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

“ויעמוס איש על חמרו THEY LADED EVERY MAN HIS ASS — They were stalwart men and did not require the assistance of each other in loading (Genesis Rabbah 92:8). וישבו העירה AND THEY RETURNED TO THE CITY — It was the metropolis and yet Scripture says העירה — an ordinary city! But this is because in their eyes it was regarded as a very medium-sized city of only ten inhabitants if it became a matter of waging war against it (Genesis Rabbah 92:8).”

“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, Gen 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 Gen 44:17. (q) Bibliothec. l. 1. p. 65.”