Three days passed. On the third, he calls them and says: "I am one of those who fear God. This is what you should do: if you are in a peaceful disposition, then go and take the wheat you bought; one of you will be kept here in custody. Next time bring your brother to me: by this you will prove the truth of your words. But if you do not bring the younger brother, you will see my face below!" He had not yet completely dismissed them, and while he was busy with the other buyers, the sons of Jacob began to converse quietly among themselves in the Hebrew language. Could they have imagined that the formidable Egyptian nobleman understood them! And he follows every word with intense hearing and attention; His every word is caught by his soul, full of holy love, acting with holy, salvific wisdom. "Rightly," said the sons of Jacob to one another, "the sin which we have committed against our brother pursues us! We have despised his deep sorrow, we have not listened to him when he begged us, "This misfortune has come upon us for him!" Reuben said to the others: "Did I not tell you, do not offend the young man? You have not listened to me: behold, his blood is being demanded." The words of the brothers pierced Joseph's sensitive heart. He left them for a moment and relieved his burdened heart with streams of tears. Then he came to them again, chose Simeon from among them, and commanded them to put fetters on him before their eyes. In the actions of the wise Joseph everything has its reason. The Scriptures are silent about the reason why chains became the lot of the wild and ferocious Simeon, not any other of the brothers; but from the same Scripture it is clear that it was he who needed a stricter lesson. All ten brothers indulged in grave offenses, but Simeon stained himself with the terrible murder of the Shechemites, by which he exposed the entire family of the holy patriarch to a terrible danger, from which they were delivered by the special intercession of Providence. And was it not his hands that were raised to another murder, more horrible and criminal?.. Joseph gave a secret order to fill the sacks of the brothers with wheat, and to put the money given for the wheat into each of them's sack, and in addition to that, to give them food for their journey. Evidently, each of them paid separately for the wheat he took: this is a trait, one of those by which the remote customs of Biblical antiquity are depicted before us.

Having loaded the donkeys with wheat, the sons of Jacob set off on their return journey. At the first camp, one of them, with the intention of feeding the donkey, took off the sack from it, which somehow untied, and saw a bundle of his money in a sack, on top of the wheat. He shouted to his brothers: "My money has been returned to me! Here they are... in my bag." Their hearts were terrified, they were troubled, and said to one another, "What is God doing to us?" And when they came to the land of Canaan, to their father, they told all that had happened to them, saying, "My husband, the lord of the land, has treated us very harshly, and has even put us in prison as spies. We said to him: "No! Sir, we are not spies! We came with a peaceful disposition. We are twelve brethren, we are the sons of our father; one of us... is gone, and the lesser one was with his father, in the land of Canaan." The man, the lord of the earth, answered us: "This will be a proof to me that you are not spies, but people of peaceful disposition: leave one of you here with me; yourselves, having taken the wheat bought for your house, go; but bring your younger brother to me. By this I will know that you are not spies, but people of peace, and then I will give you your brother, who now remains a hostage to me, and you will trade freely in the land of Egypt." When they poured the wheat out of the sacks, each of them had a bundle with his money given for the wheat. When they saw the bundles of their money, they were frightened. Their father saw these bundles and was also afraid. "You," he said to them, "have made me childless! Joseph is gone, Simeon is gone, and do you want to take Benjamin? All these misfortunes have fallen on my head for you." Reuben answered him: "Kill my two sons, if I do not bring Benjamin back to you." The elder answered: "My son will not go with you! His brother died; he is left alone: if evil happens to him on the road on which you are going, then you will bring my old age with sorrow to hell."

The famine intensified, intensified, overcame the land [40]. Jacob's house ran out of wheat brought from Egypt, and the elder said to his sons: "Go down to Egypt again, buy us some bread." Judas answered him: "A man, the lord of the land, has told us, confirming his words with an oath, that we will not see his face unless our younger brother comes with us." Jacob remarked: "Why did you do this evil deed, why did you tell your husband that you have a brother?" He asked: is your father still alive? Do you still have a brother? We answered his questions. Did we know that he would say, "Bring your brother?" Then Judas began to persuade his father: "Let the young man go with me; we will get up, go, and get bread to feed you and ourselves, so that we may not die of hunger. I will take Benjamin upon my responsibility: from my hand you shall demand him. If I do not bring him back and set him before you, let your wrath be against me all my life. If we had not delayed so long, we would have had time to visit Egypt twice." To this the father said: "If so, then do this: take the works here and bring them to that man as a gift. Take frankincense, honey, styraxes and nuts. Take double money, so that you can return the money found in your bags: perhaps they got there due to some misunderstanding. And take your brother. Get ready for the journey and go to your husband. May my God incline the man to mercy, that he may let your brother and Benjamin go. I have completely become childless!"

