בראשית מד:טז - "ויאמר יהודה מה נאמר לאדני מה נדבר ומה נצטדק? האלהים מצא את עון עבדיך, הננו עבדים לאדני גם אנחנו גם אשר נמצא הגביע בידו."
After Yosef's steward “found” Yosef's goblet in Binyamin’s pack, Bereshit 44:12, the situation for the brothers was more precarious than ever. When the brothers first came to Egypt, Yosef accused them of being spies without any evidence, 42:9, but now there was some apparent evidence that they were thieves. At a minimum Binyamin was going to be a slave, or all of them could have been punished.
Donald Seybold (1974, p. 70) notes that the situation was completely reversed from when the brothers threw Yosef into the pit, 37:24. Egypt was the pit for the brothers, and Yosef had the option of killing them or making them slaves.
In this desperate situation, Yehuda stated, "What shall we say to my lord? What shall we speak and how shall we prove ourselves right? Elohim has found out your servant's crime. Here we are, slaves to my lord, both we and the one in whose hand the goblet was found," 44:16, slight revision of Altar, 2004, p. 256, translation. This statement by Yehuda raises several questions.
What does it mean "Elohim has found out your servant's crime?" Elohim is usually translated as G-d, but was Yehuda then talking to G-d? Was Yehuda telling Yosef that G-d was controlling the scene and not Yosef? What does it mean "found out?" Did G-d know not beforehand? Rashi (on 44:16) explains that Yehuda was talking on the side, and noting that G-d was paying them back for their sin of selling Yosef. Yet, how were they being punished? Only Binyamin was going to be enslaved. Yehuda would have let his father down, but he could justify it by saying that it was not his fault, and for the other brothers there was no punishment at all.
In addition, why did Yehuda offer that everybody would be slaves? It was worse for all the brothers to be slaves instead of just Binyamin. If the goal was to free Binyamin, then it would have been better if the brothers were free men which would have enabled them to earn money to redeem Binyamin from slavery. Or, Yehuda could have offered that he would be a slave instead of Binyamin, which he did later, 44:33, or that everybody would be slaves instead of Binyamin?
Hizkuni (on 44:16, also see Luzzatto on 44:16), explains that Yehuda was worried that Binyamin was going to be killed since the brothers had stated, before the goblet was found, that the person in whose possession the goblet was found should be killed, 44:9. Thus, the offer to be slaves was better than Binyamin being killed. However, it seems that the steward had rejected the brother's statement that the guilty person should be killed, 44:10.
A different idea is that, as we discussed on 43:23-34, "The middle of the game: Know thy enemy," Yehuda knew that he was speaking to Yosef and then his offer for all the brothers to be slaves was both an admission to Yosef that the brothers were wrong for throwing him into the pit, and an acknowledgement of the realization of Yosef’s dreams, 37:8. Also, in 44:16, Yehuda twice referred to Yosef as his lord (and many times in his great speech in 44:18,19,20,22,33) and this was copying how Yaakov had spoken to Esav when they met when Yaakov was returning to the land of Israel, 32:5. Just like Yaakov was trying to "give back" Yitzhak's blessing to Esav, Yehuda was acknowledging that Yosef was the dominant brother as Yosef has dreamed. Furthermore, in the beginning of the verse, “what shall we say to my lord?” Yehuda was saying that they could not defend what they did to Yosef when they threw him into the pit and allowed or caused him to be sold as a slave, which again was an admission of their guilt.
The word Elohim in 44:16 refers to Yosef and his steward and not to G-d, as in Shemot 21:6, and Shemot 22:7,8, where the word refers to judges. The phrase "Elohim has found out your servant's crime" means that Yehuda was telling Yosef, that you, Yosef and your steward, made us understand what we did to you by your continued re-enactment of the sale with the silver on their first visit to Egypt, 42:28, and now with the goblet.
Yehuda thought that this admission of guilt and his acknowledgement of Yosef would end the game with Yosef since he admitted that Yosef had won, but this was not sufficient for Yosef, 44:17. Accordingly, in Yehuda’s great speech in the ensuing verses, he tried a different track. In the speech, he made clear to Yosef the pain Yosef was causing to Yaakov, and this worked, 44:18-34, see our discussion on 44:18-45:3, "Almost the end of the game: Yehuda’s great speech."
References:
Seybold, Donald, 1974, Paradox and Symmetry in the Joseph Narrative, in Literary Interpretation of Biblical Narrative, edited by Kenneth R. R. Gros Louis, with James S. Ackerman and Thayer S. Warshaw, Nashville: Abingdon Press, pp. 59-73.