Then they rent their clothes, and laded every man his ass, and returned to the city.

Then they rent their garments, and loading their asses again, returned into the town.

Then they rent their clothes, and loaded every man his ass, and they returned to the city.

and they rend their garments, and each ladeth his ass, and they turn back to the city.

Then in bitter grief they put the bags on the asses again and went back to the town.

But they, tearing their garments and burdening their donkeys again, returned to the town.

Et sciderunt vestimenta sua, et oneravit unusquique asinum suum, et reversi sunt in urbem.

Then they (c) rent their clothes, and laded every man his ass, and returned to the city.
(c) To show how greatly the thing displeased them and how sorry they were for it.

Then they rent their clothes,.... In token of sorrow and distress, being at their wits' end, like distracted persons, not knowing what to do: this was usually done in the eastern countries when any evil befell, as did Jacob, Genesis 37:34; and as the Egyptians themselves did when mourning for their dead, as Diodorus Siculus (q) relates:
and laded every man his ass; put their sacks of corn on their asses again, having tied them up:
and returned to the city; to the metropolis, as Jarchi, which was either Tanis, that is, Zoan, or, as others think, Memphis: hither they returned to see how it would go with Benjamin, to plead his cause and get him released, that he might go with them, they being afraid to see their father's face without him; otherwise, could they have been content to have gone without him, they might have proceeded on in their journey, see Genesis 44:17.
(q) Bibliothec. l. 1. p. 65.