‘And when they had left the city and were as yet no great distance Joseph said to his steward, “Up, follow after the men, and when you overtake them say to them, “Why have you rewarded evil for good? Is not this cup the one in which my lord drinks, and by which indeed he divines? You have done evil in so doing.” And he overtook them and spoke to them these words.'
Joseph now sends his steward after the brothers to call them to task because of the cup. It is stressed that the cup is a special one, for it not only has a use for drinking but it is also his divining cup. It is thus a sacred object and the penalty for such a theft is death (compare 31:30-32). Whether Joseph actually used the cup for this purpose we do not know, but every great man in Egypt would have his divining cup. The divining would be carried out by specialists. Divining with a cup was a common practise in the ancient world. Small objects were placed in the cup and the future was deduced by the effect produced on the liquid.