And Judah—who is recognized as the leader in this second embassy to Egypt (Genesis 43:8)—and his brethren came to Joseph's house; for he was yet there:—"awaiting, no doubt, the result which he anticipated" (Murphy)—and they fell before him on the ground.
The expression indicates a complete prostration of the body. It was a token of their penitence, and a sign that they craved his forgiveness. And Joseph said unto them,—in a speech not of "cruel and haughty irony" (Kalisch), but simply of assumed resentment—What deed is this that we have done!
were ye not (or, did you not know?) that such a man as I can certainly divine?—literally, divining can divine (vide on Genesis 44:5). Though Joseph uses this language, and is represented by his steward as possessing a divining cup, there is no reason to suppose that he was in the habit of practicing this heathen superstition.
And Judah said (acting throughout this scene as the spokesman of his brethren), What shall we say unto my lord? What shall we speak? or how shall we clear ourselves? (i.e. justify ourselves, or purge ourselves from suspicion).
God (literally, the Elohim) hath found out the iniquity of thy servants: behold, we are my lord's servants (literally, servants to my lord), both we, and he also with whom the cup is found. And he (i.
e. Joseph) said, God forbid that I should do so (vide Genesis 44:9): but the man in whose hand the cup is found, he shall be my servant; and as for you, get you up in peace unto your father. Thus they were once more tested as to whether they could, as before, callously deliver up their father's favorite, and so bring down the gray hairs of their father to the grave, or would heroically and self-sacrificingly offer their own lives and liberties for his protection (Rosenmüller, Keil, Lange, Murphy, and others).
How nobly they stood the test Judah's pathetic supplication reveals.