“No, my lord. Forgive me.”
Joseph turned and saw Hamid hurrying away, wishing that he had been less harsh with him. In time he would tell his friend what he could. For now, Joseph needed to put his anxious thoughts to rest. What would his brothers do when they found his cup in Benjamin’s sack?
Judah heard the horses’ hooves and chariot wheels coming in their direction. He stopped his donkey and faced his brothers, his fear rising as the Egyptian steward they had met came into view. “Now what?” he asked Reuben. “This is not a good sign.”
“No, it surely is not.” Reuben’s brow furrowed, and as Judah took in his brothers’ expressions, he could see the whites of their eyes.
The steward came to a stop a short distance from their donkeys. He climbed down from the chariot and walked toward them, scowling. “Why have you repaid good with evil?” he demanded. “Isn’t this the cup my master drinks from and also uses for divination?” Hamid pointed at each man. “This is a wicked thing you have done.”
Judah stared at him. What was he talking about? “What cup, my lord? We carry no such cup with us.”
“Indeed you do,” the man said. “It is missing from my master’s table, from the very place where you dined with him yesterday.”
Judah paled, then felt a swell of anger. He stepped closer but, noting the man’s disdain, thought better of it and took a step back. “Why does my lord say such things?” he asked. “Far be it from your servants to do anything like that! We even brought back to you from the land of Canaan the silver we found inside the mouths of our sacks.” His confidence growing that none of them could possibly be guilty of such a thing, he added, “So why would we steal silver or gold from your master’s house? If any of your servants is found to have it, he will die, and the rest of us will become my lord’s slaves.”
“Very well, then,” the man said, “let it be as you say. But whoever is found to have it will become my slave. The rest of you will be free from blame.”
Judah’s jaw tensed. He grabbed his sack from the donkey’s side, as did his brothers. The man stepped forward and began to search from the oldest to the youngest. How he could tell their age difference still puzzled Judah, but his anger at this audacious accusation overrode his confusion.
“Here it is!” The man pulled an intricately carved silver cup from Benjamin’s sack.
Judah felt as though someone had kicked him in the gut. “No!” he said as the same guttural cry burst from each of his brothers, Reuben’s voice the loudest of all. Judah reached for the neck of his robe and tore his clothes. The sound of ripping fabric followed as each brother did the same. They silently loaded their grain back onto their donkeys and followed the steward back to the house of the Egyptian lord.
Joseph moved to the audience chamber he had used when his brothers first came to Egypt and sat on the gilded throne. That his position would intimidate them mattered little. He wanted that advantage over them now.
A commotion at the door caused his heart to race. Hamid was back, and as the door opened, his brothers followed Hamid closely and literally fell down at the foot of Joseph’s throne.
“What is this you have done?” Joseph demanded. “Don’t you know that a man like me can find things out by divination?” He’d been in Egypt long enough to act the part of a true Egyptian who did believe such things.
Judah’s voice carried to him, but he did not lift his head. “What can we say to my lord? What can we say? How can we prove our innocence? God has uncovered your servants’ guilt. We are now my lord’s slaves—we ourselves and the one who was found to have the cup.”
Joseph refused to allow himself to be moved by the words. How often in his youth had his brothers told him things they didn’t mean? “Far be it from me to do such a thing!” he said. “Only the man who was found to have the cup will become my slave. The rest of you, go back to your father in peace.”
Judah did not hesitate but lifted his head and came to kneel near the first step to the throne. “Pardon your servant, my lord. Let me speak a word to my lord. Do not be angry with your servant, though you are equal to Pharaoh himself.”
He paused, and Joseph nodded.
“My lord asked his servants, ‘Do you have a father or a brother?’” Judah continued. “And we answered, ‘We have an aged father, and there is a young son born to him in his old age. His brother is dead, and he is the only one of his mother’s sons left, and his father loves him.’
“Then you said to your servants, ‘Bring him down to me so I can see him for myself.’ And we said to my lord, ‘The boy cannot leave his father. If he leaves him, his father will die.’ But you told your servants, ‘Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you will not see my face again.’ When we went back to your servant my father, we told him what my lord had said.
“Then our father said, ‘Go back and buy a little more food.’ But we said, ‘We cannot go down. Only if our youngest brother is with us will we go. We cannot see the man’s face unless our youngest brother is with us.’
“Your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons. One of them went away from me, and I said, “He has surely been torn to pieces.” And I have not seen him since. If you take this one from me too and harm comes to him, you will bring my gray head down to the grave in misery.’
“So now, if the boy is not with us when I go back to your servant my father, and if my father, whose life is closely bound up with the boy’s life, sees that the boy isn’t there, he will die. Your servants will bring the gray head of our father down to the grave in sorrow. Your servant guaranteed the boy’s safety to my father. I said, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, I will bear the blame before you, my father, all my life!’”
He paused again, and Joseph could barely move for the emotion welling in him. He motioned with his hand for Judah to continue.
“Now then, please let your servant remain here as my lord’s slave in place of the boy, and let the boy return with his brothers. How can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? No! Do not let me see the misery that would come on my father.”
Judah lowered his head again and touched it to the tiles. Joseph looked at these brothers who once would not have cared if he had died but were now willing to give their lives for Benjamin. Judah, the very brother who had gladly sold Joseph into slavery, was now willing to be his slave.
Suddenly he could not hold back the emotion that had overtaken him the moment Judah offered his life for Benjamin’s. “Have everyone leave my presence!” he cried.
The servants, the guards, and even Hamid hurried from the room.
Sobs rose in Joseph’s throat, and tears streamed from his eyes. He stood and moved down to their level. “Rise, all of you,” he said in Hebrew.
They quickly obeyed.
His heart pounded, and he struggled for breath. “I am Joseph!” he said, loud enough for each of them to hear. “Is my father still living?”
He looked from one to another, but they seemed stricken with dread. They didn’t believe him.
“Come close to me.” He motioned with both hands. Slowly Judah stepped closer with Benjamin at his side, and the rest followed. “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.” He searched the faces so familiar to him, yet he knew he looked every bit the foreigner to them. “For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will be no plowing and reaping. But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.”