They were not yet far beyond the city gates, when Joseph dispatched
Manasseh, the steward of his house, to follow after them, and look for
the silver cup that he had concealed in Benjamin's sack. He knew his
brethren well, he did not venture to let them get too far from the city
before he should attempt to force their return. He hoped that the
nearness of the city would intimidate them and make them heed his
commands. Manasseh therefore received the order to bring them to a
halt, by mild speech if he could, or by rough speech if he must, and
carry them back to the city.[255] He acted according to his
instructions. When the brethren heard the accusation of theft , they
said: "With whomsoever of thy servants the cup be found, let him die,
and we also will be my lord's bondmen." And Manasseh said, "As you say,
so were it proper to do, for if ten persons are charged with theft, and
the stolen object is found with one of them, all are held responsible.
But I will not be so hard. He with whom the cup is found shall be the
bondman, and the rest shall be blameless."
He searched all the sacks, and in order not to excite the suspicion
that he knew where the cup was, he began at Reuben, the eldest, and
left off at Benjamin, the youngest, and the cup was found in Benjamin's
sack. In a rage, his brethren shouted at Benjamin, "O thou thief and
son of a thief! Thy mother brought shame upon our father by her
thievery, and now thou bringest shame upon us." But he replied, "Is
this matter as evil as the matter of the kid of the goats—as the deed
of the brethren that sold their own brother into slavery?"[256]
In their fury and vexation, the brethren rent their clothes. God paid
them in their own coin. They had caused Jacob to tear his clothes in
his grief over Joseph, and now they were made to do the same on account
of their own troubles. And as they rent their clothes for the sake of
their brother Benjamin, so Mordecai, the descendant of Benjamin, was
destined to rend his on account of his brethren, the people of Israel.
But because mortification was inflicted upon the brethren through
Manasseh, the steward of Joseph, the allotment of territory given to
the tribe of Manasseh was "torn" in two, one-half of the tribe had to
live on one side of the Jordan, the other half on the other side. And
Joseph, who had not shrunk from vexing his brethren so bitterly that
they rent their clothes in their abasement, was punished, in that his
descendant Joshua was driven to such despair after the defeat of Ai
that he, too, rent his clothes.[257]
Convicted of theft beyond the peradventure of a doubt, the brethren of
Joseph had no choice but to comply with the steward's command and
return to the city. They accompanied him without delay. Each of them
loaded his ass himself, raising the burden with one hand from the
ground to the back of the beast, and then they retraced their steps
cityward,[258] and as they walked, they rapped Benjamin roughly on the
shoulder, saying, "O thou thief and son of a thief, thou hast brought
the same shame upon us that thy mother brought upon our father."
Benjamin bore the blows and the abusive words in patient silence, and
he was rewarded for his humility. For submitting to the blows upon his
shoulder, God appointed that His Shekinah should "dwell between his
shoulders," and He also called him "the beloved of the Lord."[259]
Joseph's brethren returned to the city without fear. Though it was a
great metropolis, in their eyes it appeared but as a hamlet of ten
persons, which they could wipe out with a turn of the hand.[260] They
were led into the presence of Joseph, who, contrary to his usual habit,
was not holding a session of the court in the forum on that day. He
remained at home, that his brethren might not be exposed to shame in
public. They fell to the earth before him, and thus came true his dream
of the eleven stars that made obeisance to him.[261] But even while
paying homage to Joseph, Judah was boiling inwardly with suppressed
rage, and he said to his brethren, "Verily, this man hath forced me to
come back hither only that I should destroy the city on this day."
Guarded by his valiant men on the right and on the left, Joseph
addressed his brethren, snarling, "What deed is this that ye have done,
to steal away my cup? I know well, ye took it in order to discover with
its help the whereabouts of your brother that hath disappeared."[262]
Judah was spokesman, and he replied: "What shall we say unto my lord
concerning the first money that he found in the mouth of our sacks?
What shall we speak concerning the second money that also was in our
sacks? And how shall we clear ourselves concerning the cup? We cannot
acknowledge ourselves guilty, for we know ourselves to be innocent in
all these matters. Yet we cannot avow ourselves innocent, because God
hath found out the iniquity of thy servants, like a creditor that goes
about and tries to collect a debt owing to him.[263] Two brothers take
care not to enter a house of mirth and festivity together, that they be
not exposed to the evil eye, but we all were caught together in one
place, by reason of the sin which we committed in company."
Joseph: "But if your punishment is for selling Joseph, why should this
brother of yours suffer, the youngest, he that had no part in your
crime.