58. And Joseph's brothers a came and presented themselves before him b, and he recognized them but they recognized him not c.
59. When he provided them with their provision d, [Joseph] said [to his brothers]:
"Bring to me [Benjamin:] a brother of yours from your [same] father [but from a different mother.]
See you not that I fill up the measure and am the best of hosts?"
60. "Now if you bring him e not to me, you shall have no measure [of wheat] from me [next time], nor shall you [even] come to me [in Egypt once again.]"
61. They said: "We shall ask his father to send him with us [and insist on that], and We will do [what you order us with.]"
62. And [Joseph] said to his pages: "Put their [silver] merchandise in their saddle bags f that they may realize it [is a trick] g when they will return to their family; haply they will come back [again to Egypt and may not fear h.]"
63. Then when they returned to their father, they said: "Our father! No more measure [of wheat] shall we get [in the future, unless we take our brother with us]: So send our brother [Benjamin] with us, that we may get our measure [of food]; and we will indeed protect [Benjamin from all evil.]"
64. [Jacob] said: "How can I entrust him to you as did I – before – entrust his brother [Joseph] to you?
But God surely keeps him better [than you], and He is Most Merciful than all the merciful i."
65. T
hen when they opened their baggage, they found their [silver] merchandise resorted to them.
They said: "Our father, what [more] can we seek j? Here is our merchandise resorted to us k;
[And by our going to him] we shall get provision for our family, keep our brother [Benjamin] secured [from evil] and we shall obtain an extra camel's load l – that [extra measure that we may get by means of Benjamin] will be easy [to obtain.]"
66. [Jacob] said: "I will not send him with you until you swear a solemn oath, in God's name, that you will surely bring him back to me, unless you [all] are encompassed m [and made powerless.]"
And when they had sworn their solemn oath n, [Jacob] said: "On all that we say God be the Witness. o "
67. And [Jacob] said [to his sons]:
"My sons, do not enter by one gate, but enter by separate gates p;
I cannot avail you q anything against God r; the decree s is only due to God.
On Him do I put my trust t: and let all that trust put their trust on Him u."
[Then they set out from the land of Canaan to Egypt in order to bring food for their families, and they took Benjamin with them.]
68. And when they entered [Egypt] in the manner their father had commanded them v, it w would have availed them nothing against God x other than only a purpose y of Jacob himself which he had performed [with that recommendation];
[Jacob] was surely endowed with knowledge with which We acquainted him z, but most people do not know [the truth.] aa
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a The ten brothers, except Benjamin.
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b i.e. before Joseph.
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c His age, at that time, was thirty years; because the period was thirteen years from the time they cast him in the well, to the time of their coming to him [in Egypt], to buy food from him; because he stayed for one year in the house of the captain: the husband of Zulaykha, then he was imprisoned for three years, then he became prime minister for the seven fertile years, then after two of the drought years, his brothers came, so the total was thirteen years: which was the time of their absence from him.
Moreover, they saw him wearing the royal dress, and sitting on the chair of authority, commanding and forbidding; and it did not come to their minds that he might attain such position.
In addition, Joseph disguised and put a muffler; and he spoke to the translator in the Coptic language, and the translator spoke with them in Hebrew, lest they should recognize him.
So they bought from him food: for each one of them the load of a camel; because Joseph did not sell for every man more than a load of a camel.
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d Of their stated share of food.
The story:
When Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them, so he disguised before them, and spoke roughly to them, and said: “From where have you come?”
They said: “We have come from the land of Canaan, to buy food.”
So Joseph remembered the dream which he saw before, and he said to them: “You are spies; you have come only to spy the country.”
They said: “We have come only to buy food; all of us are the sons of one man in the land of Canaan; the youngest one is with our father, and one of our brothers is lost.”
Joseph said: “No, it is as have I said to you: you are spies; therefore, you will be tried with this: You will not go out of this place unless your youngest brother comes here: Send one of you to bring your brother, and you will be bound, until we check about the truthfulness of your words: are you truthful, or else you are spies.”
So he imprisoned them for three days, and in the third day, Joseph said to them: “Do as such, so that you will live; I fear of God: therefore, let one of you stay here in prison as a hostage, and the others set forth, and take provision for the starvation of your families, and bring to me your youngest brother, so that your words will be proved true, and you will not be destroyed.”
So they did as he said to them, and they said to each other: “We are sinners concerning our brother, for we saw him in distress, and he asked us to be merciful to him, but we did not listen to him; therefore, we have now been afflicted with this distress.”
