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

My first thought when reading this was, “Why did Joseph choose Simeon as the one to keep as prisoner until his brothers returned with Benjamin?”  I did an Internet search to see if anyone remembered a passage which explained this choice.  I found the suggestion that Joseph chose Simeon because of his role in extracting revenge for Dinah’s rape, which I suppose is possible, but seems unconvincing to me.  Others suggested that Simeon was the brother who suggested killing Joseph before Reuben convinced them to put him in the cistern (so that he, Reuben, could release him later), but that is just speculation, as the Bible does not attribute that to a specific brother.  My conclusion is that the Bible does not contain an answer to that question, which means that Joseph’s reasons for choosing Simeon are not important.  Initially, I intended to leave my comments about Joseph choosing to imprison Simeon there. but I was reminded about one of the rules for spotting “urban legends.  The rule tells us that when we hear a story which fails to mention the names of key participants, or other information which can be used to either corroborate the story, or falsify it, from other sources that suggests that the story might be an urban legend.  So, the fact that this account identifies Simeon as the brother who was imprisoned by Joseph, and that later we are told that Simeon was reunited with his brothers when they returned with Benjamin.  While the reference to Joseph imprisoning, and later releasing him, does not provide conclusive proof, it does lend support to my faith that this story reflects an event which actually happened (and that this account accurately describes that event).

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