Joseph ordered his chief servant, “Fill the men’s sacks with grain, with as much as they can hold, and put each one’s money back in the mouth of his bag. As for the youngest one, place my silver goblet in the mouth of his sack, along with the money he paid for his grain.” And he did as Joseph said.
At dawn, the men loaded their donkeys and set off for home. They hadn’t gone far outside of the city when Joseph said to his chief servant, “Now, go at once and pursue the men! And when you catch up to them, say to them, ‘Why did you repay good with evil? Why have you stolen the silver goblet from which my master drinks, and the one he uses to discover secrets hidden from men? You have done an evil thing!’ ”
When the chief servant caught up with them, he repeated his master’s words to them. They answered him, “Why does my lord accuse us of such things? Far be it from your servants to do anything of the kind! Didn’t we return from Canaan with the money we found in our grain sacks? Why then would we steal silver or gold from the house of your lord? Look for yourself. If any of your servants is found to have it, then he will die, and the rest of us will become your master’s slaves!”
“Very well then,” Joseph’s servant replied, “as you have said. But I will show you leniency. The one who has it will be my slave, but the rest of you will go free.”
Each one quickly lowered his bag to the ground and opened it. Then the chief servant searched each bag, beginning with oldest and ending with the youngest—and he found the silver goblet in Benjamin’s bag! Aghast, the brothers ripped their clothes in despair. They all loaded their donkeys again and returned to the city.
Joseph was waiting in his house when Judah and his brothers arrived. When they saw Joseph, they all fell to the ground before him. Joseph said to them, “What have you done? Don’t you know that divination would have given insight to a man like me?”
Judah replied, “What can we say, my lord? How can we plead our case? How can we prove our innocence? God has revealed the guilt of your servants, and here we are—our lord’s slaves, both we and the one in whose sack the silver goblet was found.”
“No,” Joseph commanded. “Only the one who stole my silver goblet will be my slave; the rest of you will go on home in peace to your father.”
Then Judah stepped forward and offered, “My lord, please, may I have a word with you? You are the equal of Pharaoh. Please don’t be angry with me, your servant. My lord asked his servants, ‘Do you have a father or another brother?’ We answered my lord, ‘We have an aged father and our youngest brother, who is a child of his old age. The child’s full brother is dead, so now he is the only child left of his mother, and his father loves him very much.’ Then you said to your servants, ‘Bring him here to me so that I might see him myself.’ We said to my lord, ‘But he cannot leave his father; if he were to leave him, his father would die.’ Then you said to your servants, ‘You will not see my face again if I do not see your youngest brother.’ When we arrived home to your servant, my father, we told him every word you had spoken to us.
“Sometime later, our father said to us, ‘Go back and buy some more food for us.’ We answered, ‘We can only return to Egypt if we take our youngest brother with us. We won’t see the man’s face again, if he doesn’t see our youngest brother.’ Then, your servant, my father, said to us, ‘You know that my wife Rachel only gave me two sons. One is gone from me—torn by a beast! I haven’t seen him since.
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