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Joseph Hid His Strongest Brothers From Pharaoh

Only five brothers went in to see Pharaoh. Joseph chose the quiet ones and left the fighters outside, so Egypt could not draft them into its army.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. Five Before the Throne
  2. A Viceroy Who Rode Out for His Father
  3. Gifts That Would Not Tear the House
  4. Counsel for the Road
  5. Strategy and Tenderness
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Five Before the Throne

Joseph stopped his brothers at the palace threshold and sorted them with a general's eye and a brother's fear. Before Pharaoh he would present only five (Genesis 47:2). He would not line up the full dozen of Jacob's strength.

He deliberately picked those who would not catch a conqueror's appetite: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Issachar, and Benjamin. The reasoning was sharp. If he paraded the mightiest brothers before Pharaoh, the king would instantly conscript them into his army, and the family would lose its warriors to Egypt's wars. Better to present those who would not light a draft officer's smile.

How do the sages know which brothers were the strong ones? They read it out of Moses' final blessings in Deuteronomy. Wherever a tribe's name is doubled in the blessing, that tribe was mighty. By that measure the powerful ones stayed back, and the quieter ones stood in the light.

A Viceroy Who Rode Out for His Father

Woven into the court strategy is a softer scene. When Joseph heard his father had reached Egypt's border, he harnessed his own chariot and rode out to meet him. Ordinarily everyone goes out to greet the king, and the king goes out to greet no one. Here the viceroy of Egypt rode out himself.

A person's father holds the standing of a king. Even the second most powerful man in the world bows to honor the one who raised him. Joseph could hide his brothers' muscle from Pharaoh and still refuse to hide his own debt to Jacob.

Gifts That Would Not Tear the House

News raced through Pharaoh's palace: Joseph's brothers had come. When Joseph loaded gifts onto them, he was careful. He had watched his own father's favoritism tear a family apart over the weight of a little extra cloth. Why then did he give Benjamin five garments?

Not to stir old jealousy, but as a coded blessing. A hint that Benjamin's descendant Mordecai would one day walk out of a Persian king's palace robed in five royal garments, the savior of his people in the days of Esther. To aged Jacob, Joseph sent something tender: old wine, the drink that settles the heart of the elderly.

Counsel for the Road

He gave his brothers traveling advice the sages turned into a guide for the road. Do not quarrel. Do not get so lost in legal debate that you lose your footing. Do not take giant strides. Travel only in daylight, leaving and arriving while the sun still says it is good.

When the brothers reached home and announced Joseph was alive, Jacob's heart went numb. He could not believe it. Pharaoh's wagons carried engraved idols, and Judah, true to his line, burned them. Then Jacob remembered the last subject he and Joseph had studied together: the law of the broken-necked heifer, the eglah arufah, a word that sounds like the very wagons, agalot, standing before him.

Strategy and Tenderness

Joseph hid strength from Pharaoh and revealed tenderness to his father. He kept warriors off the muster rolls and still sent five robes as prophecy toward Shushan. The man who once wore a coat that nearly killed him now measured cloth so that cloth would not kill again.

Egypt got five quiet faces at the throne. Israel kept its hidden muscle for another day. The house that had broken over a garment began to mend under a viceroy who remembered every tear.

Pharaoh's eyes moved over the five as a buyer moves over horses. Joseph watched those eyes and felt the old terror of a household emptied for someone else's use. He had been taken once. He would not offer the family's best arms as tribute dressed up as honor. Leave the doubled-name tribes out of sight. Let the quieter brothers absorb the royal glance.

At the border, when Jacob approached, the same Joseph who edited a lineup for Pharaoh refused to edit his own duty. He harnessed the chariot himself. Dust rose. Officials stared. A viceroy does not ride out for common men. Joseph rode out because a father is not a common man, not even when the son wears Egypt's second ring.

On the road home the brothers carried Benjamin's five garments like a riddle and Jacob's wine like a kindness that understood age. Do not quarrel, Joseph had said. Do not take giant strides. Travel in the light. The advice was small enough to obey and large enough to keep them alive until the wagons of recognition stood in Canaan and an old man heard, in the creak of wheels, the last law he had studied with a boy who was not dead.

JosephPharaohBrothersEgyptBenjaminStrategyGiftsFamily
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The texts behind this telling. Some cards carry a translation of the source; others are our own retelling of it, and each card says which. Every card links out to the original.

Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 153:1Yalkut Shimoni on Torah

Translation of the source text.Torat Emet (Yalkut Shimoni) · CC-BY-NC

(Genesis 47:2) "And from among his brothers he took five men." This teaches that they were not the mighty ones among the tribes. Who were they? Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Issachar, and Benjamin. He acted in this matter with wisdom. He said: If I present the mighty ones among them before Pharaoh, he will at once make them his men of war. And how do we know they were not the mighty ones? You find it from the blessing of Moses our teacher: everyone whose name was repeated was mighty, as it is said, "And this for Judah; and he said, Hear, O LORD, the voice of Judah" (Deuteronomy 33:7); "And of Naphtali he said, O Naphtali, satisfied with favor" (Deuteronomy 33:23); "And of Asher he said, Blessed above sons be Asher" (Deuteronomy 33:24); "And of Dan he said, Dan is a lion's whelp" (Deuteronomy 33:22); "And of Zebulun he said, Rejoice, O Zebulun, in your going out" (Deuteronomy 33:18); "And of Gad he said, Blessed be He who enlarges Gad" (Deuteronomy 33:20). And some say the reverse. Since it says "and from among his brothers he took" and their names are not specified, he took those whose names were repeated.

(Genesis 46:29) "And Joseph harnessed his chariot" (written in remez 96). Joseph heard that his father had come to the border of Egypt, and he took all the men who went with him and went out to meet his father. Now all the people go out to meet the king, and the king does not go out to meet any other person; rather this teaches you that a person's father is like his king.

Rava said to Rabbah bar Mari: What is meant by "and from among his brothers he took five men"? Who were they? He said to him: These are the ones whose names are repeated. But Judah too is repeated! He said to him: Judah was repeated for his own particular matter, for Rabbi Yonatan said: What is meant by "Let Reuben live and not die" and so forth and "And this for Judah"? and so on.

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Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 152:2Yalkut Shimoni on Torah

Translation of the source text.Torat Emet (Yalkut Shimoni) · CC-BY-NC

(Genesis 45:16-20) "And the report was heard in Pharaoh's house, saying, Joseph's brothers have come." (Song of Songs 6:9) "My dove is one" and so forth (as above on "And he said to his servants, Can we find such a one" (Genesis 41:37)). "Queens and concubines, and they praised her" (Song of Songs) - these are the tribes. "And the report was heard in Pharaoh's house," and "Pharaoh said to Joseph," and "Do this," and "the best" - this refers to ground broad-beans.

(Genesis 45:22) "To each of them he gave changes of garments." Is it possible that in the very matter over which that righteous one suffered he would himself stumble? For Rav said: A man should never single out one son among his other sons, for on account of the extra weight of two coins that Jacob added to Joseph the whole story unfolded. Would Joseph then act toward Benjamin in a way that would make his brothers jealous of him? Rather, he hinted to him that a son was destined to descend from him who would go forth in five royal garments; and who was that? Mordecai, as it is written, "And Mordecai went out from before the king" and so forth (Esther 8:15).

(Genesis 45:23) "And to his father he sent in this manner: ten donkeys" and so forth. What is meant by "of the best of the land of Egypt"? This teaches that he sent him aged wine, with which the mind of elders is at ease. "And ten she-donkeys carrying" - follow the language of people: "bar" means grain, "lechem" in its plain sense is bread, "mazon" is food; from here we learn that all such things are called food.

(Genesis 45:24) "And he said to them, Do not be agitated on the way." Joseph said to his brothers: Do not become engrossed in a matter of halakhah, lest the way become agitated against you. But is that so? Did not Rabbi Ilai say: Two scholars who walk on the road and have no words of Torah between them deserve to be burned, as it is said, "And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked" (2 Kings 2:11) - the reason being that there was speech; had there been no speech they would deserve to be burned? It is not difficult: the one case is for review by rote, the other for deep analysis. In a baraita it was taught: Joseph said to his brothers, Do not take large strides, for the Master said: A large stride takes away one five-hundredth of a person's eyesight. And bring the sun into the city, for Rav said: A person should always go out with "it is good" [daylight] and enter with "it is good," as it is said, "As soon as the morning was light, the men were sent away" (Genesis 44:3).

"And they told him, saying, Joseph is still alive" and so forth. Rabbi Chiyya taught: Such is the punishment of a liar, that even when he speaks the truth he is not believed.

