Genesis 42:18-44:17

Evangelical Heritage Version

¹⁸ On the third day Joseph said to them, “Do what I tell you and you will live, because I fear God. ¹⁹ If you are honest men, let one of your brothers be confined in the jail, but the rest of you go and deliver grain to your houses to relieve the famine. ²⁰ Bring your youngest brother to me so that your words may be verified, and you will not die.” So they did as he said.

²¹ They said to one another, “We are certainly guilty concerning our brother, because we saw the misery of his soul when he begged us, but we would not listen. That is why this misery has come upon us.”

²² Reuben answered them, “Didn’t I tell you, ‘Do not sin against the boy’? But you would not listen. So now payment for his blood is being required from us.”

²³ They did not know that Joseph understood them, because an interpreter was being used between them. ²⁴ Joseph turned away from them and wept. After he returned and spoke to them, he seized Simeon from among them and tied him up before their very eyes. ²⁵ Then Joseph gave a command to fill their containers with grain, to return each man’s money into his sack, and to give them food for the journey. So all this was done for them.

²⁶ They loaded their donkeys with their grain and departed from there. ²⁷ When one of them opened his sack at the lodging place to give his donkey food, he saw his money. It was right there in the mouth of his bag. ²⁸ He said to his brothers, “My money has been returned! Look, there it is, in my bag!” Their hearts sank, and they turned to one another trembling and said, “What is this that God has done to us?”

²⁹ They came to Jacob their father in the land of Canaan and told him everything that had happened to them. They said, ³⁰ “The man, the lord of the land, spoke harshly to us and accused us of being spies against the country. ³¹ We said to him, ‘We are honest men. We are not spies. ³² We are twelve brothers, sons of our father. One brother is no more, and at the present time the youngest is with our father in the land of Canaan.’ ³³ That man, the lord of the land, said to us, ‘This is how I will know that you are honest men: Leave one of your brothers with me. Take grain to relieve the famine at your houses, and go on your way. ³⁴ Bring your youngest brother to me. Then I will know that you are not spies, but that you are honest men. Then I will release your brother to you, and you will be allowed to conduct business in the land.’”

³⁵ Then as they emptied their sacks, they were surprised to see that each man’s pouch of money was in his sack. When they and their father saw their pouch of money, they were afraid.

³⁶ Jacob, their father, said to them, “You have deprived me of my children! Joseph is no more. Simeon is no more. And now you want to take Benjamin away. All these things are against me.”

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

³⁸ Jacob said, “My son shall not go down with you, since his brother is dead, and he alone is left. If he has a mishap on the journey that you are taking, you will bring my gray hairs down to the grave with sorrow.”

43 The famine in the land was severe, ² so when they had eaten all the grain that they had brought from Egypt, their father said to them, “Go back and buy a little more food for us.”

³ Judah said to him, “The man sternly warned us, ‘You shall not see my face unless your brother is with you.’ ⁴ If you send our brother with us, we will go down and buy food for you, ⁵ but if you do not send him, we will not go down, because the man said to us, ‘You shall not see my face unless your brother is with you.’”

⁶ Israel said, “Why did you treat me so badly by telling the man that you had another brother?”

⁷ They said, “The man interrogated us about ourselves and about our relatives. He asked, ‘Is your father still alive? Do you have another brother?’ We just answered his questions. Is there any way we could have known that he would say, ‘Bring your brother down here’?”

⁸ Judah said to his father Israel, “Send the boy with me, and we will get up and go, so that we may live and not die, both we and you and also our little ones. ⁹ I will serve as a guarantee for him. You can hold me accountable for him. If I do not bring him back to you and set him in front of you, then let me bear the blame forever. ¹⁰ Look, if we had not delayed, we certainly could have returned for a second time by now.”

¹¹ Their father Israel said to them, “If it must be so, then this is what you should do: Put some of the best products of the land into your containers and take a gift for the man: a little balm, a little honey, spices and myrrh, pistachios and almonds. ¹² Also take double the amount of silver with you. Take back the silver that was returned into the mouths of your bags. Perhaps it was an oversight. ¹³ Also take your brother. Get going and return to the man. ¹⁴ May God Almighty grant you mercy before the man, so that he will release your other brother and Benjamin to you. But if I am deprived of my children, I am deprived.”

¹⁵ The men took that present, and they took double the amount of silver with them. They also took Benjamin. They got up, went down to Egypt, and stood before Joseph. ¹⁶ When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the manager^[a] of his house, “Bring the men into the house. Butcher an animal and prepare it, for the men will dine with me at noon.”

