Genesis 44:2

2 Put my cup, the silver cup, in the sack's mouth of the youngest, with his grain money." He did according to the word that Yosef had spoken.

Genesis 44:2 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 44:2

And put my cup, the silver cup, in the sack's mouth of the
youngest
Benjamin; this he ordered to be done, partly to put him in apparent danger, and try how his brethren would behave towards him in such circumstances, and thereby know how they stood affected to him; and partly that he might have an excuse for retaining him with him. This cup was valuable both for the matter of it, being of silver, and for the use of it, being what Joseph himself drank out of: and by the word used to express it, it seems to have been a large embossed cup, a kind of goblet, for it has the signification of a little hill. Jarchi says it was a long cup, which they called "mederno". The Septuagint render it by "condy", which is said to be a Persian word, and a kind of an Attalic cup, that held ten cotylae ^F7, or four or five quarts, and weighed ninety ounces; but a cup so large seems to be too large to drink out of: and his corn money;
what he had paid for his corn: and he did according to the word that Joseph had spoken;
put every man's money in the mouth of his sack, and his silver cup with the corn money into Benjamin's sack.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F7 Nicomachus de festis Aegypt. apud Athenaeum, l. 11. c. 7.

Genesis 44:2 In-Context

1 He commanded the steward of his house, saying, "Fill the men's sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put every man's money in his sack's mouth.

2 Put my cup, the silver cup, in the sack's mouth of the youngest, with his grain money." He did according to the word that Yosef had spoken.

3 As soon as the morning was light, the men were sent away, they and their donkeys.

4 When they had gone out of the city, and were not yet far off, Yosef said to his steward, "Up, follow after the men. When you overtake them, tell them, 'Why have you rewarded evil for good?

5 Isn't this that from which my lord drinks, and whereby he indeed divines? You have done evil in so doing.'"