Notes 61: Back to Egypt (43:1-15)

SYNOPSIS: They use up the provisions they had bought and the famine continues. They will need to go back to Egypt to buy more food, but they have been warned that they must bring Benjamin. Jacob resists letting him go but finally gives in as their situation is getting desperate; Judah promises to bring him back safely.

• Text of the passage (in Nawat)

The narrator of this story has already taken us on one round trip with Joseph's brothers from Canaan to Egypt, where they have unknowingly met Joseph, and back to Canaan. That return journey has given rise to several dramatically interesting scenes, and yet where the story's main tensions are concerned nothing has yet been resolved; in a sense everyone is back to square one. The brothers and their father are none the wiser for their adventure: they still believe or assume that Joseph met a bad end of one kind or another, and although they have obtained life-saving victuals, they will not last forever and the famine continues. And there are new problems: their brother Simeon is being held captive in Egypt, and they have been instructed to take young Benjamin with them the next time they turn up, but that is against Jacob's wishes. 

Meanwhile, from the audience's point of view it is clear that this is certainly not the end of the story. The dramatic situation surrounding Joseph and his brothers requires a resolution: we all know that the story cannot just end here! With great skill, the author is steadily drawing us in deeper, leaving us more intrigued: how will it all be resolved? However, what makes the writing more novelistic than any vulgar adventure story is the fact that its interest goes well beyond the discovery of answers about the plot such as "what will happen next?" or "who was it?" or "now what are they going to do?", into the realm of three-dimensional characterization and profound interactions between personalities and situations that are the hallmark of real literature. So the most fascinating questions in the reader's mind are not these, but others such as "how will this scene play out?" and "I wonder how these people feel." But we're not there yet; so let's turn down the lights and continue with the story. The family are at home; the stock of food is running low again; the famine is severe in Canaan...

43:3 ha‛ed he‛id banu ha'ish
(JPS) 'The man warned us.' The hiphil verb ‛-w-d used here means 'repeat, warn, admonish, assure.' Not to be confused with a homonymous denominal verb from ‛ed 'witness' meaning 'call to witness' (see CHALOT sub עוד). The root's primary meaning is believed to be the notion of repetition, and this is assumed to be the base from which was derived the common adverb ‛od. Accordingly, the verbs 'warn' and 'protest' of the traditional translations are adequate, but not so the LLX's diamarturetai nor the Vulg.'s denuntiavit sub testificatione iurandi! As for the H infinitive construction ha‛ed he‛id, this is no more than a normal conversational expression of predicate focus, cf. mot tamut etc., which it is usually best not to try to translate at all: 'you will die,' not 'you will certainly die'; so likewise in the present case not (KJV) 'the man did solemnly protest' or (ESV) 'the man solemnly warned us' but just 'the man warned us.'