ויזכר יוסף את החלמות…ויאמר אלהם מרגלים אתם…ויאסף אתם אל משמר שלשת ימים (מקץ מב:ט-יז)

What is the connection between Yosef’s dreams and his accusation that his brothers were spies? How could Yosef have the audacity to imprison his brothers for three days while his father, Yaakov, was suffering from hunger and awaiting food? Even though Rashi explains that the brothers still had food, how could Yosef have known this?

Yosef recalled his dreams. In his first dream, his brothers bowed to him in the form of bundles of wheat. From this, Yosef understood that they must still have grain in their possession. That realization gave him confidence that imprisoning them for three days would not endanger their families, and it enabled him to accuse them of espionage and detain them.