Furthermore it was being intensified by the brothers’ dire circumstances. It was bad enough that they had been harshly received by Joseph and placed in prison, but then, after three days had passed, they had been released and discovered that the Prime Minister was confronting them with an even more painful dilemma. He was letting them go home but requiring them to leave one of their number behind as a guarantee that they would return with their youngest brother Benjamin, as he had requested. So Joseph said in verse 19:
Now what an understatement that is there. This is a delicate telling of what must have been a most traumatic moment in their lives. “All can go but one; one must stay.” But who was to be that one? Who was to remain behind in the Prime Minister's prison, uncertain of his fate, of whether he will ever be released or see his homeland again?
