Joseph and His Brothers

42 When Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he said to his sons, “Why are you standing here looking at each other?” ² He also said, “Listen, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy some for us there, so that we may live and not die.” ³ So ten of Joseph’s brothers went down to buy grain from Egypt. ⁴ But Jacob did not send Joseph’s brother Benjamin along with his other brothers, because he said, “Something bad might happen to him.”

⁵ The sons of Israel were among those who came to buy grain because of the famine in the land of Canaan. ⁶ Joseph was the governor over the land. He was the one who sold grain to all the people of the land. Joseph’s brothers came and bowed down to him with their faces to the ground. ⁷ Joseph saw his brothers and recognized them, but he acted like a stranger toward them and spoke harshly to them. He asked them, “Where did you come from?”

They said, “From the land of Canaan to buy food.”

⁸ Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him. ⁹ Joseph remembered the dreams that he had dreamed about them and said to them, “You are spies! You have come to see where the land is exposed.”

¹⁰ They said to him, “No, my lord, 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, you have come to see where the land is exposed!”

¹³ They said, “We, your servants, are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan. Listen, at the present time the youngest remains with our father, and one is no more.”

¹⁴ Joseph said to them, “It is just as I said. You are spies! ¹⁵ This is how you will be tested: By the life of Pharaoh, you shall never get out of here, unless your youngest brother comes here. ¹⁶ Send one of you to get your brother. The rest of you will be kept under arrest, so that your words may be tested, whether you are telling the truth. Otherwise, by the life of Pharaoh, you are spies.” ¹⁷ He kept them all together, confined in the jail for three days.

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?”