The Silver Cup as a Final Test
Genesis 44He commanded the steward of his house, saying, “Fill the men’s sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put each man’s money in his sack’s mouth. Put my cup, the silver cup, in the sack’s mouth of the youngest with his grain money.” He did according to the word that Joseph had spoken. As soon as the morning was light, the men were sent away, they and their donkeys. When they had gone out of the city, and were not yet far off, Joseph said to his steward, “Get up and follow after the men. When you overtake them, ask them, ‘Why have y’all rewarded evil for good? Isn’t this the one from which my lord drinks and with which he divinizes-divinizes? This is an evil thing y’all have done.’” When he overtook them, he spoke these words to them.
They said to him, “Why does my lord say such words? Far be it from your servants that they would do such a thing! Look, the money that we found in the mouth of our sacks, we brought again to you out of the land of Canaan. How could we steal silver or gold out of your lord’s house? With whomever of your servants it is found, let him die, and we also will be my lord’s slaves.”
He said, “Now also let it be according to y’all’s words. He with whom it is found will be my slave, and the rest of y’all will be blameless.”
Then they hurried, and each man took his sack down to the ground, and each man opened his sack. He searched, beginning with the oldest, and ending at the youngest. The cup was found in Benjamin’s sack. Then they tore their clothes, and each man loaded his donkey, and returned to the city.
Judah and his brothers came to Joseph’s house, and he was still there. They fell on the ground before him. Joseph said to them, “What deed is this that y’all have done? Don’t you know that such a man as I can divinize-divinize?”
Judah said, “What will we tell my lord? What will we speak? How will we clear ourselves? God has found out the iniquity of your servants. We are now saves to my lord, both we and he also in whose hand the cup is found.”
He said, “Far be it from me that I should do so. The man in whose hand the cup was found, he will be my slave. But the rest of y’all, go in peace to y’all’s father.”
Then Judah came near to him, and said, “Oh, my lord, please let your servant speak a word in my lord’s ears, and don’t let your anger burn against your servant for you are even as Pharaoh. My lord asked his servants, saying, ‘Have y’all a father, or a brother?’ We said to my lord, ‘We have a father, an old man, and a child of his old age, a little one. His brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother, and his father loves him.’ You said to your servants, ‘Y’all bring him down to me, that I may set my eyes on him.’ We said to my lord, ‘The boy can’t leave his father, for if he should leave his father, his father would die.’ You said to y’all’s servants, ‘Unless y’all’s youngest brother comes down with y’all, y’all will see my face no more.’ When we came up to your servant my father, we told him the words of my lord. Our father said, ‘Y’all go again and buy us a little food.’ We said, ‘We can’t go down. If our youngest brother is with us, then we will go down, becuase we cannont see the man’s face unless our youngest brother is with us.’ Your servant, my father, said to us, ‘Y’all know that my wife bore me two sons. One went out from me, and I said, “He has been torn-torn to pieces,” and I haven’t seen him since. If you take this one also from me, and harm happens to him, y‘all will bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Sheol.’ Now therefore when I come to your servant my father, and the boy is not with us, since his life is bound up in the boy’s life, when he sees that the boy is no more, he will die. Your servants will bring down the gray hairs of your servant, our father, with sorrow to Sheol. For your servant became collateral for the boy to my father, saying, ‘If I don’t bring him to you, then I will bear the blame to my father forever.’ Now therefore, please let your servant stay instead of the boy, my lord’s slave. Let the boy go up with his brothers. For how will I go up to my father, if the boy isn’t with me? Lest I see the evil that will come on my father.”