Bible in a Year January 15: Gen 42:29 – 45:15

 January 15: Gen 42:29 – 45:15

How long was Simeon in jail? Did Jacob not care about that son enough to send the men back? How was he treated while he was in jail? Simeon was one of two who to enact revenge on the rape of Dinah. Did he think he would ever get out?

According to one source I read, Egypt is more than 5000 miles from Canaan and it would take four months at a minimum to travel that distance in Bible times. In Verse 43:10, Judah says they could have gone and come back two times if not delayed – that’s more than a year! He may have been exaggerating a bit, and that would have indicated that Joseph gave them a LOT of grain to sustain such a large family for a year.

Both Reuben and Judah took offered to take responsibility for Benjamin. Throughout the text they refer to him as a boy, but he had to have been a man. Joseph was 17 when he was sold by his brothers and 30 when he entered the service of Pharaoh.  There have been 7 years of feast and 2 years of famine by this time. We don’t know how much older Joseph was than his brother, but even if he was 15 years older, Benjamin would have been 22. I wonder if he was frustrated by being considered just a boy when I’m sure he felt fully grown? Had he been pampered all his life and overprotected by his brothers and his father?

TOMORROW’S TEXT:  Gen 45:16 – 48:7