Chapter 42

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“We are honest men”

It must have been an insult for Yehoseph to hear his brothers say such a thing, knowing how badly that they behaved towards him.

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But he came back to them and spoke to them and he took Simeon from among them and had him bound before their eyes.  

Given some of the history of his brothers, I can imagine that it was Simeon who was the instigator in selling Yehoseph, and this is why Yehoseph singled out Simeon and bound him in front of them.

Please refer to Genesis, chapter 34 paragraph 6.

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“What is this that Elohim has done to us?”

Today, there seems to be too little fear of Elohim.  But there is a reckoning in this life and beyond, for the choices we make and the manner in which we behave.  – This fear still exited in the days of Yehoseph.

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 “It is always me that you bereave:  Yehoseph is no more and Simeon is no more, and now you would take away Binyamin.  These things always happen to me!”  

Elohim was very close to Yisrael.  He appeared before him at least *six times and throughout the story of Yisrael, he gives testimony of Elohim’s faithfulness in helping him through his sorrows.  I am sure that Elohim tried to comfort Yisrael and probably told him that Yehoseph was still alive.  However, because Israel did not know of Yehoseph’s whereabouts, he probably had difficulty believing this.  Elohim may have even reminded him of the dreams of Yehoseph, as a ruler.  

Also, Yisrael remembered how jealous his others sons were of Yehoseph, after he made the ornamental tunic for him, and how badly some of them treated him.   Knowing the violent capabilities of Simeon and Levi, remembering looking at the blood on Yehoseph tunic, and hearing their story; he may have suspected them of killing him.

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Ya’akov did not send Yehoseph’s brother Binyamin with his brothers, since he feared that he might meet with disaster.

- It is a small wonder that Yisrael did not trust Binyamin’s care to any of them.

* When he fled Esau, when Laban robbed him of his wages, at Mahanaim where he encountered the angels of God, after he fled from his father-in-law and fought with the angel of Elohim at the ford of the Yabboq (Jabbok), after Simeon and Levi killed the men of Shechem, and then in Bethel.

THE WORD OF ELOHIM

GENESIS