And be sure to say, ‘Your servant Jacob is coming behind us.’” For he thought, “I will pacify him with these gifts I am sending on ahead; later, when I see him, perhaps he will receive me.”

“No, please!” said Jacob. “If I have found favor in your eyes, accept this gift from me. For to see your face is like seeing the face of God, now that you have received me favorably.

Their proposal seemed good to Hamor and his son Shechem.

So he said to him, “Go and see if all is well with your brothers and with the flocks, and bring word back to me.” Then he sent him off from the Valley of Hebron. When Joseph arrived at Shechem,

“Come now, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we’ll see what comes of his dreams.”

They took the ornate robe back to their father and said, “We found this. Examine it to see whether it is your son’s robe.”

As she was being brought out, she sent a message to her father-in-law. “I am pregnant by the man who owns these,” she said. And she added, “See if you recognize whose seal and cord and staff these are.”

After them, seven other cows came up—scrawny and very ugly and lean. I had never seen such ugly cows in all the land of Egypt.

The plan seemed good to Pharaoh and to all his officials.

Then he remembered his dreams about them and said to them, “You are spies! You have come to see where our land is unprotected.”

“No!” he said to them. “You have come to see where our land is unprotected.”

Send one of your number to get your brother; the rest of you will be kept in prison, so that your words may be tested to see if you are telling the truth. If you are not, then as surely as Pharaoh lives, you are spies!”

But Judah said to him, “The man warned us solemnly, ‘You will not see my face again unless your brother is with you.’

But if you will not send him, we will not go down, because the man said to us, ‘You will not see my face again unless your brother is with you.’”

“Then you said to your servants, ‘Bring him down to me so I can see him for myself.’

But you told your servants, ‘Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you will not see my face again.’

But we said, ‘We cannot go down. Only if our youngest brother is with us will we go. We cannot see the man’s face unless our youngest brother is with us.’

One of them went away from me, and I said, “He has surely been torn to pieces.” And I have not seen him since.

sees that the boy isn’t there, he will die. Your servants will bring the gray head of our father down to the grave in sorrow.

How can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? No! Do not let me see the misery that would come on my father.”

“You can see for yourselves, and so can my brother Benjamin, that it is really I who am speaking to you.

Tell my father about all the honor accorded me in Egypt and about everything you have seen. And bring my father down here quickly.”

And Israel said, “I’m convinced! My son Joseph is still alive. I will go and see him before I die.”

Israel said to Joseph, “Now I am ready to die, since I have seen for myself that you are still alive.”

Why should we perish before your eyes—we and our land as well? Buy us and our land in exchange for food, and we with our land will be in bondage to Pharaoh. Give us seed so that we may live and not die, and that the land may not become desolate.”