"And they spoke to him all the words of Joseph." And where were the wagons that Pharaoh had sent? Rather, those wagons of Pharaoh had idols engraved upon them, and Judah arose and burned them; for that tribe was accustomed to burning idolatry. Joseph said: If he believes you, well and good; but if not, you shall say to him, At the moment I parted from him I was engaged in the passage of the heifer whose neck is broken (the eglah arufah). This is the meaning of "And he saw the wagons (agalot) which Joseph had sent" (Genesis 45:27).

"And Israel said, It is enough (rav); Joseph my son is still alive." Great (rav) is the strength of Joseph my son, that so many troubles befell him and still he stands in his righteousness - greater than I, who sinned in saying "My way is hidden from the LORD" (Isaiah 40:27); yet I trust that there is laid up for me in "How great is Your goodness which You have stored away" (Psalm 31:20) and so forth.

(Genesis 46:1-2) "And Israel journeyed with all that he had" and so forth. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: I went around to all the masters of aggadah in the south so they might tell me the meaning of this verse, and none told me until I came to Yehudah ben Pedayah, the nephew of Bar Kappara, and he told me. When a teacher and a student travel on the road, one inquires first after the welfare of the student and afterward after the welfare of the teacher. Rav Huna said: When Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi came to Tiberias he asked Rabbi Yochanan and Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish. Rabbi Yochanan said: A person is obligated in the honor of his father more than in the honor of his grandfather; and Reish Lakish said: He offered sacrifice over the covenant of the tribes. Bar Kappara and Rabbi Yose ben Partos - one of them said: As my father was eager for his throat [his appetite], so I am eager for my throat; and the other said: As my father singled out one son from his sons, so I single out one son from my sons. I went back and said: My father had upon him the burden of one soul, while I have upon me the burden of seventy souls.

Rabbi Yudan said two things. He said: My father blessed me with five blessings; corresponding to them the Holy One, blessed be He, revealed Himself to me five times and blessed me. Rabbi Yudan said further: I had thought He would let me taste of those blessings, "Peoples shall serve you" (Genesis 27:29) and so forth - this refers to Joseph. Rabbi Berekhiah said: The Holy One, blessed be He, does not attach His name to the righteous in their lifetime, but only to those who endure afflictions; and behold, Isaac endured afflictions. The Rabbis say: They saw his ashes as though heaped upon the altar.

(Genesis 46:4) One who sees a camel in a dream - a death sentence had been decreed upon him from heaven and he has been delivered from it. What verse alludes to this? "I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also surely bring you up" (Genesis 46:4). Rabbi Yitzchak said: From here - "The LORD also has put away your sin; you shall not die" (2 Samuel 12:13). "And Joseph shall put his hand upon your eyes" - he shall close your eyes after death. This was the fourth descent he made to Egypt, as it is said, "I will go down to Egypt."

Jacob heard that Joseph was alive and was musing in his heart, saying: Shall I leave the land of my fathers, the land of my birth, the land of my fathers' sojournings, the land in which the Divine Presence of the Holy One, blessed be He, dwells, and go to an unclean land, into the midst of the uncircumcised among whom there is no fear of heaven? The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: Jacob, do not fear; I will go down with you and so forth. When they came to the border of Egypt all the males were reckoned, sixty-six, and Joseph and his two sons in Egypt make sixty-nine; yet it is written, "With seventy souls your fathers went down" (Deuteronomy 10:22). What did the Holy One, blessed be He, do? He entered into the count with them, to fulfill what is said, "I will go down with you."

In the full reckoning of Israel you find seventy less one. Rather, this is Jochebed, whose conception was on the way and whose birth was between the walls, as it is said, "whom she bore to Levi in Egypt" (Numbers 26:59) - her birth was in Egypt, but her conception was not in Egypt. Rabbi Yehudah was sitting and expounding (Genesis 46:27) "All the souls that came with Jacob to Egypt... seventy"; behold they are short by one - this is Jochebed, who was born at the gate of Egypt. And some say: Serach the daughter of Asher completed the count of Israel, as it is written, "I am of the peaceable and faithful of Israel" (2 Samuel 20:19) - I completed the count of Israel, and I completed one trusted one to another trusted one. And when they went up from Egypt all the men were reckoned six hundred thousand less one. What did the Holy One, blessed be He, do? He entered into the count with them, and they went up six hundred thousand, to fulfill what is said, "and I will also surely bring you up."

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