¹⁷ The manager did as Joseph commanded and brought the men to Joseph’s house. ¹⁸ The brothers were afraid, because they were brought to Joseph’s house. They said, “Because of the money that was returned into our bags the first time, we are being brought in, so that he may find a pretext against us, pounce on us, seize us as slaves, and take our donkeys.”

¹⁹ They approached the manager of Joseph’s house and spoke to him at the door of the house. ²⁰ They said, “Please, my lord, we really did come down the first time to buy food. ²¹ When we came to the lodging place, we opened our bags, and to our surprise each man’s silver was in the mouth of his bag, the full amount of our money.^[b] We have brought it back with us. ²² We have also brought down with us additional money to buy food. We do not know who put our money into our bags.”

²³ He said, “There is no problem. Do not be afraid. Your God, the God of your father, has given you treasure in your bags. I received your money.” He brought Simeon out to them. ²⁴ The man brought the men into Joseph’s house and gave them water, so they could wash their feet. He gave their donkeys fodder. ²⁵ They prepared the gift for Joseph, who was coming at noon, because they heard that they would be eating bread there.

²⁶ When Joseph came home, they presented him with the gift that they had brought to the house, and they bowed down to the ground in front of him. ²⁷ He asked them about their welfare: “Is your father well, the old man of whom you spoke? Is he still alive?”

²⁸ They said, “Your servant, our father, is well. He is still alive.”^[c] They bowed down and prostrated themselves.

²⁹ Joseph looked up and saw Benjamin, his brother, his mother’s son, and he asked, “Is this your youngest brother, the one you told me about?” He said, “God be gracious to you, my son.” ³⁰ Joseph hurried out, because he was overcome by his emotions over his brother, and he looked for a place to weep. He went into his room and wept there. ³¹ Then he washed his face and came out. After he regained control of himself, he said, “Serve the meal.”

³² They served Joseph by himself, the brothers by themselves, and the Egyptians who ate with him by themselves, because the Egyptians do not eat with Hebrews, for that is repulsive to the Egyptians. ³³ The brothers were seated in front of him. They were lined up in order, starting with the firstborn based on his birthright down to the youngest based on his youth, and the men expressed their amazement to each other. ³⁴ He sent servings to them from his table, but Benjamin’s portion was five times as much as any of theirs. They were drinking and they were feeling the effects.^[d]

44 Joseph commanded the manager of his house, “Fill the men’s bags with food, as much as they can carry. Put each man’s money into the mouth of his bag. ² Put my cup, the silver cup, into the mouth of the bag of the youngest, along with his money for the grain.” The manager did exactly what Joseph told him to do.

³ As soon as it became light in the morning, the men were sent on their way, with their donkeys. ⁴ When they had left the city and still were not very far away, Joseph said to his manager, “Get up. Pursue those men. When you overtake them, ask them, ‘Why have you repaid evil for good? ⁵ Isn’t this the cup that my lord drinks from and that he uses for divination? By doing this you have done evil.’” ⁶ The steward caught up to them and spoke those words to them.

⁷ They replied to him, “Why does my lord say such things? Your servants would never do such a thing! ⁸ That money, which we found in the mouths of our bags—we brought it back to you from the land of Canaan. Why then would we steal silver or gold out of your lord’s house? ⁹ If your cup is found with any of your servants, let him die, and we also will be my lord’s slaves.”

¹⁰ He said, “Fine, it will be just as you have said. If it is found with anyone, he will be my slave, and the rest of you will be blameless.”

¹¹ Then each man quickly lowered his bag to the ground, and each man opened his bag. ¹² The manager searched, beginning with the oldest and finishing with the youngest, and the cup was found in Benjamin’s bag. ¹³ Then they tore their clothing, and each man loaded his donkey and returned to the city.

¹⁴ When Judah and his brothers came to Joseph’s house, he was still there. They fell to the ground before him. ¹⁵ Joseph said to them, “What did you think you were doing? Didn’t you know that a man like me can discover things by divination?”

¹⁶ Judah said, “What can we tell my lord? What can we say? How can we clear ourselves? God has exposed the guilt of your servants. Here we are. We are my lord’s slaves, both we and the one in whose hand the cup was found.”

¹⁷ Joseph said, “I would never do that. The man in whose hand the cup was found will be my slave, but as for the rest of you, go up in peace to your father.”