The Quran

Preface

فَلَمَّا استَيأَسوا مِنهُ خَلَصوا نَجِيًّا ۖ قالَ كَبيرُهُم أَلَم تَعلَموا أَنَّ أَباكُم قَد أَخَذَ عَلَيكُم مَوثِقًا مِنَ اللَّهِ وَمِن قَبلُ ما فَرَّطتُم في يوسُفَ ۖ فَلَن أَبرَحَ الأَرضَ حَتّىٰ يَأذَنَ لي أَبي أَو يَحكُمَ اللَّهُ لي ۖ وَهُوَ خَيرُ الحاكِمينَ

Yusuf Ali

Now when they saw no hope of his (yielding), they held a conference in private. The leader among them said:¹ “Know ye not that your father did take an oath from you in God’s name, and how, before this, ye did fail in your duty with Joseph? Therefore will I not leave this land until my father permits me, or God² commands me; and He is the best to command.

Kabir may mean the eldest. But in 12:78 above, Kabir is distinguished from Shaykh, and I have translated the one as “venerable” and the other as “aged”. In 20:71, Kabir obviously means “leader” or “chief, and has no reference to age. I therefore translate here by the word “leader”, that brother among them who took the most active part in these transactions. His name is not given in the Qur-ān. The eldest brother was Reuben. But according to the biblical story the brother who had taken the most active part in this transaction was Judah, one of the elder brothers, being the fourth son, after Reuben, Simeon, and Levi, and of the same mother as these. It was Judah who stood surety to Jacob for Benjamin (Gen. 43:9). It is therefore natural that Judah should, as here, offer to stay behind.
The pledge he had given was to his father, and in God’s name. Therefore he was bound both to his father, and to God. He must await his father’s order and remain here as pledged, unless God opened out some other way. For example the Egyptian Wazir might relent: if so, he could go back with Benjamin to his father, and his pledge would be satisfied.