But Joseph expected that his brothers would be coming to Egypt, and therefore he bade the gatekeepers every day bring him the names of those who had entered the city. One day one porter gave him the name of Reuben, son of Jacob; and so on to the tenth, Asher, son of Jacob. Joseph at once gave orders for every storehouse to be closed with the exception of one, and gave the keepers of the open magazine the names of his brothers, and said to them, “When these people arrive take them prisoners, and bring them before me.”
And when they appeared before him, he charged them with being spies: “For,” said he, “if ye were true men, ye would have come in together; but ye entered by different gates, and that shows that ye are set upon evil.”[423]
When, to excuse themselves, they told their family history, he bade them go and bring Benjamin down to him, and, to secure their return, he kept Simeon in prison as hostage.
When Joseph wanted to imprison Simeon, his brothers desired to assist him by force, but Simeon refused their assistance. Joseph ordered seventy fighting men of Pharaoh’s body-guard to cast him down and handcuff him. But when they approached, Simeon gave a scream, and the seventy fell back on the ground, and their teeth went down their throats. “Hah!” said Joseph to his son Manasseh, who stood near him, “throw a chain about his neck.”
Manasseh dealt Simeon a blow, and chained him. “Then,” said Simeon, “this blow comes from one of the family.”[424]
Jacob, reluctant to part with Benjamin, was however obliged to do so, being pressed with famine. Joseph received the brethren, measured out to them the wheat, and, by his orders, his steward secretly put the silver cup of Joseph into the sack of Benjamin. Then at the gate of the city they were charged with theft, and were brought back to the palace of Joseph.
“What is the penalty due to him who has stolen my cup?” asked Joseph.
“Let him be thy slave,” answered the brethren, feeling confident in their innocence. But when the sacks were opened, and his cup was found in that of Benjamin, they said to their youngest brother, “Woe to thee! what hast thou done? Wast thou resolved to follow the example of thy lost brother, who stole his grandfather Laban’s idol, and his aunt’s girdle?”
But as they had sworn to their father to restore Benjamin to him, they besought Joseph to take one of them in the place of Benjamin. But Joseph persisted that he would keep Benjamin.
Then said Reuben to his brothers, “Go back to our father, and tell him all that has occurred; I, the eldest of you, who undertook on the security of my life to bring Benjamin home, must remain here till he himself calls me back, for he will see that we have stood hostages for a thief.”[425]