1 Now Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt, and Jacob said to his
sons, “Why do you look at one another?” 2 He said, “Behold, I have
heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there, and buy for us from there,
so that we may live, and not die.” 3 Joseph’s ten brothers went down to
buy grain from Egypt. 4 But Jacob didn’t send Benjamin, Joseph’s brother,
with his brothers; for he said, “Lest perhaps harm happen to him.” 5 The
sons of Israel came to buy among those who came, for the famine was in the
land of Canaan. 6 Joseph was the governor over the land. It was he who
sold to all the people of the land. Joseph’s brothers came, and bowed
themselves down to him with their faces to the earth. 7 Joseph saw his
brothers, and he recognized them, but acted like a stranger to them, and
spoke roughly with them. He said to them, “Where did you come from?”
They said, “From the land of Canaan to buy food.”
8 Joseph recognized his brothers, but they didn’t recognize him.
9 Joseph remembered the dreams which he dreamed about them, and said to
them, “You are spies! You have come to see the nakedness of the
land.”
10 They said to him, “No, my lord, but your servants have come to buy
food. 11 We are all one man’s sons; we are honest men. Your servants are
not spies.”
12 He said to them, “No, but you have come to see the nakedness of
the land.”
13 They said, “We, your servants, are twelve brothers, the sons of one man
in the land of Canaan; and behold, the youngest is this day with our father,
and one is no more.”
14 Joseph said to them, “It is like I told you, saying, ‘You are
spies.’ 15 By this you shall be tested. By the life of Pharaoh,
you shall not go forth from here, unless your youngest brother comes
here. 16 Send one of you, and let him get your brother, and you shall
be bound, that your words may be tested, whether there is truth in you, or
else by the life of Pharaoh surely you are spies.” 17 He put them all
together into custody for three days.
18 Joseph said to them the third day, “Do this, and live, for I fear God.
19 If you are honest men, then let one of your brothers be bound in
your prison; but you go, carry grain for the famine of your
houses. 20 Bring your youngest brother to me; so will your words be
verified, and you won’t die.”
They did so. 21 They said one to another, “We are certainly guilty
concerning our brother, in that we saw the distress of his soul, when he
begged us, and we wouldn’t listen. Therefore this distress has come upon us.”
22 Reuben answered them, saying, “Didn’t I tell you, saying, ‘Don’t sin
against the child,’ and you wouldn’t listen? Therefore also, behold, his
blood is required.” 23 They didn’t know that Joseph understood them; for
there was an interpreter between them. 24 He turned himself away from
them, and wept. Then he returned to them, and spoke to them, and took Simeon
from among them, and bound him before their eyes. 25 Then Joseph gave a command
to fill their bags with grain, and to restore every man’s money into his
sack, and to give them food for the way. So it was done to them.
26 They loaded their donkeys with their grain, and departed from there.
27 As one of them opened his sack to give his donkey food in the
lodging place, he saw his money. Behold, it was in the mouth of his sack.
28 He said to his brothers, “My money is restored! Behold, it is in
my sack!” Their hearts failed them, and they turned trembling one to another,
saying, “What is this that God has done to us?” 29 They came to Jacob
their father, to the land of Canaan, and told him all that had happened to
them, saying, 30 “The man, the lord of the land, spoke roughly with us,
and took us for spies of the country. 31 We said to him, ‘We are honest
men. We are no spies. 32 We are twelve brothers, sons of our father; one
is no more, and the youngest is this day with our father in the land of
Canaan.’ 33 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 houses, and go your way. 34 Bring your
youngest brother to me. Then I will know that you are not spies, but
that you are honest men. So I will deliver your brother to you, and
you shall trade in the land.’”
35 It happened as they emptied their sacks, that behold, every man’s
bundle of money was in his sack. When they and their father saw their bundles
of money, they were afraid. 36 Jacob, their father, said to them,
“You have bereaved me of my children! Joseph is no more, Simeon is no
more, and you want to take Benjamin away. All these things are against
me.”
37 Reuben spoke to his father, saying, “Kill my two sons, if I don’t bring
him to you. Entrust him to my care, and I will bring him to you again.”
38 He said, “My son shall not go down with you; for his brother is dead,
and he only is left. If harm happens to him along the way in which you go,
then you will bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Sheol.”
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