Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Joseph commands that his cup be secretly placed in the sack of Benjamin. Hence he claims Benjamin as his slave for the supposed theft; Judah, in verse 18, offers himself into slavery in his place.
Vulgate Text: Genesis 44:1-34
1. And Joseph commanded the steward of his house, saying: "Fill their sacks with grain, as much as they can hold, and place each man's money in the top of his sack. 2. And place my silver cup, and the price he paid for the wheat, in the mouth of the youngest one's sack." And it was done. 3. And when morning came, they were sent away with their donkeys. 4. And when they had now gone out of the city and had proceeded a short way, then Joseph, having summoned the steward of his house, said: "Rise, and pursue the men; and when you have overtaken them, say: Why have you returned evil for good? 5. The cup that you have stolen is the one from which my lord drinks, and in which he is accustomed to divine. You have done a most wicked thing." 6. He did as he had commanded. And having overtaken them, he spoke in order. 7. They answered: "Why does our lord speak thus, as if your servants had committed such a crime? 8. The money that we found in the tops of our sacks we brought back to you from the land of Canaan; and how is it likely that we stole gold or silver from your lord's house? 9. With whichever of your servants it is found, what you seek, let him die, and we will be the slaves of our lord." 10. He said to them: "Let it be according to your sentence: with whichever one it is found, he shall be my slave, but you shall be innocent." 11. So they quickly lowered their sacks to the ground and each one opened his. 12. And searching them, beginning from the eldest down to the youngest, he found the cup in the sack of Benjamin. 13. But they, rending their garments and loading their donkeys again, returned to the city. 14. And Judah first, with his brothers, entered to Joseph (for he had not yet left the place), and they all fell together to the ground before him. 15. And he said to them: "Why did you wish to do this? Do you not know that there is no one like me in the science of divining?" 16. And Judah said to him: "What shall we answer my lord? Or what shall we say, or what can we justly allege? God has found out the iniquity of your servants. Behold, we are all slaves to my lord, both we and he with whom the cup was found." 17. Joseph answered: "Far be it from me that I should act so. He who stole the cup, let him be my slave; but you, go free to your father." 18. Then Judah, coming closer, said boldly: "I pray, my lord, let your servant speak a word in your ears, and be not angry with your servant, for you are next to Pharaoh, 19. my lord. You first asked your servants: 'Have you a father or a brother?' 20. And we answered you, my lord: 'We have an aged father and a young boy who was born in his old age; his full brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother, and his father loves him tenderly.' 21. And you said to your servants: 'Bring him to me, and I will set my eyes upon him.' 22. We suggested to my lord: 'The boy cannot leave his father; for if he should leave him, he would die.' 23. And you said to your servants: 'Unless your youngest brother comes with you, you shall see my face no more.' 24. So when we had gone up to your servant our father, we told him all that my lord had said. 25. And our father said: 'Go back and buy us a little wheat.' 26. And we said: 'We cannot go; if our youngest brother goes with us, we will set out together; otherwise, in his absence, we dare not see the man's face.' 27. To which he replied: 'You know that my wife bore me two sons. 28. One went out, and you said: A beast has devoured him; and he has not appeared since. 29. If you take this one also, and anything happens to him on the way, you will bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave.' 30. Therefore, if I go to your servant our father and the boy is not with us (since his life depends on the boy's life), 31. and he sees that he is not with us, he will die, and your servants will bring down his gray hairs with sorrow to the grave. 32. Let me truly be your servant, for I received the boy into my trust and pledged, saying: 'If I do not bring him back, I shall be guilty of sin against my father for all time.' 33. I will therefore remain as your servant in place of the boy in the service of my lord, and let the boy go up with his brothers. 34. For I cannot return to my father without the boy, lest I be witness to the calamity that will overwhelm my father."
Verse 2: The Cup in Benjamin's Sack
"The cup, etc., place in the mouth of the sack of the youngest" -- of Benjamin. Joseph did this in order to test by this means the hearts of his brothers: whether they envied Benjamin as the son of Rachel, and as the one who had received five times larger portions at the banquet; so that if he perceived this envy through the brothers' silence and neglect of Benjamin, he would keep him with himself, lest the brothers plot anything against him on the journey, as they had once done against Joseph himself. But if they showed brotherly love through their anxiety and effort to free him, he would send him away with them. So Philo, Josephus, St. Chrysostom, and Theodoret.
Verse 5: The Stolen Cup; On Divination
"The cup that you have stolen." Note: Joseph could justly punish his brothers by striking this fear and terror into them, on account of the crime committed against him, so that, brought to their senses by this affliction, they would acknowledge their sin, as indeed they did, says St. Augustine. But he could not thus afflict Benjamin. Hence the accusation of cup-theft against him was a light and venial calumny; but it was devised for Benjamin's benefit, as I said at verse 2, and it was of short duration, which he soon compensated by revealing himself with the greatest joy and the greatest benefits. There was also a lie here; for Joseph did not say these things by way of testing and questioning, as he had done in chapter 42, verse 9, but by way of outright assertion. Yet this was a jocular lie, not a harmful one.
Therefore when St. Augustine, Question 125, tries to excuse Joseph from lying, understand this as referring to a serious and harmful lie.
