Page:PracticalCommentaryOnHolyScripture.djvu/147

 the dreams he  had  dreamed. He wished  to  know  whether  they were now  sorry  for  their  sin;  so  he  spoke  to  them,  as  if  they were strangers  to  him,  and  said:  “You  are  spies.”

They answered:  “It  is  not  so,  my  lord,  but  we  have  come to buy  food. We, thy  servants,  are  twelve  brethren,  the  sons  of one  man  in  the  land  of  Chanaan. The youngest  is  with  our father; the  other  is  not  living. Joseph then  cast  them  into  prison for  three  days.

On the  third  day,  he  brought  them  out  and  said:  “If  you be peaceable  men,  let  one  of  your  brethren  be  bound  in  prison, and go  ye  your  ways,  and  carry  the  corn,  that  you  have  bought into your  houses;  and  bring  your  youngest  brother  to  me,  that  I may  find  your  words  to  be  true,  and  you  may  not  die.”

Then they  said  one  to  another:  “We  deserve  to  suffer  these things, because  we  have  sinned  against  our  brother,  seeing  the anguish of  his  soul  when  he  besought  us,  and  we  would  not  hear; therefore is  this  affliction  come  upon  us.”  They  thought  that Joseph did  not  understand  them,  for  he  spoke  to  them  through  an interpreter. But he  understood  all  that  they  said,  and  his  heart was moved  with  pity,  so  that,  turning  aside  from  them,  he  wept.

But in  order  to  see  if  their  repentance  was  sincere,  he  returned to  them  and  ordered  Simeon  to  be  bound  before  their