Genesis42

¹Now Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt, and Jacob said to his sons, “Why are you staring at one another?”

²Then he said, “Look, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt; go down there and buy some for us from that place, so that we may live and not die.”

³So ten of Joseph’s brothers went down to buy grain from Egypt.

⁴But Jacob did not send Joseph’s brother Benjamin with his brothers, for he said, “I am afraid that harm may happen to him.”

⁵So the sons of Israel came to buy grain among those who were coming, because the famine was also in the land of Canaan.

⁶Now Joseph was the ruler over the land; he was the one who sold grain to all the people of the land. And Joseph’s brothers came and bowed down to him with their faces to the ground.

⁷When Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them, but he disguised himself to them and spoke to them harshly. He said to them, “Where have you come from?” And they said, “From the land of Canaan, to buy food.”

⁸But Joseph had recognized his brothers, although they did not recognize him.

⁹And Joseph remembered the dreams which he had about them, and he said to them, “You are spies; you have come to look at the undefended parts of our land.”

¹⁰And they said to him, “No, my lord, but your servants have come to buy food.

¹¹We are all sons of one man; we are honest men, your servants are not spies.”

¹²Yet he said to them, “No, but you have come to look at the undefended parts of our land!”

¹³But they said, “Your servants are twelve brothers in all, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan; and behold, the youngest is with our father today, and one is no longer alive.”

¹⁴Yet Joseph said to them, “It is as I said to you, you are spies;

¹⁵by this you will be tested: by the life of Pharaoh, you shall not leave this place unless your youngest brother comes here!

¹⁶Send one of you and have him get your brother, while you remain confined, so that your words may be tested, whether there is truth in you. But if not, by the life of Pharaoh, you are certainly spies!”

¹⁷So he put them all together in prison for three days.

¹⁸Now Joseph said to them on the third day, “Do this and live, for I fear God:

¹⁹if you are honest men, let one of your brothers be confined in your prison; but as for the rest of you, go, carry grain for the famine of your households,

²⁰and bring your youngest brother to me, so that your words may be verified, and you will not die.” And they did so.

²¹Then they said to one another, “Truly we are guilty concerning our brother, because we saw the distress of his soul when he pleaded with us, yet we would not listen; for that reason this distress has happened to us.”

²²Reuben answered them, saying, “Did I not tell you, ‘Do not sin against the boy’; and you would not listen? Now justice for his blood is required.”

²³They did not know, however, that Joseph understood, for there was an interpreter between them.

²⁴Then he turned away from them and wept. But when he returned to them and spoke to them, he took Simeon from them and bound him before their eyes.

²⁵Then Joseph gave orders to fill their bags with grain, but also to return every man’s money in his sack, and to give them provisions for the journey. And that is what was done for them.

²⁶So they loaded their donkeys with their grain and departed from there.

²⁷But when one of them opened his sack to give his donkey feed at the overnight campsite, he saw his money; and behold, it was in the opening of his sack!

²⁸So he said to his brothers, “My money has been returned, and look, it is right in my sack!” Then their hearts sank, and they turned trembling to one another, saying, “What is this that God has done to us?”

²⁹When they came to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan, they told him everything that had happened to them, saying,

³⁰“The man, the lord of the land, spoke harshly with us, and took us for spies of the country.

³¹But we said to him, ‘We are honest men; we are not spies.

³²We are twelve brothers, sons of our father; one is no longer alive, and the youngest is with our father today in the land of Canaan.’

³³But the man, the lord of the land, said to us, ‘By this I will know that you are honest men: leave one of your brothers with me and take grain for the famine of your households, and go.

³⁴But bring your youngest brother to me so that I may know that you are not spies, but honest men. I will give your brother to you, and you may trade in the land.’”

³⁵Now it came about, as they were emptying their sacks, that behold, every man’s bag of money was in his sack; and when they and their father saw their bags of money, they were afraid.

³⁶And their father Jacob said to them, “You have deprived me of my sons: Joseph is gone, and Simeon is gone, and now you would take Benjamin; all these things are against me.”

³⁷Then Reuben spoke to his father, saying, “You may put my two sons to death if I do not bring him back to you; put him in my care, and I will return him to you.”

³⁸But Jacob said, “My son shall not go down with you; for his brother is dead, and he alone is left. If harm should happen to him on the journey you are taking, then you will bring my gray hair down to Sheol in sorrow.”