Symbolically, just as Joseph played with Benjamin, whom at first he pretended to arrest and bind as a thief, but afterwards showed it was all done in jest, and embracing him preferred him above the other brothers: so God deals with the humble. He allows them to be despised, afflicted, and harassed; but if they bear these things humbly and patiently, He will be gracious to them and exalt them, so that they become more glorious in proportion to how lowly they were. Therefore the game of God is humility.
"In which he is accustomed to divine." The Septuagint renders: "in which he divines by augury." Therefore Rabbi Kimchi translates incorrectly: "for which he consulted augurs."
Julius Sirenius reports (Book IX On Fate, chapter 18) that the Egyptians and Assyrians were accustomed to fill basins (and likewise cups, as it seems) with water, then to summon a demon with certain words, and then the demon would utter responses by hissing from the waters concerning the matters about which he was consulted. Furthermore, the demon sometimes expressed in the water the appearance or image of the thing or author sought, just as our diviners now represent and display in the water, through their incantations, the author of a theft.
You will say: did Joseph then profess himself to be such an augur, that is, a magician and diviner? Calvin affirms this, and therefore asserts that Joseph sinned by a grave pretense against religion. But who would believe this of Joseph, who was a most devout and most holy prophet? St. Augustine therefore responds that Joseph here speaks not seriously, but jokingly; for he seems to speak thus in verse 45. Secondly, Theodoret says Joseph speaks interrogatively, not assertively. Thirdly, St. Thomas says Joseph speaks not from his own opinion, but from that of the Egyptians, who truly thought Joseph was an augur. But these explanations do not satisfy this verse and its context.
I say therefore that for "to divine," the Hebrew is nachas, which means to presage and divine, whether by augury or by natural sagacity, that is, to conjecture, to search out, and to investigate. Hence the Chaldee and Aben-Ezra translate it "to test." Joseph therefore, by this cup, offering it full of wine to his guests, naturally divined and explored the temperance, prudence, and secrets of his guests' hearts (for in wine there is truth), and here he was exploring what disposition each of his brothers had toward Benjamin, as I said at verse 2. Yet he allowed his brothers to be deceived, so that they would think he was truly and properly an augur, and therefore he used an ambiguous word.
So Pliny uses "augury" for "conjecture" in Book VII, epistle to Cornelius Tacitus, when he says: "I augur, nor does my augury deceive me, that your histories will be immortal." So Aristotle, Problems 9, section 33, calls a sneeze "a sacred augury of health of the head," because it is a sign that the head is well, able to digest and expel superfluous and harmful humors; for when the heat of the head overcomes and expels the extraneous, crude, and flatulent humor and spirit, then a sneeze is usually produced.
Verse 15: No One Like Me in Divining
"That there is no one like me in the science of divining." "Divining," that is, of prophesying and conjecturing; for the Hebrew is nachas, as I said at verse 5. As if to say: Since Pharaoh and all Egypt acknowledge and honor me as an augur, that is, as a prophet and diviner, how is it that you alone thought you could hide from me and my divination in this theft?
Verse 16: God Has Found Out the Sin
"God has found out the sin of your servants." Some, with St. Augustine, understand this as the sin of selling Joseph; as if to say: Because we sold Joseph into slavery, we are now justly subjected to slavery. Judah could have felt this in his heart, but outwardly he does not speak to Joseph about this sin, but about the sin of stealing the cup -- for that is what Joseph accused them of, and to the same charge Judah responded by acknowledging it. It seems therefore that Judah thought and suspected that Benjamin had truly stolen the cup, especially since Benjamin, when caught, was silent and did not defend himself. Or at least, in a doubtful and uncertain situation, Judah preferred to ascribe the sin to his brother and humbly beg pardon, and thus soften Joseph's anger, rather than provoke it further by excusing Benjamin and either expressly or tacitly turning the blame back on Joseph and his servants, charging them with fraud, deceit, and calumny. For from the fact that the cup was found in Benjamin's sack, there was a presumption of theft against Benjamin. So Abulensis. St. Augustine rightly says, Sentence 118: "Confession in evils is better than proud boasting in good things."
Hence when a hermit was asked what was the surest way he had found to heaven, he answered: "If a man always accuses himself." Blessed Dorotheus is the witness, Instruction 7. So St. Catherine of Siena and other humble and illustrious Saints, in response to all evils that befall themselves, their neighbors, or the state, were accustomed to say: "Through my fault this evil has occurred."
Verse 20: His Mother Has Him Alone
"His mother has him alone" -- he alone survives from his mother; in Hebrew, "he remains alone of his mother," which can also be said of one who has died; for Rachel, the mother of Benjamin, was already dead.
Verse 21: I Will Set My Eyes upon Him
"I will set my eyes upon him" -- I will look upon him kindly, I will be benevolent to him, I will favor and cherish him; hence the Septuagint translates: "I will take care of him."
Verse 30: His Life Depends on the Boy's Life
"His life" -- the father's life depends on the life of the son; for if the son should die or be taken away, the father would die of grief.
Verse 32: I Will Be Your Servant in His Place
"I will truly" -- let me be your personal servant, for I will be more useful to you in strength and experience than the boy Benjamin.