Send one of you, and let him bring your brother, while you remain confined, that your words may be tested, whether there is truth in you. Or else, by the life of Pharaoh, surely you are spies.”
Joseph has accused the ten men in front of him of spying, and now he sets his terms: one brother fetches Benjamin while the rest stay locked up. The demand sounds like a foreign official's suspicion, but the man making it is their own brother, and his real question is not about spying.
The Demand Is Aimed at Benjamin
The brothers had just told Joseph about their father and the youngest son still at home. That answer shaped the test.
F. B. HoleThe men, however, were speaking the truth as far as they knew it, and their confession gave a good opportunity to put them to the test. Benjamin was a son of Rachel, as Joseph himself was, and so was especially dear to Jacob. He would demand that they bring Benjamin from his father's side. Until they produced him, he would hold one of them as a hostage. How would the brothers react to that?
The Test Behind "Truth in You"
Joseph's demand tests a claim the brothers had just made about themselves. They had said they were honest men — "true men" in older translations, which is what the verse means by truth in them.
C. Stanley"Joseph spoke roughly to them." The question of sin must be dealt with right down to the root. The cutting cord of a guilty conscience must be pulled a little tight. "You are spies." And now notice their defence — "We are all sons of one man. We are honest men." They stood in front of the one they had rejected and, in effect, killed. And they could still talk about being honest men. What a picture of this world! People can reject Christ, and then pretend to keep God's law.
Joseph's method is to put the old situation in front of them again and watch.
Hamilton SmithThey have said, "We are honest men." So Joseph will put them in a situation that shows whether they can act at last as true brothers and true sons. With the utmost wisdom Joseph will re-enact the past. Once again ten men will have to act in regard to a younger brother. Once again they shall have to face an aged father with his great love for the younger son.
Harshness That Serves Love
Joseph's harshness is not temper. It is deliberate work on the conscience, and it costs the man doing it.
J. G. BellettHe must get their conscience into action, whatever it costs him in personal feeling. His love, for the present, must be firm; its hour for melting and tenderness lies ahead. It will be satisfied by and by; it must serve now. In the day of their sin they had said of him, "Here comes this dreamer." Now, in the day of their conviction, he says of them, "You are spies; you have come to see the nakedness of the land."
The result shows up a few verses later, and it points to how God works with anyone.
W. T. P. WolstonThe effect was electric. "Then they said to one another, 'In truth we are guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the distress of his soul, when he begged us and we did not listen. That is why this distress has come upon us.'" Their consciences were reached, and it is a good thing when the conscience gets reached. God's avenue to the heart is ever by the conscience.
Custody With Kindness Underneath
Joseph puts all ten in custody. Yet he softens the sentence, and the men never guess how much he gives them.
William KellyAs they were all guilty, which no one on earth knew so well as Joseph, he committed them all to custody. But under the governor's frown lay compassion for them all. On the good testimony of the third day he proposed that only one should stay in prison. The rest should return to the comfort of their families, with the food he supplied free of charge — though they never suspected it. But he had to set one condition, for their sakes as much as his own: "Bring your youngest brother to me."
Why Everything Hangs on the Youngest Brother
Commentators point to what this demand finally achieves in the brothers.
Frederick W. GrantIn all this it is plain how everything turns on Benjamin and on their attitude toward him. Joseph makes this the test of their condition. Yet the power to deliver them lies in Joseph's hands alone. All they go through over Benjamin works to wake up their conscience and heart about their sin against Joseph. This is the key to reading the story as a picture.
Summary
- Tested, not punished. The spying charge is a device. The real question is whether these men have changed since they sold their brother.
- Words proved by cost. They called themselves honest men. So Joseph asks for the one thing that will prove it — the brother their father cannot bear to lose.
- Conscience first. The rough speech and the oath are aimed at the conscience, because that is the route by which God reaches the heart.
- Grace under the frown. Behind the governor's hard terms lie compassion, free grain, and a sentence reduced from all ten to one.
- Benjamin the hinge. How they treat the youngest brother shows what they now are. But only Joseph has the power to set them free.