The sons of Jacob took with them gifts and double money, and went to Egypt. Arriving there, they presented themselves to Joseph. Joseph saw Benjamin, his brother on his mother's side, and his soul was troubled. He called the steward of his house and said to him: "Bring these people to my house and prepare a good dinner: at noon they will dine with me." The steward fulfilled Joseph's command, and led the brothers to his house. Seeing that they were being led to Joseph's house, they said to one another: "We are brought here on account of the money found in our sacks, to slander us, to accuse us, to take us as slaves, and to take possession of our asses." Therefore, at the gate of the house, without entering it, they approached the steward and said to him: "We beseech you, hear us. When we came for the first time to buy bread and, taking our sacks piled up, set off on our way back, at the first camp we untied our sacks and suddenly saw our money, each in his own bag; We have now brought this money back, in weight. And to buy new bread, they brought other money. Who put the silver we gave for the first bread into our sacks, we do not know." "Calm down," replied the steward, "fear nothing. Your God, the God of your fathers, has sent you riches into your sacks. And the money you contributed is listed in my parish and is counted among the received." He brought Simeon to them. Then water was brought, their feet were washed, and the donkeys were given food. They laid out the gifts, and having prepared them, they waited for Joseph to come out by noon.

When Joseph returned to the house, the brothers brought him gifts and bowed their foreheads to the ground. He asked them, "Are you well? Then he added: "Is the elder, your father, about whom you told me, alive?" Is he still alive?" They answered: "Your servant, our father, is still alive and well." "Blessed is this man in the sight of God!" said Joseph. They bowed low to him. Finding Benjamin among them, Joseph asked: "Is this your younger brother, whom you promised to bring to me?" And to their affirmative answer he said: "May God have mercy on you, my child!" his heart beat violently; tears poured from her eyes. He hastily went to his bedroom, where he was satiated with tears; then he washed his face, went out to the brothers and, restraining himself, said: "Offer a meal." It was prepared separately for him, and separately for the sons of Jacob, and separately for the Egyptians, who dined with the nobleman that day. The Egyptians, the Scriptures relate, could not be at the same table with the Hebrews; They, according to their belief, abhorred any shepherd-sheep breeder. The sons of Jacob were seated directly opposite Joseph, according to their years. They were surprised to see themselves seated according to seniority. They were served food, each separately a part of it: Joseph himself laid down the parts, and Benjamin was given more than the rest of the brethren. Wine was also served. The hearts of the sons of Jacob were at ease at a sumptuous and friendly meal. Unaccustomed to embarrassing themselves, the desert shepherds ate their fill, and drank plentifully. This meal prefigured the spiritual meal of Christ the Savior, offered to Christians at the Divine Liturgy. The Lord was pleased to become our brother, He acquired dominion over the world — the mysterious Egypt — and to His brethren, who suffer under the burden of sin, He prepared a table and a reverent sovereign chalice,[41] His Most Holy Body and His Most Holy Blood. Christians, partaking of this Divine Food, partake of eternal life, are freed from sins and, in the ecstasy of spiritual delight, forget the sorrows that oppress them during their wanderings in Egypt – in a foreign country, in the land of exile: this country, full of sorrows and calamities, visible and invisible, is earthly life.

Joseph, meanwhile, gave a secret order to his subordinates [42]: "Fill the sacks of these people with wheat, pour in more, if only they are able to carry them away. Put everyone's money in a bag on top of the wheat. In a sack of lesser things, besides money, put my silver cup." Everything was done by order of Joseph. Morning came: the sons of Jacob set out with donkeys loaded with grain. When they left the city and were not far away, Joseph said to his steward: "Go quickly in pursuit of these people, overtake them, and say, What is this? Have you repaid my good with evil? Why did you steal my silver cup? Is this not the cup from which my lord drinks? and in it he sorcerers." The steward, overtaking them, repeated word for word what Joseph had commanded. They answered: "In vain does the lord say so! No, your servants did not do this. If the money we found in our sacks we brought again from the land of Canaan, why should we steal silver and gold from your master's house? Whoever you find a cup from, let him be executed, and we will give ourselves up as slaves to our master." The steward answered: "Let it be according to your word: whoever has a cup, let him become a slave to my master." They hurriedly took the sacks from the donkeys, and each untied his sack. The steward began to search from the eldest, reached the youngest; the cup was found in Benjamin's bag. In despair, they tore their clothes, put the sacks on the donkeys, and returned to the city. And Joseph was in his house, and they came to him, and fell down before him to the ground. "What did you do? "Did you not know that there is no diviner like me on earth?" We have nothing to answer you, nothing to say, nothing to justify ourselves with! God punishes the secret transgression of your servants. We give ourselves as slaves to our master. Let us be your servants, we and the one who has the cup." "Why should I," said Joseph, "be unjust? Whoever has the cup, let him be my servant, and you go freely to your father." Then Judas came to him and said: "Lord! I beseech thee, let me speak a few words before thee, and be not angry with thy servant: I know that thou art second in Pharaoh. Mister! Thou hast asked thy servants, Have ye a father or a brother? And we said to the master, "We have an aged father and a younger brother, born when the father was already in old age." My mother had two of them: the eldest... Died; this one was left alone, and his father loved him. Thou hast said unto thy servants, Bring him unto me, for I desire to see him. We said to the lord, "It is impossible for a young man to leave his father; If he leaves his father, his father will die. And thou hast said unto thy servants, Except thy younger brother come, ye shall see my face no more. When we came to thy servant our father, we told him the words of our master. Father told us: "Go again, buy bread." We answered: "We can't go! If our younger brother goes with us, then let us go: for without him we will not be allowed before a man." Your servant, our father, said to us: "You know that my wife bore me two. One went from me to you: you said that he was eaten by a beast; from that time until now I have not seen him. If you take this and some evil happens to him, you will bring my old age with sorrow to hell." Therefore, if I go now to your servant our father, and the young man is not with me, for his soul is attached to his soul... This! "And when my father sees that the young man is not with us, he will die." And your servants will bring the old age of your servant our father with sorrow to hell. I, thy servant, took the young man from his father, and said unto him, Unless I bring him unto thee, and set him before thee, let thy wrath be upon me all the days of my life. Let me be your servant instead of a young man... Yes! a slave to the master... And let the young man go with his brothers. How can I go to my father without a young man? I cannot bear the sorrow that will strike my father." Joseph could no longer restrain and conceal himself [43]. He ordered all those present {p. 35} to come out; There was not even one from his retinue and family when he revealed himself to his brothers. Everyone left; then Joseph cried out to his brethren with weeping and wailing, "I am Joseph.. Is my father still alive?" Joseph said to them, "Draw near to me." They approached him. "I am Joseph," he repeated to them, "I am your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. Do not grieve that you sold me here... So that it does not disturb you, does not torment you! God, Who provides for your salvation, has sent me here. This is the second year of famine on the earth, and there are still five years left, in which the land will be ploughed in vain, in which there will be no harvest. God has sent me before you to prepare for you a shelter on earth and to feed our large family. It was not you who sold me here: God sent me hither, and made me as a father to Pharaoh, lord over all his house, and lord of all the land of Egypt. Hasten to return to my father, and say to him, This is what your son Joseph says to you: God has made me lord of Egypt: come to me, do not tarry. Thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen, thou shalt be near me, thou and thy sons, and thy sons' sons, and thy sheep, and thy oxen, and all thy flocks. I will provide you with food, because there will be a famine in the land for another five years. Your eyes see, and the eyes of Benjamin my brother see that I speak these things to you through my mouth. Tell my father all the glory and power that was given to me in Egypt, which you saw with your own eyes. Make haste, bring my father here." He threw himself on the neck of Benjamin, and having embraced him, he wept, and Benjamin embraced him, and wept also. Then with tears he embraced all his brothers. Then their lips, hitherto sealed with fear and perplexity, were opened: they entered into conversation with Joseph.

A rumor reached the house of Pharaoh about the arrival of Joseph's brothers; Pharaoh and his court rejoiced. Pharaoh said to Joseph: "Say to your brethren, 'Do this, fill your sacks with bread, go to the land of Canaan, and take your father, and go to me with all your possessions. The riches of Egypt are open to you." Joseph gave his brothers, each of them, two changes of clothes, and Benjamin five changes and three hundred gold coins. To his father he sent many gifts on ten donkeys, and gave ten mules of bread for the journey. Having thus gifted his brethren, he sent them away; dismissing, he said: "On the way, do not quarrel among yourselves." The free pets of the desert needed such an instruction: of course, now they gave him the weight he deserved, remembered and preserved him.

And the sons of Jacob returned to their father in the land of Canaan, and said to him, Thy son Joseph lives, and he is the ruler of all the land of Egypt. Jacob was horrified, and did not believe them, and they assured him, and recounted exactly all the words of Joseph. When the elder saw the rich gifts and chariots sent for him by Joseph, then his spirit came to life, and Jacob said: "Great for me, if Joseph is still alive! I will go and see him before I die."

The Patriarch got up with all the household, with all his property; having reached the so-called Well of Oath, he offered sacrifice to God near it [44]. In a night vision, God said to the elder: "Jacob! Jacob! I am the God of your fathers. Do not be afraid to go to Egypt: there I will make you a great nation. I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will bring you out of there. Joseph will close your eyes with his hands."

Jacob's family, when they migrated to Egypt, consisted of seventy-five male souls, including Joseph and his sons. When he reached the land of Goshen, he sent Judas to inform Joseph of his arrival. Joseph ordered the chariots to be harnessed and rode out to meet the elder-father in the region of Goshen; Seeing him, he threw himself on his neck with a cry and sobs. And Jacob said to Joseph, Let me die now, for I have seen thy face, and thou art yet alive. When all the family had arrived in Egypt, Joseph said to his brothers, I will go to Pharaoh, and tell him of your coming, and I will say, My brethren, and all my father's house, which dwelt in the land of Canaan, have come to me. They are cattle breeders: this is the occupation of our race from time immemorial. They also brought their flocks here. If Pharaoh calls you and asks what your occupation is, answer him, 'We, your servants, have been engaged in cattle breeding from childhood to this day; our fathers were also engaged in it. And he will say to you, 'Settle yourselves in Goshen of Arabia.'" "This large plot of fertile land, very convenient for cattle breeding, has never been inhabited. The reason for the placement of the patriarch's family in a separate and uninhabited country, says the Scriptures, was the well-known belief of the Egyptians, who considered those who were engaged in sheep breeding to be unclean.

{p. 37}

Joseph reported to Pharaoh that his father and brothers with their flocks had come from the land of Canaan and had stopped in the land of Goshen [45]. From among the brothers, he chose five people and presented them to Pharaoh. Pharaoh asked Joseph's brothers, "What do you do?" and they answered, "We your servants are engaged in sheep-breeding: this occupation has been ours since childhood, and the occupation of our fathers and forefathers. Now we have come to dwell in your land: in the Canaanite side the famine is exceedingly great, and the pastures there are not sufficient for our flocks. Allow your servants to dwell in the land of Goshen." Pharaoh answered Joseph, "Your father and your brothers have come to you. The whole land of Egypt is before you; Put them in the best place. Let them dwell in the land of Goshen. And if there are men of ability among them, then appoint them elders over my flocks." Joseph also brought Jacob before Pharaoh: the elder blessed the king of Egypt. Pharaoh asked Jacob about the number of his years. "I," answered the elder, "am one hundred and thirty years old. I'm a little old! My life is full of misfortunes: I will not live as long as my fathers did." And having again blessed the king, the elder left him. Joseph did everything according to Pharaoh's command regarding the placement of his father in the land of Goshen. There the beloved son often visited his elder father and provided him with everything necessary for his maintenance.

