قالوا فَما جَزاؤُهُ إِن كُنتُم كاذِبينَ

They said: ‘What shall be its requital if you [prove to] be lying?’

EXEGESIS

The pronoun suffix hu in jazāʾuhu (its requital) could be understood as referring to the goblet, meaning: what shall be the requital of stealing it.[1] Alternatively, hu could be translated as ‘his’, meaning: what shall be his (the thief’s) requital for stealing it.[2] A third suggestion is that hu is referring to the act of theft, meaning: what is the requital of theft.[3] This latter option seems more attractive.

EXPOSITION

They said: ‘What shall be its requital if you [prove to] be lying?’: it is only reasonable to assume the servants of Prophet Joseph (a) were instructed by him to say this. Their question was: if after investigation evidence shows that you were actually the thieves, then what shall be the requital?[4] The purpose of saying this was to extract from them a statement of consent to a punishment before the guilt was established – at a time that they were confident their innocence would be proven. This tactic served two purposes: it created irreversible consent to justice, eliminating room for protest, and more crucially, it ensured the thief would face justice according to the laws of Canaan (and not Egypt) – as agreed by them – since Egyptian law prescribed a different penalty for theft, and Prophet Joseph (a) had no legal grounds to detain Benjamin under Egyptian law for this alleged crime.

[1] Zamakhshari, 2/490.
[2] Qurtubi, 9/234.
[3] Mizan, 11/224.
[4] Tibyan, 6/172.