Genesis 44

Genesis 44:1 Then he commanded the one over of his house, and this is what he said “Fill the men’s sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put each man’s money in the mouth of his sack,

Genesis 44:2 and put my cup, the silver cup, in the mouth of the sack of the youngest, with his money for the grain.” And he did as Joseph commanded him.

Genesis 44:3 As soon as the morning was light, the men were sent away with their donkeys.

Genesis 44:4 They had gone only a short distance from the city. Then Joseph said to his steward, “Get up, follow after the men, and when you catch up with them, say to them, ‘Why have you repaid evil for good?

Genesis 44:5 Is it not from this that my lord drinks, and by this that he practices divination? You have done evil by doing this.'”

Genesis 44:6 When he caught up with them, he said these words to them.

Genesis 44:7 They answered him, “Why does my lord speak such words as these? Far be it from your slaves to do such a thing!

Genesis 44:8 See, the money that we found in the mouths of our sacks we brought back to you from the land of Canaan. How then could we steal silver or gold from your lord’s house?

Genesis 44:9 Whoever of your slaves is found with it will die, and we also will be my lord’s slaves.”

Genesis 44:10 He said, “It will be as you say: he who is found with it will be my slave, and the rest of you will be innocent.”

Genesis 44:11 Then each man quickly lowered his sack to the ground, and each man opened his sack.

Genesis 44:12 And he searched, beginning with the oldest and ending with the youngest. And the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack.

Genesis 44:13 Then they tore their clothes, and every man loaded his donkey, and they returned to the city.

Genesis 44:14 When Judah and his brothers came to Joseph’s house, he was still there. They fell before him to the ground.

Genesis 44:15 Joseph said to them, “What deed is this that you have done? Do you not know that a man like me can indeed practice divination?”

Genesis 44:16 And Judah said, “What will we say to my lord? What will we speak? Or how can we clear ourselves? God has discovered the guilt of your slaves; notice, we are my lord’s slaves, both we and he also in whose hand the cup has been found.”

Genesis 44:17 But he said, “Far be it from me that I should do so! Only the man in whose hand the cup was found will be my slave. But as for you, go up in peace to your father.”

Genesis 44:18 Then Judah went up to him and said, “O my lord, please let your slave speak a word in my lord’s ears, and let not your anger burn against your slave, because you are like Pharaoh himself.

Genesis 44:19 My lord asked his slaves, and this is what he said, ‘Do you have a father, or another brother?’

Genesis 44:20 And we said to my lord, ‘We have a father, an old man, and a younger brother, the child of his old age. His other brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother’s children, and his father loves him.’

Genesis 44:21 Then you said to your slaves, ‘Bring him down to me, that I may set my eyes on him.’

Genesis 44:22 But we said to my lord, ‘The boy cannot leave his father, because if he ever left his father, his father would die.’

Genesis 44:23 Then you said to your slaves, ‘If your youngest brother does not come down with you, you will not see my face again.’

Genesis 44:24 “When we went back to your slave my father, we told him the words of my lord.

Genesis 44:25 Then when our father said, ‘Go again, buy us a little food,’

Genesis 44:26 we said, ‘We cannot go down. If our youngest brother goes with us, then we can go down. Because we cannot see the man’s face unless our youngest brother is with us.’

Genesis 44:27 Then your slave my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife gave birth to two sons for me.

Genesis 44:28 One left me, and I said, he must have been torn to pieces, and I have never seen him since.

Genesis 44:29 If you take this one also from me, and injury happens to him, you will bring down my gray hairs by hardship to Sheol.’

Genesis 44:30 “So now, as soon as I come to your slave my father, and the boy is not with us, then, as his throat is bound up in the boy’s throat,

Genesis 44:31 as soon as he sees that the boy is not with us, he will die, and your slaves will bring down the grey hairs of your slave our father grieving to Sheol.

Genesis 44:32 Because your slave has become a pledge of safety for the boy to my father, and this is what I said, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, then I will absorb the failure before my father all the days.’

Genesis 44:33 So Now, please let your slave remain instead of the boy as a slave to my lord, and let the boy go back with his brothers.

Genesis 44:34 Because how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? Or else I could not look on the evil that would find my father.”

Genesis 44 quotes:

“Judah knew what it would mean if they had to go back to Canaan and face their father without Benjamin. The thought of that was something none of them could bear. Judah stepped forward. He made the most tearful plea you could ever imagine. The first thing he sought to do was turn Joseph’s wrath away from Benjamin. “Then Judah came near unto him, and said, Oh my lord, let thy servant, I pray thee, speak a word in my lord’s ears, and let not thine anger burn against thy servant: for thou art even as Pharaoh” (Genesis 44:18, italics mine). Judah’s aim was to persuade the governor not to be angry with Benjamin. He said in effect, “Turn to me, blame me.””

Kendall, R. T. God Meant It for Good. MorningStar Publications, 1988. p. 142.

“Reference to Joseph’s divining cup may seem strange, but we do not know that he actually used it for that purpose, and mention of it was probably part of his strategy to convince the brothers of his Egyptian identity.”

Williams, Peter. From Eden to Egypt: Exploring the Genesis Themes. DayOne, 2001. p. 36.

“As we pick up his story, we come to what seems to be a rather uneventful incident. In fact, Martin Luther had trouble with Genesis 44 and once wondered why the Spirit of God took the time to preserve such a trivial thirty-four verses.” Why indeed. The truth of the matter is that it is in the trivial and mundane details of life that our attitude is tested the most. Most of life is not “super-fantastic”! Much of life is just a cut above toothpaste — just plain, garden-variety, ordinary stuff, not that much to write home about.”

Swindoll, Charles R. Joseph: A Man of Integrity and Forgiveness: Profiles in Character. Thomas Nelson, 1998. p. 136.