“He said: Now too, it shall be in accordance with your words; the one with whom it shall be found will be a slave to me, and you shall be exonerated” (Genesis 44:10). “He said: Now too, it shall be in accordance with your words” – ten people, one of whom is implicated in theft, are they not all incarcerated? But I will not do so. “The one with whom it shall be found will be a slave to me.”
“He searched, he began with the eldest, and with the youngest he concluded; the goblet was found in Benjamin's sack” (Genesis 44:12). “He searched, he began with the eldest and with the youngest he concluded” – why did he do so? It was so they would not say that he knew where it had been placed. “The goblet was found in Benjamin's sack” – once the goblet was found, they said to him: ‘What [have you done,] thief who is son of a thief?’13The other brothers accused Benjamin of stealing the goblet and endangering them all, and criticized him as a thief son of a thief, as his mother, Rachel, stole her father’s household idols (Genesis 31:19).
He said to them: ‘Is the man [who sold] Joseph here? Are there goats here?14A reference to the goat the brothers had slaughtered in order to dip Joseph’s tunic in its blood so that Jacob would assume that Joseph had been mauled to death (Genesis 37:31). Can brothers who sold their brother [accuse me in this manner]? Astounding!’
“They rent their garments, and each man loaded his donkey, and they returned to the city” (Genesis 44:13). “They rent their garments…” – Rabbi Pinḥas in the name of Rabbi Hoshaya: The tribes caused their father to rend,15Jacob rent his garments upon learning of Joseph’s disappearance (Genesis 37:34). that is why, they, too, were afflicted. “Each man loaded his donkey…” – each of them would take his burden with one hand and place it on his donkey.16This was an expression of their great strength.
“They returned to the city…” – Rabbi Abahu said: It was a metropolis, and it says: “To the city”?17The verse could have stated “to Egypt.” The phrase “to the city” implies that it was like any other city, not the seat of power of the Egyptian empire (Maharzu). Rather, it teaches that it was no more significant in their eyes than a city of ten people.18The brothers were not afraid of having to wage war and conquer the city (Etz Yosef).