When he came they bowed down to him and presented their gifts, and he asked them if they were well, and if the old man of whom they spoke was still alive, and they replied that he was. When he saw Benjamin, and knew that he was truly his own brother, the son of Rachel, he said:
"G.o.d be gracious unto thee my son," and he went quickly to his own chamber, lest he should weep before them.
When he came out to them again, and they sat down to dine, he placed the sons of Jacob by themselves, and the Egyptians of his house by themselves, and the brothers were placed according to their ages--Reuben at the head and Benjamin last, and they wondered among themselves at this. Joseph also sent portions from his own table to his brothers, but the portion of Benjamin was five times greater than that of the others.
The next morning their wheat was measured to them, and the a.s.ses were loaded with it, and they went on their way, but Joseph had told the steward to put the money of each man in the top of his bag, and in Benjamin"s to put his silver cup.
When they were a little away from the city, the steward overtook them, and charged them with stealing his lord"s silver cup.
The men were so sure that no one of them had stolen the silver cup, that they said,
"Let him die with whom the cup is found, and the rest of us will be your slaves."
So everybody"s bag was opened from the oldest to the youngest, and the cup was found in Benjamin"s bag. Then they rent their clothes for grief, and loaded the a.s.ses and went back to the city, and when they came to Joseph"s house, they fell on their faces before him, Joseph tried to speak sternly and said:
"What deed is this you have done?"
Judah said:
"What shall we say unto my lord, or how shall we clear ourselves? We are my lord"s servants."
Then said Joseph:
"The man in whose hand the cup is found he shall be my servant, and as for you, get you up in peace unto your father."
Then Judah came nearer to Joseph, and all his soul came forth into his voice as he said:
"O, my lord, let thy servant speak a word in my lord"s ears!"
Then he told the story of their coming down into Egypt, and of the old father and young brother whom he had asked them about; of the love of this father for the little one, for his mother, and his brother now dead. He reminded Joseph that he had told them to bring the boy to him, and that they had said, that if the boy should leave his father, his father would die; but the governor had said "Except your youngest brother come down with you, ye shall see my face no more."
Then Judah told the story of the father"s grief when he found that he must let Benjamin go down into Egypt, that they might buy a little food; how he spoke of his two sons, that were the sons of Rachel--that one had been torn in pieces, and now if mischief should befall the other, it would bring his gray hairs in sorrow to the grave. He asked Joseph what he should do when he returned to his father without the lad, seeing that his life was bound up in the lad"s life, and Judah begged him, as he had made himself surety for the lad, to take him to be his slave, but to let Benjamin return to his father with his brothers.
"For how shall I go up to my father," said Judah, "and the lad be not with me?"
Then Joseph could bear it no longer. He told all the Egyptians to go out of the room, and then weeping so that the Egyptians and the people in the king"s house heard, he made himself known to his brothers.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Joseph makes himself known to his brothers]
"I am Joseph, your brother," he said, "whom you sold into Egypt," and he begged them to come near to him.
"Be not grieved nor angry with yourselves," he said, for he saw that they were terrified, "for G.o.d sent me before you to save your lives by a great deliverance. It was not you that sent me hither, but G.o.d, and he hath made me a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt."
Then he told them to hasten and go to his father and tell him this, and ask him to come down at once, with all his flocks and herds, and dwell in Goshen, the best part of Egypt, for years of famine were yet to come.
Then Joseph took little Benjamin in his arms and wept over him, and kissed him, and kissed all his brothers, and after that his brothers talked with him. The king heard the story of Joseph"s brothers and was pleased. He told Joseph to send wagons for the wives and little ones of his brothers, and to tell them to bring their father, and all their cattle and sheep, and come to live in Goshen where they should have the best of the land for their flocks and herds.
Joseph did as the king commanded, and also gave them food for the journey, and a suit of clothing to each brother, but to little Benjamin he gave five suits, and three hundred pieces of silver. He also loaded twenty a.s.ses with the good things of Egypt as presents to his father, so he sent them all on their journey saying:
"See that ye fall not out by the way."
When they came to Jacob in Hebron, they told him the wonderful story of the finding of Joseph, and his heart was faint, for he did not believe them; but when he had heard all Joseph"s messages, and had seen the gifts, and the wagons, he said:
"It is enough: Joseph my son is yet alive: I will go and see him before I die."
So they began the long journey to Egypt, for it took a long time to travel with a great family, and with thousands of cattle and sheep. At Beersheba Jacob stopped and worshiped G.o.d, where his father had built an altar years before; and G.o.d told him in the night that he need not fear to go down into Egypt, for He would there make him a great nation, and that He would bring him back again to his own land.
So Jacob with all his children and their little ones, and all his flocks and herds came into Egypt. There were sixty-seven souls, and when they had counted Joseph and his two sons, there were seventy.
Jacob sent Judah on before to see Joseph and ask the way to Goshen, so that they might go directly there with the cattle and sheep. And when Joseph knew that his father was coming, he went to meet him in Goshen, and there he wept on his father"s neck a long time, and Jacob said:
"Now let me die, since I have seen thy face, because thou art yet alive."
After this Joseph presented five of his brothers to Pharaoh, and the king spoke very kindly to them, and gave them the best of the land for their flocks, and hired some of them to oversee his own shepherds.
Joseph brought his father in also and Jacob blessed Pharaoh.
So the family of Jacob lived in peace, and were cared for by Joseph, just as the Lord had promised Jacob, when in a dream he saw the angels of G.o.d at Bethel, and heard above them the voice of the Lord blessing him, and saying:
"Thou shalt spread abroad to the West, and to the East, and to the North, and to the South, and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed."
Joseph carried all Egypt through the years of famine, and saved seed for the people to sow their fields in the seventh year so that they said:
"Thou hast saved our lives."
He afterwards visited his father, and Jacob made him promise that he would bury him when he died in the tomb of Abraham and Isaac, his father, in his own land.
When Jacob was near his end, Joseph brought his two little sons, Ephraim and Mana.s.seh, to his bedside, and the old man gave them his blessing, laying his right hand upon the head of Ephraim, the youngest, and his left hand on that of Mana.s.seh the first born, even as Isaac had given the birthright blessing to him instead of to Esau, and he said:
"The angel which redeemed me from all evil bless the lads."
Then he called all his sons together and told them what should befall them in the last days. To each one he spoke as a prophet speaks who has a vision of things to come, and he blessed them there. When he spoke to Judah, he told him that kings and lawgivers should arise from among his children until the Saviour of the world should come.
Jacob was an hundred and forty-seven years old when he died, and there was great mourning for him.
Joseph had the body of his father embalmed, as the Egyptians had the custom of doing, and after a long mourning in Egypt, Joseph and his brothers and many Egyptians who were Joseph"s friends, carried the body of Jacob to Canaan, in a great procession, and buried him in the cave of Machpelah, where his fathers were buried.
After they had returned to Egypt, the brothers of Joseph said:
"Perhaps now he will hate us, and bring upon us all the evil we did to him."
So they sent to him to ask his forgiveness for all that was past. Then Joseph wept, for he had nothing but love in his heart toward his brothers, and he wished them to trust him. He comforted them and spoke kindly to them, saying:
"Fear not: ye meant evil unto me, but G.o.d meant it unto good. I will nourish you and your little ones."
And so through all Joseph"s life, and he lived one hundred and ten years, he was a tender father to all his family, and a wise ruler of the people, and he died after making his family promise to carry his body back into Canaan to be buried with his fathers when they themselves should go.
"For G.o.d will surely visit you," he said, "and bring you out of this land into the land which he promised to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob."