7 (J) ‖ 8 (E). That Joseph was not recognised by his brethren is natural, and creates a situation of whose dramatic possibilities the narrators take full advantage. The strange mixture of harshness and magnanimity in Joseph's treatment of his brothers, the skill with which he plays alternately on their fears and their hopes, the struggle in his mind between assumed severity and real affection, form the chief interest of the narratives up to the time of the final disclosure. It is unnecessary to suppose that the writers traced in all this the unfolding of a consistent ethical purpose on Joseph's part, and it is certainly an exaggeration to speak of it as an exhibition of 'seelsorgerische geistliche Weisheit' (De.). On the other hand, to say that his object was merely to punish them (Gu.), is clearly inadequate. To the writers, as to the brethren, the official Joseph is an inscrutable person, whose motives defy analysis; and it is probably a mistake to try to read a moral meaning into all the devices by which his penetrating knowledge of the human heart is exemplified.—9. Ye are spies] A charge that travellers in the East often encounter (see p. 484 below). The eastern frontier of Egypt was fortified and closely watched (Erman, LAE, 537 ff.), and a band of ten men seeking to cross it excited suspicion.—the nakedness of the land] Not its poverty, but its open and defenceless spots.—11 (J) ‖ 13 (E). sons of one man, etc.] Their eagerness to clear their character betrays them into a disclosure of their family circumstances, which in J is followed up by direct interrogation and a warning that they need not return without their youngest brother (p. 473 above); while in E, Joseph seizes on the reference to Benjamin as a test of their veracity, and threatens that they shall not leave Egypt until he is produced (15f.).—one is not] It is a fine instance of
cont. Ap. i. 77, can hardly be other than accidental.—(
Hebrew characters)2] [E]STJ (Hebrew characters).—9.
(Hebrew characters)] lit. pudenda, is only here used of defencelessness. Ar. 'aurat
is similarly used of a 'breach in the frontier of a hostile country' (Lane,
2194 c); cf. Ḳor. S. 3313 "our houses are 'aurat,"—a nakedness, i.e.
unoccupied and undefended. G has (Greek characters) (reading perhaps (Hebrew characters) [Ba.]);
Σ. (Greek characters).—10. (Hebrew characters)] cf. G-K. § 163 a: [E]GS om. (Hebrew characters).—11. (Hebrew characters)] So
Ex. 167. 8, Nu. 3232, La. 342† (G-K. § 32 d); [E] (Hebrew characters).—(Hebrew characters)] lit. 'right
men,' is used of persons only in this ch.—13. (Hebrew characters)] G om., perhaps
