Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Genesis 44:4

[And] when they were gone out of the city, [and] not [yet] far off, Joseph said unto his steward, Up, follow after the men; and when thou dost overtake them, say unto them, Wherefore have ye rewarded evil for good?

4. the city ] The name of the city is most unfortunately not given. Memphis would be suitable: cf. Gen 45:10. The moment of the men’s arrest is well timed. Everything had gone off well. They had got their corn; they had been acquitted of any complicity in the return of the money; they had been hospitably treated by the “lord”; they were well on their way homeward.

Wherefore have ye rewarded ] The guilt of Joseph’s brethren is presented in an ascending scale of enormity: (1) it was theft; (2) by guests from their host’s table; (3) of an article of special sanctity. The LXX, in order to supply the connexion between Gen 44:4-5, inserts at the end of Gen 44:4, ; = “Wherefore have ye stolen my silver cup?”

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

4. When they were gone out of thecity . . . Joseph said unto his stewardThey were brought to asudden halt by the stunning intelligence that an article of rarevalue was missing from the governor’s house. It was a silver cup; sostrong suspicions were entertained against them that a specialmessenger was despatched to search them.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

[And] when they were gone out of the city, [and] not [yet] far off,…. Which perhaps was Tanis, the Zoan of the Scriptures; see

Eze 30:14, margin;

Joseph said unto his steward, up, follow after the men; who no doubt was ready provided with men and horses, to go out and pursue when Joseph should give the orders, he being privy to Joseph’s intentions, and with whom the scheme was concerted, and the secret was. Joseph appears to have been up very early this morning, and had observed the exact time of his brethren’s departure, and guessed whereabouts they might be when he sent his steward, and others after them; for it can hardly be thought he was sent alone after eleven men, and to charge them with a theft, and bring them back again:

and when thou dost overtake them, say unto them, wherefore have ye rewarded evil for good? in taking away the silver cup, when they had been so kindly and bountifully entertained. This he was to represent as base ingratitude, as it would have appeared, had it been fact. In much such manner was Esop used by the inhabitants of Delphos; they, being displeased with him, put a sacred cup or vial into his bags, which he, being ignorant of, went on his way towards Phocis; and they ran after him, and seized him, and charged him with sacrilege h.

h Scholia ad Vespes Aristophanis, p. 534. Ed. Genev. 1607.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

‘And when they had left the city and were as yet no great distance Joseph said to his steward, “Up, follow after the men, and when you overtake them say to them, “Why have you rewarded evil for good? Is not this cup the one in which my lord drinks, and by which indeed he divines? You have done evil in so doing.” And he overtook them and spoke to them these words.’

Joseph now sends his steward after the brothers to call them to task because of the cup. It is stressed that the cup is a special one, for it not only has a use for drinking but it is also his divining cup. It is thus a sacred object and the penalty for such a theft is death (compare 31:30-32). Whether Joseph actually used the cup for this purpose we do not know, but every great man in Egypt would have his divining cup. The divining would be carried out by specialists. Divining with a cup was a common practise in the ancient world. Small objects were placed in the cup and the future was deduced by the effect produced on the liquid.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

And doth not this plan of Joseph to detain his brethren, lead the Reader to remark, how graciously JESUS useth means to detain our hearts, in order to bring them home to himself?

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Gen 44:4 [And] when they were gone out of the city, [and] not [yet] far off, Joseph said unto his steward, Up, follow after the men; and when thou dost overtake them, say unto them, Wherefore have ye rewarded evil for good?

Ver. 4. Wherefore have ye rewarded evil for good? ] This, blind nature saw to be the sum of all sins. Ingratum dixeris, omnia dixeris. Some vices are such as nature smiles upon, though frowned at by divine justice; not so this. Hercules is much condemned by the heathens for killing his schoolmaster Linus; Alexander, for doing the like by his friend Clitus; Nero, by his tutor Seneca: Muleasses, king of Tunis, is cried out on, for torturing to death the Manifet and Mesnar, by whose means especially he had aspired to the kingdom. a Philip, king of Macedonia, caused a soldier of his, that had offered unkindness to one that had kindly entertained him, to be branded in the forehead, with these two words; Hospes ingratus. Unthankfulness is a monster in nature, a solecism in manners, a paradox in divinity, a parching wind to dry up the fountain of further favour. Benjamin’s five fold mess was no small aggravation to the theft here laid to his charge. b

a Turk. Hist., fol. 642.

b Manlii, loc. com.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)