Page:The Story of Joseph and His Brethren.djvu/47

father having retained Benjamin at home. And now it was that they who hated Joseph for his dreams, and had done a cruel deed in order to belie them, began themselves to give them a literal fulfilment. When they came into his presence as the ruler of the land, in order to obtain corn, "they bowed down themselves with their faces to the earth." They knew not, indeed, that they were making "obeisance" to him whom they had sold to the Ishmaelites. But although they knew not Joseph, Joseph knew them. Joseph had now an object in view which induced him to withhold from them all knowledge of himself, and act towards them with affected suspicion and enmity. Having been told by them in answer to inquiries, who and whose sons they were, he accused them of being spies, and having no other object in coming into Egypt than to see the nakedness of the land. They had told him that Benjamin their youngest brother had been left with their father. Joseph's immediate object was to have Benjamin brought down. And his great desire to see Benjamin arose from himself and Ben-