I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Genesis 42-44.

I do not know if I have ever commented on one thing which always troubles me about this passage: Jacob and his sons left Simeon as a prisoner in Egypt for an extended period of time.  Ancillary to that, I always wonder about how Joseph treated Simeon during this time of imprisonment.  After giving it some thought, I believe that Simeon was treated as a diplomatic hostage, someone who was forced to live in a country hostile to their own in order to ensure that their people abided by a peace treaty.  We have no idea how long it was between the first trip and the second trip, but it was clearly an extended period of time.  During that time, they would have had no idea what kind of circumstance Simeon was in.  Even if Simeon was being treated as a diplomatic hostage, he could never be sure if something would change that for the worse. I will note that this provides some context for Judah’s offer to be imprisoned in place of Benjamin at the end of today’s passage.