Genesis 42:24 Meaning He Turned Himself Away From Them

Love may weep for those still lost in fear and yet withhold the full reunion until they are ready to receive it. The one who turns away to weep and then returns is the healed mind feeling the whole tenderness of the bond while these brothers still see only a hard master. Binding one of them before their eyes is not revenge but a mirror set up on purpose, the mind letting them look at the very captivity they once inflicted, so the deed can at last be recognized and released.

What looks like a stern act is love arranging the lesson gently, letting them see their own condition until they are willing to lay it down.

Simeon: the part of the mind held in the bondage of guilt, kept in plain sight so the deed can be seen and forgiven.

Karuṇā: Compassion Karuṇā is the heart moving toward another's pain. The tears arrive right after he has overheard these men telling each other they are guilty concerning their brother; he is weeping for the ones who put him in the pit, not for himself. Compassion can run toward the people who did the harm, and it can come long before any of them has said a word of apology to him.

Sampajañña: Clear comprehension Sampajañña is knowing what you are doing while you do it. He turns away, weeps, comes back, and speaks: the grief runs at full strength and every move is still chosen, since a wet face in front of them would end the test before it can work. Strong feeling and a steady hand belong to the same man here.

Avera: Freedom from enmity Avera is the absence of hatred toward someone who has wronged you. He now runs Egypt, and the men who sold him are standing in his hall waiting for grain; he keeps one and sends nine home fed. Simeon is held as a pledge for their return, and the ropes carry no wish to make him suffer.

Kamma: Deed and its fruit Kamma is an action ripening into its result. Ropes go on a brother while the rest stand and watch, which is close to what they once arranged for the seventeen-year-old they lowered into a pit and then sat down to eat beside. A deed comes back in something like the shape it went out, and this time they are the ones looking on.

Hiri: Moral shame Hiri is the inward recoil from one's own wrongdoing. Guilt murmured among themselves in a foreign room costs them little; a bound man standing in front of them gives that guilt a face they cannot turn from. Simeon is tied before their eyes because the eyes are where it has to land.