Genesis 43

¹Now the famine was severe in the land .

²And when they had eaten the grain that they had brought from Egypt , their father said to them, Go again , buy us a little food .

³But Judah said to him, The man solemnly warned us, saying , You shall not see my face unless your brother is with you.

⁴If you will send our brother with us, we will go down and buy you food .

⁵But if you will not send him, we will not go down , for the man said to us, You shall not see my face , unless your brother is with you.

⁶Israel said , Why did you treat me so badly as to tell the man that you had another brother ?

⁷They replied , The man questioned us carefully about ourselves and our kindred , saying , Is your father still alive ? Do you have another brother ? What we told him was in answer to these questions . Could we in any way know that he would say , Bring your brother down ?

⁸And Judah said to Israel his father , Send the boy with me, and we will arise and go , that we may live and not die , both we and you and also our little ones .

⁹I will be a pledge of his safety. From my hand you shall require him. If I do not bring him back to you and set him before you , then let me bear the blame forever .

¹⁰If we had not delayed , we would now have returned twice .

¹¹Then their father Israel said to them, If it must be so , then do this: take some of the choice fruits of the land in your bags , and carry a present down to the man , a little balm and a little honey , gum , myrrh , pistachio nuts , and almonds .

¹²Take double the money with you . Carry back with you the money that was returned in the mouth of your sacks . Perhaps it was an oversight .

¹³Take also your brother , and arise , go again to the man .

¹⁴May God Almighty grant you mercy before the man , and may he send back your other brother and Benjamin . And as for me, if I am bereaved of my children, I am bereaved .

¹⁵So the men took this present , and they took double the money with them , and Benjamin . They arose and went down to Egypt and stood before Joseph .

¹⁶When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the steward of his house , Bring the men into the house , and slaughter an animal and make ready , for the men are to dine with me at noon .

¹⁷The man did as Joseph told him and brought the men to Joseph’s house .

¹⁸And the men were afraid because they were brought to Joseph’s house , and they said , It is because of the money , which was replaced in our sacks the first time , that we are brought in , so that he may assault us and fall upon us to make us servants and seize our donkeys .

¹⁹So they went up to the steward of Joseph’s house and spoke with him at the door of the house ,

²⁰and said , Oh , my lord , we came down the first time to buy food .

²¹And when we came to the lodging place we opened our sacks , and there was each man’s money in the mouth of his sack , our money in full weight . So we have brought it again with us ,

²²and we have brought other money down with us to buy food . We do not know who put our money in our sacks .

²³He replied , Peace to you, do not be afraid . Your God and the God of your father has put treasure in your sacks for you. I received your money . Then he brought Simeon out to them.

²⁴And when the man had brought the men into Joseph’s house and given them water , and they had washed their feet , and when he had given their donkeys fodder ,

²⁵they prepared the present for Joseph’s coming at noon , for they heard that they should eat bread there.

²⁶When Joseph came home , they brought into the house to him the present that they had with them and bowed down to him to the ground .

²⁷And he inquired about their welfare and said , Is your father well , the old man of whom you spoke ? Is he still alive ?

²⁸They said , Your servant our father is well ; he is still alive . And they bowed their heads and prostrated themselves.

²⁹And he lifted up his eyes and saw his brother Benjamin , his mother’s son , and said , Is this your youngest brother , of whom you spoke to me? God be gracious to you, my son !

³⁰Then Joseph hurried out, for his compassion grew warm for his brother , and he sought a place to weep . And he entered his chamber and wept there.

³¹Then he washed his face and came out . And controlling himself he said , Serve the food .

³²They served him by himself , and them by themselves , and the Egyptians who ate with him by themselves , because the Egyptians could not eat with the Hebrews , for that is an abomination to the Egyptians .

³³And they sat before him , the firstborn according to his birthright and the youngest according to his youth . And the men looked at one another in amazement .

³⁴Portions were taken to them from Joseph’s table, but Benjamin’s portion was five times as much as any of theirs. And they drank and were merry with him.