After Jacob’s death, Joseph’s brothers were concerned that Joseph would now want to harm them. One event in particular aroused their concern – Joseph’s visit to the pit into which they cast him.

“Joseph’s brothers saw that their father had died, and they said: Perhaps Joseph will hate us and will repay us for all the evil that we did to him” (Genesis 50:15). What did the brothers see then that caused them to become afraid? When they returned from the burial of their father, they saw that Joseph went to recite a blessing at the same pit into which his brothers cast him. He recited a blessing there in accordance with the blessing that one is required to recite at the place where a miracle was performed for him: Blessed is the Omnipresent, who performed a miracle for me at this place. Once they saw that their casting Joseph into the pit was still on his mind, they said: Now that our father died: “Perhaps Joseph will hate us and will repay us for all the evil that we did to him.” (Tanĥuma, Vayhi)