The Quran

Preface

وَلَمّا فَتَحوا مَتاعَهُم وَجَدوا بِضاعَتَهُم رُدَّت إِلَيهِم ۖ قالوا يا أَبانا ما نَبغي ۖ هٰذِهِ بِضاعَتُنا رُدَّت إِلَينا ۖ وَنَميرُ أَهلَنا وَنَحفَظُ أَخانا وَنَزدادُ كَيلَ بَعيرٍ ۖ ذٰلِكَ كَيلٌ يَسيرٌ

Yusuf Ali

Then when they opened their baggage, they found their stock-in-trade had been returned to them. They said: “O our father! What (more) can we desire? this our stock-in-trade has been returned¹ to us: so we shall get (more) food for our family; We shall take care of our brother; and add (at the same time) a full camel?s load (of grain to our provisions). This is but a small quantity.”²

The ten brothers did not take their father’s refusal as final. They opened their saddlebags, and found that the price they had paid for their provisions had been returned to them. They had got the grain free! What more could they desire? The spell which Joseph had woven now worked. If they only went back, this kind Wazir would give more grain if they pleased him. And the only way to please him was to take back their younger brother with them. It would cost them nothing. Judging by past experience they would get a whole camel’s load of rain now. And so they stated their case to the aged father.
Two meanings are possible?either or perhaps both. 'What we have brought now is nothing compared to what we shall get if we humour the whim of the Egyptian Wazir. And, moreover, Egypt seems to have plenty of grain stored up. What is a camel-load to her Wazir to give away?'