And put my cup, the silver cup, in the sack's mouth of the youngest, and his corn money. And he did according to the word that Joseph had spoken.

And in the mouth of the younger's sack put my silver cup, and the price which he gave for the wheat. And it was so done.

and my cup, the silver cup, thou dost put in the mouth of the bag of the young one, and his corn-money;' and he doth according to the word of Joseph which he hath spoken.

And put my cup, my silver cup, in the youngest one's bag, with his money. So he did as Joseph said.

And put my goblet, the silver goblet, in the sack's mouth of the youngest, and his corn money.' And he did according to the word that Joseph had spoken.

But place my silver bowl, and the price that he gave for the wheat, in the mouth of the sack of the youngest." And so it was done.

Et scyphum meum, scyphum argenteum, pone in ore saccijunioris, et pecuniam alimenti ejus: et fecit secundum verbum Joseph, quod loquutus fuerat.

And put my cup, the silver cup. It may seem wonderful that, considering his great opulence, Joseph had not rather drunk out of a golden cup. Doubtless, either the moderation of that age was still greater than has since prevailed, and the splendor of it less sumptuous; or else this conduct must be attributed to the moderation of the man, who, in the midst of universal license, yet was contented with a plain and decent, rather than with a magnificent style of living. Unless, perhaps, on account of the excellence of the workmanship, the silver was more valuable than gold: as it is manifest from secular history, that the workmanship has often been more expensive than the material itself. It is, however, probable, that Joseph was sparing in domestic splendor, for the sake of avoiding envy. For unless he had been prudently on his guard, a contention would have arisen between him and the courtiers, resulting from a spirit of emulation. Moreover, he commands the cup to be enclosed in Benjamin's sack, in order that he might claim him as his own, when convicted of the theft, and might send the rest away: however, he accuses all alike, as if he knew not who among them had committed the crime. And first, he reproves their ingratitude, because, when they had been so kindly received, they made the worst possible return; next, he contends that the crime was inexpiable, because they had stolen what was most valuable to him; namely, the cup in which he was accustomed both to drink and to divine. And he does this through his steward, whom he had not trained to acts of tyranny and violence. Whence I infer, that the steward was not altogether ignorant of his master's design.

Put my cup in the sack's mouth of the youngest - The stratagem of the cup seems to have been designed to bring Joseph's brethren into the highest state of perplexity and distress, that their deliverance by the discovery that Joseph was their brother might have its highest effect.

And (a) put my cup, the silver cup, in the sack's mouth of the youngest, and his corn money. And he did according to the word that Joseph had spoken.
(a) We may not use this example to justify any unlawful practices, seeing God has commanded us to walk in simplicity.

And put my cup, the silver cup, in the sack's mouth of the youngest,.... Benjamin; this he ordered to be done, partly to put him in apparent danger, and try how his brethren would behave towards him in such circumstances, and thereby know how they stood affected to him; and partly that he might have an excuse for retaining him with him. This cup was valuable both for the matter of it, being of silver, and for the use of it, being what Joseph himself drank out of: and by the word used to express it, it seems to have been a large embossed cup, a kind of goblet, for it has the signification of a little hill. Jarchi says it was a long cup, which they called "mederno". The Septuagint render it by "condy", which is said to be a Persian word, and a kind of an Attalic cup, that held ten cotylae (g), or four or five quarts, and weighed ninety ounces; but a cup so large seems to be too large to drink out of:
and his corn money; what he had paid for his corn:
and he did according to the word that Joseph had spoken; put every man's money in the mouth of his sack, and his silver cup with the corn money into Benjamin's sack.
(g) Nicomachus de festis Aegypt. apud Athenaeum, l. 11. c. 7.

put my cup, the silver cup, in the sack's mouth--It was a large goblet, as the original denotes, highly valued by its owner, on account of its costly material or its elegant finish and which had probably graced his table at the sumptuous entertainment of the previous day.