Chasidut sur La Genèse 42:21

Genesis 42,18. “on the third day Joseph said to them: ‎‎‘do this and live, seeing that I am G’d fearing. If you are ‎truthful, one of your brothers will be kept captive, etc.” ‎The position of the words: ‎את האלוקים אני ירא‎ in this verse is ‎puzzling. We would have expected it at the beginning of the ‎verse. Furthermore, the words: ‎ויעשו כן‎, “the brothers did so,” ‎is strange, as it gives the impression that the brothers ‎immediately brought Binyamin to Egypt, something that is ‎impossible. The brothers not only first had to return to their ‎father’s house in Canaan, but, as the Torah testified they ‎procrastinated until they ran short of food before their father ‎agreed to let Binyamin travel with them. (Genesis 43,13) Perhaps ‎the lesson Joseph wanted to teach the brothers was that if one ‎determines to do G’d’s will, this will be accounted as if one had ‎already done so, when the circumstances make immediate ‎execution of the task at hand impossible. Joseph told the brothers ‎that their lives would be secure once they had made up their ‎minds to carry out his demand. The Torah confirms this by ‎describing the brothers as if they had immediately brought ‎Binyamin to Egypt. Joseph was at pains to demonstrate to the ‎brothers that his insistence that Binyamin come to Egypt was not ‎based on distrust or ill will toward them. When they found ‎themselves in jail they realized this and did not blame Joseph for ‎this but themselves, when they said: “but we are guilty, ‎etc.”(Gen. 42,21). They accepted his statement that he was a G’d ‎fearing individual, whereas they had brought their troubles upon ‎themselves. ‎