Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Genesis 44:13
Then they rent their clothes, and laded every man his ass, and returned to the city.
13. rent their clothes ] See Gen 37:29.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Being afraid and ashamed to go to their father without Benjamin, concerning whom they had received so severe a charge, and made such solemn promises and imprecations.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
Then they rent their clothes,…. In token of sorrow and distress, being at their wits’ end, like distracted persons, not knowing what to do: this was usually done in the eastern countries when any evil befell, as did Jacob, Ge 37:34; and as the Egyptians themselves did when mourning for their dead, as Diodorus Siculus q relates:
and laded every man his ass; put their sacks of corn on their asses again, having tied them up:
and returned to the city; to the metropolis, as Jarchi, which was either Tanis, that is, Zoan, or, as others think, Memphis: hither they returned to see how it would go with Benjamin, to plead his cause and get him released, that he might go with them, they being afraid to see their father’s face without him; otherwise, could they have been content to have gone without him, they might have proceeded on in their journey, see Ge 44:17.
q Bibliothec. l. 1. p. 65.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
13. Rent their clothes They were now horror-stricken, and utterly overwhelmed with dismay . They could not utter any word of explanation, and they hastened back to the city .
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘Then they tore their clothes and every man loaded his ass and returned to the city.’
The joy of freedom and success has gone. They accepted that the verdict of guilty was a foregone conclusion. ‘They tore their clothes’, an accepted way of conveying despair and sorrow. And their minds were numb. They could not understand what had happened. But they knew what it meant. Did they believe Benjamin was guilty? Probably not. The cup had appeared in some strange way just like the silver. They simply accepted that fate was against them.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Gen 44:13. Rent their clothes Loniginus lays it down in his Treatise on the Sublime, that one of the first means to attain it, is an accurate and judicious choice of the most suitable circumstances. We cannot have a higher instance of this excellence, than in that striking circumstance in the present narration, which fills the mind with a vast series of ideas: they rent their clothes, says Moses, by which single expression he paints their anguish and confusion, in more lively colours than could have been done by an enumeration of every circumstance indicating grief.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Gen 44:13 Then they rent their clothes, and laded every man his ass, and returned to the city.
Ver. 13. Then they rent their clothes. ] In token of the rending of their hearts for their sins, which now had found them out, and they their sins: for misery is the best art of memory; being like to that helve Elisha cast into the waters, which fetched up the iron in the bottom. Conscience is like a looking glass, which while it lieth all covered with dust, showeth not a man his natural visage: but when it is wiped, then it makes the least blemish appear. Never till now could we hear these men confess. Now, what shall we say unto my lord? what shall we speak? saith Judah, the Confessor – so his name signifieth. Or how shall we clear ourselves? God hath found out the iniquity of thy servants. Not this, that they were now charged with (for why should they be false to their own innocency?); but their cruelty to Joseph, and other like foul offences; for the which God in his just judgment had now brought them to condign punishment. How could Joseph hold, when he heard all this; and not cry out, as Paul did, in a like case, to his disconsolate Corinthians:
“Though I made you sorry with a letter” (with a cup), “I do not repent, though I did repent: for I perceive that this same epistle” (cup) “hath made you sorry, though it were but for a season. Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing For behold this self-same thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it hath wrought in you, yea, what apology, a yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter.” 2Co 7:8-11
a A , Satisfaction, saith the old interpreter. It may be he meant a new life, to make amends thereby to the congregation offended, saith Bradford. – Serm. of Repent., 14.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Gen 37:29-34, Num 14:6, 2Sa 1:2, 2Sa 1:11, 2Sa 13:19
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Gen 44:13-14. They rent their clothes, and laded every man his ass, &c. Nothing can be more moving than this verse. Never was there a more striking picture drawn in words. Whole passages on the subject would not have affected the mind so much. These two or three words have a greater effect than the most pompous description of their amazement and trouble. Imagination supplies all the circumstances to us, and we see them before our eyes returning to the city, with silent sorrow, dreadful fear, the utmost confusion and perplexity, wholly at a loss what to say or do. They fell before him on the ground Here again Josephs dream was fulfilled; but it must needs affect him greatly to see his brethren thus covered with shame and rent with anguish.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
44:13 Then they {c} rent their clothes, and laded every man his ass, and returned to the city.
(c) To show how greatly the thing displeased them and how sorry they were for it.