Genesis 44-46

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

Joseph Detains Benjamin

44 Then he commanded the steward of his house, “Fill the men’s sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put each man’s money in the top of his sack.^{(A) 2} Put my cup, the silver cup, in the top of the sack of the youngest, with his money for the grain.” And he did as Joseph told him. ³ As soon as the morning was light, the men were sent away with their donkeys. ⁴ When they had gone only a short distance from the city, Joseph said to his steward, “Go, follow after the men, and when you overtake them, say to them, ‘Why have you returned evil for good? Why have you stolen my silver cup?^{[a] 5} Is it not from this that my lord drinks? Does he not indeed use it for divination? You have done wrong in doing this.’ ”^(B)

⁶ When he overtook them, he repeated these words to them. ⁷ They said to him, “Why does my lord speak such words as these? Far be it from your servants that they should do such a thing! ⁸ Look, the money that we found at the top of our sacks, we brought back to you from the land of Canaan; why then would we steal silver or gold from your lord’s house?^{(C) 9} Should it be found with any one of your servants, let him die; moreover, the rest of us will become my lord’s slaves.”^{(D) 10} He said, “Even so; in accordance with your words, let it be: he with whom it is found shall become my slave, but the rest of you shall go free.” ¹¹ Then each one quickly lowered his sack to the ground, and each opened his sack. ¹² He searched, beginning with the eldest and ending with the youngest, and the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack. ¹³ At this they tore their clothes. Then each one loaded his donkey, and they returned to the city.^(E)

¹⁴ Judah and his brothers came to Joseph’s house while he was still there, and they fell to the ground before him.^{(F) 15} Joseph said to them, “What deed is this that you have done? Do you not know that one such as I can practice divination?”^{(G) 16} And Judah said, “What can we say to my lord? What can we speak? How can we clear ourselves? God has found out the guilt of your servants; here we are then, my lord’s slaves, both we and also the one in whose possession the cup has been found.”^{(H) 17} But he said, “Far be it from me that I should do so! Only the one in whose possession the cup was found shall be my slave, but as for you, go up in peace to your father.”

Judah Pleads for Benjamin’s Release

¹⁸ Then Judah stepped up to him and said, “O my lord, let your servant please speak a word in my lord’s ears, and do not be angry with your servant, for you are like Pharaoh himself.^{(I) 19} My lord asked his servants, saying, ‘Have you a father or a brother?’ ²⁰ And we said to my lord, ‘We have a father, an old man, and a young brother, the child of his old age. His brother is dead; he alone is left of his mother’s children, and his father loves him.’^{(J) 21} Then you said to your servants, ‘Bring him down to me, so that I may set my eyes on him.’ ²² We said to my lord, ‘The boy cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father, his father would die.’ ²³ Then you said to your servants, ‘Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you shall see my face no more.’^{(K) 24} When we went back to your servant my father we told him the words of my lord. ²⁵ And when our father said, ‘Go again; buy us a little food,’ ²⁶ we said, ‘We cannot go down. Only if our youngest brother goes with us will we go down, for we cannot see the man’s face unless our youngest brother is with us.’ ²⁷ Then your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons; ²⁸ one left me, and I said, Surely he has been torn to pieces, and I have never seen him since.^{(L) 29} If you take this one also from me and harm comes to him, you will bring down my gray hairs in sorrow to Sheol.’^{(M) 30} Now therefore, when I come to your servant my father and the boy is not with us, then, as his life is bound up in the boy’s life, ³¹ when he sees that the boy is not with us, he will die, and your servants will bring down the gray hairs of your servant our father with sorrow to Sheol. ³² For your servant became surety for the boy to my father, saying, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, then I will bear the blame in the sight of my father all my life.’^{(N) 33} Now therefore, please let your servant remain as a slave to my lord in place of the boy, and let the boy go back with his brothers. ³⁴ For how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? I fear to see the suffering that would come upon my father.”

Joseph Reveals Himself to His Brothers

45 Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all those who stood by him, and he cried out, “Send everyone away from me.” So no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers.^{(O) 2} And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it.^{(P) 3} Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?” But his brothers could not answer him, so dismayed were they at his presence.^(Q)

⁴ Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come closer to me.” And they came closer. He said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt.^{(R) 5} And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life.^{(S) 6} For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are five more years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. ⁷ God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to keep alive for you many survivors. ⁸ So it was not you who sent me here but God; he has made me a father to Pharaoh and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt.^{(T) 9} Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, ‘Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt; come down to me; do not delay. ¹⁰ You shall settle in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children and your children’s children, as well as your flocks, your herds, and all that you have.^{(U) 11} I will provide for you there, since there are five more years of famine to come, so that you and your household and all that you have will not come to poverty.’ ¹² And now your eyes and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see that it is my own mouth that speaks to you. ¹³ You must tell my father how greatly I am honored in Egypt and all that you have seen. Hurry and bring my father down here.”^{(V) 14} Then he fell upon his brother Benjamin’s neck and wept, while Benjamin wept upon his neck. ¹⁵ And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them, and after that his brothers talked with him.