Various details about the civil structure of Egypt in the time of Joseph, preserved for us in the Book of Genesis, are very interesting. In these details one can see a pattern of how states originally arose, how people passed from a state of savage freedom to a state of subjection; how this citizenship was at first incomplete and more suitable for patriarchal subordination; how it later became an unconditional citizenship; finally, it is immediately clear that the founder of the autocratic (or monarchical) government in Egypt was the wise, St. Joseph. The court of Pharaoh at that time, although it already presents a certain grandeur and pomp, has not yet had time to deviate from patriarchal simplicity: his supreme courtier is personally engaged in the sale of grain; another courtier carries baskets of bread on his head, a third squeezes the juice from the grapes into a cup with his own hands, and gives this cup to the king, not only on days of solemn feasts, but, as it seems, every day. The population in Egypt was still very small, so that the whole fertile region of Goshen remained uninhabited, and the inhabitants of the cities had the opportunity to engage in ploughing and cattle breeding, the Book of Genesis breathes the youth of the political world. The story of the divinely inspired writer of this book, Moses, by its naturalness transports the attentive reader to a remote, sacred antiquity, to these people who lived in wondrous simplicity, to this newly begun life, devoid of all refinements. This life and this simplicity are full of power! Whoever often immerses himself in the contemplation of Biblical stories will certainly feel a special, strange impression in his soul. This impression consists in the smell of some freshness, youth, as if from breathing the air of a beautiful summer morning. The soul becomes younger from gazing at the youth of the world, from conversation with the young world; Her strength is invigorated, strengthened, as the spirit of an elder comes to life in the company of children. It is pleasant to enjoy the freshness of the young world, to relax in it from the impressions of the modern, decrepit, crumbling.

Severe hunger continued; Egypt and Palestine suffered from it especially: in these countries no one had bread except that which was procured by Joseph. There was no gold or silver left in both lands: all the money passed into the hands of Joseph, and he deposited it in the treasury of Pharaoh, which, it should be noted, was in the very house of the king of Egypt. The Egyptians, having no money, were in need of bread: they sold to Pharaoh first their cattle, then their lands, and finally themselves. This is the beginning of unconditional allegiance in Egypt. Only the lands of the priests remained their property: they received bread from the pharaoh free of charge, as alms. At the end of the years of famine, when the Egyptians had secured both their lands and themselves for Pharaoh, Joseph gave them seeds for sowing, so that they would give a fifth of the harvest annually as tribute to the treasury. This newly established measure regarding tribute and the very coup regarding power were accepted with pleasure and gratitude by the people of the newly-born autocratic state. "Thou hast preserved our lives," the Egyptians said to Joseph, "thou art our benefactor; let us be slaves to Pharaoh." The writer of the Book of Genesis notes that this tribute remained unchanged in his time, that is, after almost four centuries. From the writings of incomparably later writers, Herodotus and Diodorus, it is evident that the same method of collecting taxes continued until their time, and it is evident that the land in Egypt was the property of the kings of Egypt. The revenues of the kings of Egypt from the land, says Diodorus, were so satisfactory that they made any other tribute from the people unnecessary. In this order one can see the deep, bright mind of Joseph, his extraordinary ability to govern, an ability that was revealed in him from his very youth and which was so quickly and justly noticed by both the commander of the bodyguard and the commander of the prison. It establishes a strong tax, but extremely convenient for contribution according to the nature of the country. What tribute is more characteristic of fertile Egypt than a tribute of grain? It was easy to apply it where the harvest was ordinary - a hundred itself; it was easy to transport from the fields lying by the navigable river, such as all the fields of Egypt located on the banks of the Nile, to the cities with grain storerooms standing by the same river; it was easy to compensate for arrears that could occur in lean years by paying in years of exorbitant harvest. If it is possible to call any harvests exorbitant, then this name belongs mainly to the harvests of the Egyptian fields before all the harvests of the world. The sale of grain inside was quite convenient for the pharaoh from the wharves lying by the same navigable river. Later, when harbors were established near the Mediterranean Sea, on the shores of which dwelt the entire enlightened and trading world of that time, Egypt became the granary of this world and remained its granary, as long as the Mediterranean Sea remained its center; and it was the center of the educated, active world almost until modern times, almost throughout the life of the world. Joseph's decree had extraordinary solidity, for all its simplicity: therefore it was durable. The very time reveres the wise decree of the state, and after many centuries preserves it in inviolable, so beneficial for states, immutability. Through the state's beneficence, which was obvious to all, Joseph strengthened and formed the power of the pharaohs, provided the new state with capital and constant, abundant income.