Genesis Chapter Forty-Four Series

GENESIS CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR OVERVIEW

Overall what is happening in this chapter is that Joseph now puts his brothers to the test.

Thomas Coke (1801) – Genesis 44

Joseph commands his steward to hide his cup in the sack of Benjamin, and then to pursue his brethren. He declares that he will retain Benjamin with him for his servant: Judah pleads with him, and offers himself as a bondman in the place of Benjamin.

Thomas Constable (2012) – Genesis 44

Joseph next tested his brother's loyalty to Benjamin by framing Benjamin and charging him with stealing Joseph's cup. These events prompted the brothers to acknowledge that God was punishing them for their treatment of Joseph many years earlier. Judah's plea for Benjamin voiced the genuineness of the brothers' loyalty to Benjamin. It contrasts with their former disloyalty to Joseph.

Joseph wanted to discover if his brothers would sell Benjamin as a slave as they had sold him and possibly kill Jacob with sorrow. Their alternative was to submit to slavery for Benjamin's sake. This discovery seems to have been the object of Joseph's actions as Moses related them in this chapter. As God had tested the genuineness of Abraham's faith (Genesis 22:1), so Joseph tested the genuineness of his brothers' repentance.

Adam Clarke (1826) – Genesis 44

Joseph commands his steward to put his cup secretly into Benjamin’s sack, (Genesis 44:1-2). The sons of Jacob depart with the corn they had purchased, (Genesis 44:3). Joseph commands his steward to pursue them, and charge them with having stolen his cup, (Genesis 44:4-6). The brethren excuse themselves, protest their innocence, and offer to submit to be slaves should the cup be found with any of them, (Genesis 44:7-9). Search is made, and the cup is found in Benjamin’s sack, (Genesis 44:10-12). They are brought back and submit themselves to Joseph, (Genesis 44:13-16). He determines that Benjamin alone, with whom the cup is found, shall remain in captivity, (Genesis 44:17). Judah, in a most affecting speech, pleads for Benjamin’s enlargement, and offers himself to be a bondman in his stead, (Genesis 44:18-34).

John Gill (1746) – Genesis 44

This chapter relates the policy of Joseph in making an experiment of his brethren's regard and affection for Benjamin; he ordered his steward to put every man's money into his sack, and his silver cup in Benjamin's, and when they were got out of the city, to follow after them, and charge them with the theft, as he did; and having searched their sacks, as they desired he would, found the cup with Benjamin, which threw them into the utmost distress, and obliged them to return to Joseph, (Genesis 44:1); who charged them with their ill behavior towards him; they acknowledge it, and propose to be his servants; but he orders them to depart to their father, retaining Benjamin in servitude, (Genesis 44:15); upon which Judah addressed him in a very polite and affectionate manner, and relates the whole story, both of what passed between Joseph and them, concerning Benjamin, the first time they were in Egypt, and between their father and them upon the same subject, when he directed them to go a second time thither to buy corn, and how he became a surety to his father for him, and therefore proposed to be his bondman now, not being able to see his father's face without Benjamin, (Genesis 44:18).

Matthew Henry (1714) – Genesis 44

Joseph, having entertained his brethren, dismissed them; but here we have them brought back in a greater fright than any they had been in yet. Observe:

I. What method he took both to humble them further and also to try their affection to his brother Benjamin, by which he would be able to judge of the sincerity of their repentance for what they had done against himself, of which he was desirous to be satisfied before he manifested his reconciliation to them. This he contrived to do by bringing Benjamin into distress (Genesis 44:1-17).

II. The good success of the experiment; he found them all heartily concerned, and Judah particularly, both for the safety of Benjamin and for the comfort of their aged father (Genesis 44:18-34).

KEY VERSE

Genesis 44:2 "Put my cup, the silver cup, in the mouth of the sack of the youngest, and his money for the grain." And he did as Joseph had told him.

KEY EVENT

Joseph has a silver cup placed in Benjamin’s sack so it appears that it had been stolen.

KEY THOUGHT

The brothers now seem to care about the enslavement of Benjamin and the heartache of their father.

KEY QUOTE

“We cannot judge what men are by what they have been formerly, nor what they will do by what they have done: age and experience may make men wiser and better.” Matthew Henry