¹⁶ When the report was heard in Pharaoh’s house, “Joseph’s brothers have come,” Pharaoh and his servants were pleased. ¹⁷ Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Say to your brothers, ‘Do this: load your animals and go back to the land of Canaan. ¹⁸ Take your father and your households and come to me, so that I may give you the best of the land of Egypt, and you may enjoy the fat of the land.’^{(W) 19} You are further charged to say, ‘Do this: take wagons from the land of Egypt for your little ones and for your wives, and bring your father, and come. ²⁰ Give no thought to your possessions, for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours.’ ”

²¹ The sons of Israel did so. Joseph gave them wagons according to the instruction of Pharaoh, and he gave them provisions for the journey. ²² To each one of them he gave a set of garments, but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver and five sets of garments.^{(X) 23} To his father he sent the following: ten donkeys loaded with the good things of Egypt and ten female donkeys loaded with grain, bread, and provision for his father on the journey. ²⁴ Then he sent his brothers on their way, and as they were leaving he said to them, “Do not quarrel^[b] along the way.”

²⁵ So they went up out of Egypt and came to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan. ²⁶ And they told him, “Joseph is still alive! He is even ruler over all the land of Egypt.” He was stunned; he could not believe them. ²⁷ But when they told him all the words of Joseph that he had said to them, and when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of their father Jacob revived. ²⁸ Israel said, “Enough! My son Joseph is still alive. I must go and see him before I die.”

Jacob Brings His Whole Family to Egypt

46 When Israel set out on his journey with all that he had and came to Beer-sheba, he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac.^{(Y) 2} God spoke to Israel in visions of the night and said, “Jacob, Jacob.” And he said, “Here I am.”^{(Z) 3} Then he said, “I am God,^[c] the God of your father; do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make of you a great nation there.^{(AA) 4} I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again, and Joseph’s own hand shall close your eyes.”^(AB)

⁵ Then Jacob set out from Beer-sheba, and the sons of Israel carried their father Jacob, their little ones, and their wives in the wagons that Pharaoh had sent to carry him.^{(AC) 6} They also took their livestock and the goods that they had acquired in the land of Canaan, and they came into Egypt, Jacob and all his offspring with him,^{(AD) 7} his sons, and his sons’ sons with him, his daughters, and his sons’ daughters; all his offspring he brought with him into Egypt.

⁸ Now these are the names of the Israelites, Jacob and his offspring, who came to Egypt. Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn,^{(AE) 9} and the children of Reuben: Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi. ¹⁰ The children of Simeon: Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul, the son of a Canaanite woman.^{(AF) 11} The children of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.^{(AG) 12} The children of Judah: Er, Onan, Shelah, Perez, and Zerah (but Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan), and the children of Perez were Hezron and Hamul.^{(AH) 13} The children of Issachar: Tola, Puvah, Jashub,^[d] and Shimron. ¹⁴ The children of Zebulun: Sered, Elon, and Jahleel. ¹⁵ These are the sons of Leah whom she bore to Jacob in Paddan-aram, together with his daughter Dinah; in all, his sons and his daughters numbered thirty-three. ¹⁶ The children of Gad: Ziphion, Haggi, Shuni, Ezbon, Eri, Arodi, and Areli. ¹⁷ The children of Asher: Imnah, Ishvah, Ishvi, Beriah, and their sister Serah. The children of Beriah: Heber and Malchiel.^{(AI) 18} These are the children of Zilpah, whom Laban gave to his daughter Leah, and these she bore to Jacob—sixteen persons.^{(AJ) 19} The children of Jacob’s wife Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin.^{(AK) 20} To Joseph in the land of Egypt were born Manasseh and Ephraim, whom Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, bore to him.^{(AL) 21} The children of Benjamin: Bela, Becher, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ehi, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim, and Ard.^{(AM) 22} These are the children of Rachel who were born to Jacob—fourteen persons in all. ²³ The children of Dan: Hashum.^{[e](AN) 24} The children of Naphtali: Jahzeel, Guni, Jezer, and Shillem.^{(AO) 25} These are the children of Bilhah, whom Laban gave to his daughter Rachel, and these she bore to Jacob—seven persons in all.^{(AP) 26} All the persons belonging to Jacob who came into Egypt who were his own offspring, not including the wives of his sons, were sixty-six persons in all.^{(AQ) 27} The children of Joseph who were born to him in Egypt were two; all the persons of the house of Jacob who came into Egypt were seventy.^(AR)

Jacob Settles in Goshen

²⁸ Israel^[f] sent Judah ahead to Joseph to lead the way before him into Goshen. When they came to the land of Goshen,^{(AS) 29} Joseph made ready his chariot and went up to meet his father Israel in Goshen. He presented himself to him, fell on his neck, and wept on his neck a good while.^{(AT) 30} Israel said to Joseph, “I can die now, having seen for myself that you are still alive.” ³¹ Joseph said to his brothers and to his father’s household, “I will go up and tell Pharaoh and will say to him, ‘My brothers and my father’s household, who were in the land of Canaan, have come to me.^{(AU) 32} The men are shepherds, for they have been keepers of livestock, and they have brought their flocks and their herds and all that they have.’ ³³ When Pharaoh calls you and says, ‘What is your occupation?’^{(AV) 34} you shall say, ‘Your servants have been keepers of livestock from our youth even until now, both we and our ancestors,’ in order that you may settle in the land of Goshen, because all shepherds are abhorrent to the Egyptians.”^(AW)