What does Genesis 42:26 mean?

After several days of confinement (Genesis 42:17), nine of Joseph's ten brothers begin the return trip to Canaan (Genesis 42:1–5). They are loaded down with grain, just as they had hoped to be when they came. Simeon has been left behind under the apparent threat of death if they do not return with their youngest brother Benjamin. The men don't realize the governor who harassed them is the very brother they sold into slavery twenty years earlier (Genesis 37:28; 41:41–45). They know the two events are connect, somehow (Genesis 42:21–22).

The brothers also don't know that Joseph has returned their money to their bags. The funds they thought were used to pay for their grain are still with them—something they will be horrified to discover soon (Genesis 42:27).

One painful detail certainly is on their minds. They are once again returning home without one of their brothers, just as they did on that day when they deceptively told their father Jacob that Joseph had died (Genesis 37:31–33). The entire trip home is likely filled with dread at the thought of how Jacob will respond, especially when he hears the ruler of Egypt has demanded they return with his beloved Benjamin.