Page:The Story of Joseph and His Brethren.djvu/55

52 And he lifted up his eyes, and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother's son, and said. Is this your younger brother of whom ye spake unto me? And he said, God be gracious unto thee, my son. And Joseph made haste; for his bowels did yearn upon his brother, and he sought where to weep: and he entered into his chamber and wept there."

When Joseph, after giving vent to his feelings, returned, having washed the effects of weeping from his face and refrained himself, he desired his servants to set on bread, a term which includes all kinds of food, and his brethren sat before him, the first-born according to his birthright, and the youngest according to his youth, and the men marvelled at one another. Some have supposed that the cause of their marvelling was that they had been placed in this order, wondering how they had been desired to sit in the exact order of their birth. However this may be, "Joseph sent messes unto them, giving Benjamin five times as much as any of the others, and they drank and were merry with him."