Verse 35: And All Being Terrified
The sons had opened the sacks on the road and knew that money was in them; but the father did not know, and the sons pretended before their father that they too did not know, lest they be rebuked by their father. The sons therefore were terrified here by a fear already conceived beforehand, or at least by a simulated and feigned fear: but Jacob was struck with a new and genuine fear, fearing that some harm might be inflicted on Simeon because of this money if they did not return; or if they did return, upon themselves by Joseph.
Verse 36: You Have Made Me to Be Without Children
This is the voice of one grieving, says Abulensis, because those who grieve make universal propositions about small matters, so that if they have few evils, they say they have all evils; and if few goods are lacking to them, they say that all things are lacking: so Jacob, sensing that only three sons would be absent, from the vehemence of his grief says that all would be lost to him, even though nine others still remained. This grief arose from the immense love with which he loved Joseph, who was lost, above all others, and Benjamin, who was to be taken away.
Verse 37: Kill My Two Sons
This offer of Reuben is irrational, disturbed, and full of passion: for it is not lawful for a grandfather to kill his grandchildren, and even if it were lawful, this would not have mitigated his grief but rather increased it. But Reuben wished by this ill-composed and irrational proposal to signify that he would most certainly bring Benjamin back.
Verse 38: My Gray Hairs With Sorrow to the Grave
That is, you will cause me, an old man, to die of grief and sadness; indeed you will hasten the death of my old age. So Abulensis and Vatablus. This was the eighth cross of Jacob.