For thirteen years, Yoseph’s brothers saw him not, thinking that he had been wallowing in slavery. When fate finally brought them back together, Yoseph had risen to become arguably the most powerful and influential man in the world; The viceroy to the Pharaoh of the Egyptian Empire. Their failure to recognize him is unsurprising.
In the traditional version, Yoseph hides himself so as to see whether his brothers had ever shown remorse, and repented of their sin of betrayal. And so, while concealing his identity he conspired to have their youngest brother thrown into prison. Would they think only of themselves and abandon him, as they did to Yoseph all those years ago? Or, would they show that they had learned to stand up for the vulnerable in their family, and protect each other as they would themselves?
This week we offer a retelling of the dramatic moment of their reunion, one which functions as a sequel to last week’s The Godly Shepherd. (Gen 42)
A brief commentary follows.
Then Yoseph saw his brothers, and recognized them. But he disguised himself, and spoke to them harshly; “From where have you come?”
And they said, “From the land of Canaan, to buy food!”
And Yoseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him.
And Yoseph’s anger flared up at them, and he wanted not to give them food, because he remembered their viciousness and cruelty.
And he said to them, “You are spies! You have come to spy out the nakedness of the land!”
And they said, “No, Lord! Just your servants, coming to buy food! We are just twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan. The smallest is still with our father, and one is no longer with us!”
And when Yoseph heard, he was in disbelief. And he thought to himself;
What- who- Is my youngest brother truly still alive? How can this be? For we were both of the same mother, and of the same heart! As I spoke against their cruelty, he surely would have done the same; And they would conspire, and rid themselves of him, as they did me. Come, let us investigate the matter- Have they changed their hearts? Are they now truly my brothers, the sons of my father?
And Yoseph, with cunning, accused them again. “By the life of Pharaoh! Unless you are able to pass the test, let it be known that you are surely spies. But I fear Elohim, and will give you this chance; You shall bring back your younger brother here, while one of you will remain imprisoned. And with this, your claims will be investigated. If you bring back your brother and your words are confirmed, you shall be allowed to live!”
And the brothers said, one-to-another, “Woe to us, for we are guilty! It is all because of the incident with our brother, who merely tried to put an end to our cruelty! And instead of hearkening, we were cruel even to him, our own brother, even breaking the heart of our own father, from whom we took a son!"
And together, they lifted up their voices in lament;
Woe to us! For we rejected mercy; The instructions of our father, we spurned, We disdained the rebuke of our brother; Cursed, we even cursed the El-of-Compassion. In place of kindness and life, Violence and death we have chosen; Assuredly, doomed to die, we shall descend to Sheol, with hands-of-blood. | אוי לנו כי רחמים נאצנו תורת אבינו עזבנו שנאנו תוכחת אחינו קלול, גם אל-חנון קללנו תחת חסד וחיים, חמס ומות בחרנו אך מות נמות יורדים לשאול בידי דמים |
But they did not know that Yoseph heard and understood; For to hide himself, he used an interpreter. And as he listened, he was overcome with love, hearing their regret and their sorrow. But he would see this to the end.
Commentary
In this version we added a subtle detail, in stating explicitly that Yoseph acted with cunning when accusing his brothers of espionage. This is to highlight the fact that the brothers were truly experiencing the consequences of their past actions, in which they, too, acted with cunning to sell their brother off as a slave (Gen 37.18).
And like the traditional version, this is not lost on the brothers, as they are immediately worried that their tribulations are karma. And recall that this particular entry is meant to be a sequel to last week's The Godly Shepherd. Therefore, the nature of their lament, which here has become expanded and serves as a kind of climax, has changed.
In the traditional version, we have the following;
Surely, we are guilty for our brother, of whom we saw the anguish of his very life, when he begged us for mercy, and we did not hear him! And therefore, this anguish has come upon us! (Gen 42.21)
Here is the lament in our retelling once more:
A few things are worth pointing out.
Firstly, note the chiastic structure of lines 2-5;
A For we rejected mercy;
B. The instructions of our father, we spurned,
B' We disdained the rebuke of our brother;
A' Cursed, we even cursed the El-of-Compassion.
In A and A', the words used for rejected and cursed, נאץ and קלל are related in that they can both be used to mean to blaspheme. The juxtaposition of the phrases mercy and grace in those very lines, along with the title El, echoes Yahweh’s revealing of His innermost nature to Moshe- יהוה, אל רחום וחנון,- Yahweh, the El-of-Mercy-and-Grace (Ex. 34.6 and elsewhere). The point is that their actions of cruelty are akin to blaspheming the Almighty-God; An offense of the most grave proportions, punishable by death.
Verses 6 and 7 are antithetical parallelism (kindness-->cruelty and life-->death), symbolizing the fact that they not only wandered off the path that was intended for them- a path which celebrates life- But they had in fact been going in the complete opposite direction, in celebrating cruelty and death.
Finally, as is oftentimes the case in Israelite poetry, the concluding line, which announces the ultimate fate of the brothers’ past sins, is triadic, leaving us with the vivid image of their hands stained with blood, even after 13 years of regret.
For to each of us, Life-Breath (נפש-החיים) is a gift that is only ever given once; No amount of remorse, no amount of righteous deeds can cleanse the red stain of innocent blood, once one has been complicit in the unjust ending of innocent, God-given, sacred life- a lesson that Yoseph’s brothers are beginning to learn, yet is tragically lost on many, even today.
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