who had not shrunk from vexing his brethren so bitterly
that they rent their clothes in their abasement, was punished,
in that his descendant Joshua was driven to such despair
after the defeat of Ai that he, too, rent his clothes.[257]

Convicted of theft beyond the peradventure of a doubt,
the brethren of Joseph had no choice but to comply with the
steward's command and return to the city. They accompanied
him without delay. Each of them loaded his ass himself, raising
the burden with one hand from the ground to
the back of the beast, and then they retraced their steps
cityward,[258] and as they walked, they rapped Benjamin roughly
on the shoulder, saying, "O thou thief and son of a thief,
thou hast brought the same shame upon us that thy mother
brought upon our father." Benjamin bore the blows and the