Reuben answered them and said: “Didn’t I say to you: Don’t commit sin about the boy, but you didn’t listen to that? Therefore, we are indebted about his blood.”
They did not know that Joseph understood their words, because he let a translator between him and them. So Joseph turned aside and wept, then he returned to them, addressed them, took Simeon from among them and bound him before their eyes.
Then Joseph ordered that their vessels be filled with wheat, and that the silver of each one of them be returned into his bag of the wheat and to be given food for their journey, so it was done as did he order. Therefore, they carried their food on their donkeys; they travelled, and came to their father and told him all that befell them.
So this is the meaning of His saying – be glorified – in the next aya:
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e He meant his brother: Benjamin.
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f With which they bought the wheat.
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g i.e.
that they may know the trick which we did to them: when we asked them to bring Benjamin, so they will say: if he had been a stranger, he would not have honored us and entertained us in his palace, and restored our silver to us, so he might be our brother Joseph.
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h But they did not understand that it was a trick, neither did they know that he was their brother Joseph.
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i i.e. He will be Merciful to me according to my weakness and old age and bring him back to me.
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j Of this man, so that we accused him of evil.
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k i.e. he restored it to us, honored us and entertained us in his house; so had he had any evil intention with our brother Benjamin, he would not have done us any good act.
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l By an additional man, so that we will be eleven men.
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m It means: unless the enemy or thieves encompass and seize all of you, then no blame on you in such case.
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n i.e. they covenanted with him.
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o i.e. He knows our words and hears our pledge, so if you break it, God will take revenge against you.
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p The reason for that was because when he heard that the ruler in Egypt said to his sons: “you are spies”, he was afraid about his sons of some plot designed by the ruler in Egypt, that he might want to imprison them; therefore, he said: “Do not enter to Egypt by one gate; so that if one of you is imprisoned or some affliction befalls him, then the rest will of course know about him, then they may rescue him from the prison, or will help him in some way or another if they are not able to save him.”
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q with this recommendation.
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r It means: I cannot avail you anything against the decree of God, if He wants to do you any affliction, but be cautious.
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s Of safety or destruction.
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t To send Benjamin with you.
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u In all their affairs.
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v They entered it dispersed or separately.
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w i.e. their dispersion or separation from each other.
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x Because God did not intend to do them evil, nor did Joseph, so they might take caution of him.
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y Which was some doubts that he conceived fearing for his sons, so he removed it from his heart by that recommendation.
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z i.e. he was wise with his idea and his recommendation to his sons, in case the ruler in Egypt wasn’t Joseph himself, but Jacob did not know that the one who sold the food for them and restored the silver to them was their brother Joseph; and had he known about that, he wouldn’t have recommended them with that recommendation to enter Egypt dispersed.
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a a Including even the [Muslim] commentators themselves did not know its meaning, so they said: “Their father recommended them with that recommendation only for the fear of the ‘envy’ and the ‘evil eye’ of people!”
By the interpreter Mohammed-Ali Hassan Al-Hilly, the inspired interpreter of the Quran and the Bible.
Google search:
quran-ayat Mohammed-Ali Hassan Al-Hilly The Quran interpretation - pdf
http://quran-ayat.com/interpretation.pdf
You made a nice blending of the Quran and the Bible on this topic. Have you tried it with flood story or any other ones that are in both books? I still go with the theory that the weekend spent with the woman from the well is the Quran and the mention of Jacob's well is the connection.
The 'Elders' in the Bible lived prior to the flood, that makes them the first ones to be given rewards. In the NT many Saints are said to have been resurrected. (12 men and their wives and Adam and Eve would be the first of the ones that were resurrected the same morning as Jesus.) If they and the ones alive for the 1,000 years are not given in marriage then both are there as individuals rather than the husband speaking for the wife when they are both in 'the House of God'. (as Paul mentioned)
If they and the rest of the ones alive for that period are also not given in marriage then would that not be the 24 Elders' from Re:4 be the ones that were taken to heaven after their resurrection from the grave (and the 2nd birth that includes immortality) be them the only ones that will be given 72 virgins. The people that are gathered as the group that make up Re:20:4 would be the promised virgins for the 24 that will have thrones and 'teach' the virgins what they have learned so they can withstand the fire that comes when God sends beings of the 2nd birth to the fiery lake if they are 'impure'.
Since I have onlt studies the Bible I don't know how closely that blends in with the actual text that is in the Quran. Feel free to pick it apart or post something that is similar to that theme if it exists.
MHz hear it to the end, then the subject may be discussed.
