Genesis 44

This chapter comes just before the climax of the Joseph narrative in the latter part of Genesis. In Genesis 43 the brothers went down to Egypt again, bringing Benjamin with them, and were served a meal in Joseph's house. This chapter opens as they prepare to return home with the grain they have bought.

Outline

• Verses 1–3: Joseph instructs his steward to fill each man's sack with food and return his money, and to put the silver cup in the mouth of the youngest brother's sack. The brothers set out at dawn.
• Verses 4–10: The steward pursues them and demands, "Wherefore have ye rewarded evil for good?" The brothers protest their innocence and say that whoever is found with the cup shall die and the rest will become servants. The steward replies that only the one with whom the cup is found need become a servant.
• Verses 11–13: The sacks are searched from the eldest to the youngest, and the cup is found in Benjamin's sack. The brothers tear their clothes and return to the city.
• Verses 14–17: The brothers fall down before Joseph. Judah says that God has found out the iniquity of his servants and that they will all become servants. Joseph answers that only the one with whom the cup was found will be a servant and that the rest are to return to their father.
• Verses 18–29: Judah recounts what has happened. He relates the demand that the youngest brother be brought, and the words of their father, who had already lost one of the two sons born to Rachel: if he lost this boy as well, they would bring down his gray hairs with sorrow to the grave.
• Verses 30–34: Judah says that his father's life is bound up in the boy's life and that he himself became surety for the boy. He then asks to remain as a servant in the boy's place.

Key Verses

• Genesis 44:16 "God hath found out the iniquity of thy servants" — commonly read as Judah's recollection of past wrongdoing that goes beyond the incident of the silver cup.
• Genesis 44:33 "Let thy servant abide instead of the lad a bondman to my lord" — the central passage of the chapter, in which Judah offers himself in place of his brother.

Characters and Places

• Joseph: Holds a position of authority over Egypt and tests his brothers without yet revealing his identity to them.
• The steward: The man in charge of Joseph's house.
• Judah: A son of Jacob and Leah who speaks on behalf of his brothers.
• Benjamin: The youngest son of Jacob and Rachel and Joseph's full brother.
• Jacob: Does not appear directly but is mentioned in Judah's speech. His two wives are covered in the article Rachel and Leah.
• Pharaoh: Mentioned in verse 18, where Joseph's authority is likened to his.
• Canaan: The land where the brothers live. The story itself is set in a city in Egypt.

Points for Reflection

• Interpretations differ regarding the statement that the silver cup is one "whereby indeed he divineth" (verses 5, 15). Some hold that Joseph actually practiced divination, while others regard the words as spoken in keeping with the role of an Egyptian official that he was playing. The text does not explain the matter further.
• This test is often read in connection with Genesis 37, where it was Judah who proposed selling Joseph (Genesis 37:26–27). In this chapter Judah offers himself to protect Rachel's other son. The scene is therefore commonly read as showing that the brothers, and Judah in particular, have changed. Judah's pledge to be surety appears in Genesis 43:9.
• Some Christian interpreters connect Judah's willingness to take another's place with Christ's substitutionary atonement. They point to the words of Genesis 49 that kingship will come from Judah's descendants and to Matthew 1, where Judah appears in the genealogy of Jesus. Such connections are not stated directly in the text but represent later theological interpretation.
• The story continues in Genesis 45, where Joseph reveals himself.