As the famine grinds on, Jacob and his extended family deplete their stockpiles. Jacob tells his sons to go back to Egypt and get more grain. They remind him that they have to bring Benjamin with them.
Jacob, perhaps returning to his playbook for winning back his own angry brother, tells them to make a gift of local produce: balm, honey, gum, pistachios and almonds. Then take the money that was returned, plus more money for the new grain. He concedes his youngest son. He says, “if I am bereaved of my children, I am bereaved.” They are all facing starvation if they don’t get the grain.
All of Jacob’s ten sons (the twelve minus Joseph and Simeon) show up Egypt. Joseph tells his servants to prepare a banquet and invite them all to eat with him at his private home at noon. They are afraid that he’ll accuse them of stealing and take their donkeys. Again, they are projecting their behaviors and fears onto his invitation.
They arrive to Joseph’s house with their stories and excuses, but the steward tells them not to worry, returns Simeon, washes their feet and feeds their animals. They prepare their gifts in anticipation of Joseph’s return.
Jacob returns at noon. They are all bow on floor in front of him. Joseph asks about their father, “the old man of whom you spoke? Is he still alive?” They say he is. Joseph spots his younger brother Benjamin and runs out of the room to cry again. He has the men served separately because the Egyptians wouldn’t eat with outsiders because they considered an abomination.
The brothers eat in order of their birth with Benjamin last. Yet, the youngest is served five times as much. They are amazed and then all get drunk together.
This passage has a quality of judgment day. The sons of Jacob are expecting rightly, to suffer for their actions, not if not directly, indirectly for upsetting God by selling their brother Joseph and lying to their father. This secret has weighed on them for decades. Instead, they are treated to a feast at a family home. Again the youngest son is elevated. This theme has been repeated, with Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau, and will continue into the future stories.
