As noted in the post on Genesis 42:36-38, Jacob was unwilling to let his son Benjamin go—either physically with his brothers or figuratively from under Jacob’s overprotective shadow. But the time comes when he has no choice.
Jacob initially resists Reuben’s assurance that he will bring Benjamin back, even though Reuben offers the lives of his own two sons as surety (42:37). Reuben, the eldest, and his full brother Judah have emerged as leaders among the brothers. Thus, later, Judah, who has lost two sons of his own already (38:7, 10), similarly offers to bear responsibility for Benjamin (43:9), just as Reuben and Judah in different ways spoke against killing Joseph in 37:21-22, 26-27.
Jacob’s lament that any harm to Benjamin would bring him down to Sheol in grief (42:38) echoes his expectation that he would continue mourning over Joseph until going down to Sheol (37:35). His sons will continue to recall Jacob’s stark words when they stand before Joseph; they dare not bring their father down to Sheol in mourning (44:29, 31).
Nevertheless, in Jacob’s resistance to allowing Benjamin to go to Egypt, Judah reminds his father, he is preventing them from getting food for the camp, thus ensuring the starvation of Jacob, all his children and all his grandchildren (43:8). By implication, even Benjamin will surely die if they do not risk traveling again to Egypt. Having waited until they were nearly out of food (42:2) means that they have already delayed too long, given the time needed to travel to Egypt and back (43:10). (The edible foods that they will take as a gift [mentioned in 43:11] are not perishables like grain, but neither would the camp have large enough quantities of such goods to subsist on very long.)
In his relationship to his father and brothers, Benjamin has become a surrogate for his full brother Joseph: none of them wants to make the same mistake twice. Reuben earlier called Joseph “the boy” (37:30; 42:22; a “youth” in 37:2; 41:12), a title transferred now to Benjamin (44:20; a “youth” in 43:8; 44:22, 30-34).
Meanwhile, ironically, Joseph is (still unknown to his father and brothers) “the man, the lord of the land” (42:30, 33), thereafter abbreviated “the man” (43:3, 5, 6, 7, 11, 13, 14). (This might not be a contrast with his former status as a “youth,” however; although “man” sometimes contrasts with “youth,” as in 25:27, it is contrasted or coupled with “woman” far more often.) Obviously Joseph is not the only “man” in Genesis or even in this section of Genesis, but the repeated use of this title in the family’s reference to this powerful yet seemingly anonymous figure appears significant (cf. 41:33, 38). Then again, they may have found the Egyptian name “Zaphnath Paneah” (41:45) difficult to pronounce! In any case, this “man” is now “the lord of the land” (42:30, 33) and “like Pharaoh” (44:18). (Nor are their expressions far from the mark; God made him as a father to Pharaoh, lord of his house [i.e., steward; cf. 24:2 in Hebrew], and ruler in all Egypt; 45:8-9.)
Jacob is finally persuaded to release Benjamin (43:13). He provides the resources that are in his power (43:11-12), musters some hope for the best (43:12), and most important of all calls on God to watch over them. Jacob prays that “God Almighty” (El Shaddai) will be with them (43:14). Isaac had once blessed Jacob in that way: “May the Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, so that you become an assembly of peoples” (28:3). These are no idle words. God later will appear to Jacob, declaring himself to be “El Shaddai” (as he had with Abram in 17:1). At that time God will instruct Jacob to be fruitful and multiply; an assembly of nations will come from him (35:11).
Jacob’s own invoking El Shaddai will not prove vain in this case. Jacob will recognize this, for later he will recall the promise of 35:11 in blessing also his lost-and-found son Joseph (48:3; 49:25).
1 comment
Comments are closed.