And he overtook them,.... Their asses being laden with corn could not travel very fast, and he and his attendants being mounted on swift horses:
and he spake unto them these same words; that Joseph had ordered him to say, and so what follows particularly, Genesis 44:10.

he overtook them, and he spake . . . these words--The steward's words must have come upon them like a thunderbolt, and one of their most predominant feelings must have been the humiliating and galling sense of being made so often objects of suspicion. Protesting their innocence, they invited a search. The challenge was accepted [Genesis 44:10-11]. Beginning with the eldest, every sack was examined, and the cup being found in Benjamin's [Genesis 44:12], they all returned in an indescribable agony of mind to the house of the governor [Genesis 44:13], throwing themselves at his feet [Genesis 44:14], with the remarkable confession, "God hath found out the iniquity of thy servants" [Genesis 44:16].