Charles Ellicott Commentary Genesis 42:27

"And as one of them opened his sack to give his ass provender in the lodging-place, he espied his money; and, behold, it was in the mouth of his sack." — Genesis 42:27 (ASV)

In the inn. —Hebrew, lodging-place, literally, a place to pass the night. It is quite possible that on a route frequented by numerous caravans, there were places where a certain amount of protection for the beasts of burden and their attendants had been provided, either by the rulers or by benevolent people. But Joseph’s brothers would find there at most only walls and water. “The one” who opened his sack is said by tradition to have been Levi. At the end of the verse, this sack is called by another name, signifying a traveling bag or a wallet for forage.

The translation of these three different words—vessel, wallet, and sack—using 'sack' indiscriminately for all of them, has led to the absurd view, common among commentators, that Joseph’s brothers went down into Egypt, each with one donkey and one sack. Hence their astonishment that such an insignificant company of men should be brought before the governor of Egypt. But the word used in Genesis 42:25 signifies everything into which grain could be put; and the word at the end of this verse is the traveling bag, which each of the patriarchs carried behind him on his riding donkey. Their men would go on foot at the side of the beasts of burden laden with the grain.

It is said here that only one found his money at the lodging-place, and that the rest did not find their money until they emptied their sacks on reaching home. The sacks mentioned here were the same as the traveling bags, for they are expressly so called in Genesis 43:21-23. In Genesis 43:21, however, they tell Joseph’s steward that they all found their money in the mouth of their sacks on opening them at the lodging-place. This was not strictly accurate, but it would have been wearisome and useless to enter into such details.

It was necessary to show two things:

1. That all had found their money.
2. That they had gone too far on their journey homeward to be able to return and give the money back.

Probably, what is said in Genesis 43:21 was literally true of only one. He found his money because it had been put in last and was therefore at the mouth of the wallet. In all the other sacks, it had been put in first, under the grain, and so they did not find it until they had emptied their sacks.