Joseph's brothers return to Egypt

43 The famine was still bad in Canaan. ² Jacob's family ate all the food that they had brought from Egypt. So Jacob said to his sons, ‘Go back to Egypt, and buy some more food for us.’^{[a] 3} But Judah said, ‘The man told us many times, “Unless your brother is with you, I will not let you see me again.” ⁴ So you must send Benjamin with us. Then we will go and buy food for you. ⁵ But if you do not send Benjamin, we will not go. The man clearly said to us, “Unless your brother is with you, you will not see me again.” ’

⁶ Jacob said to them, ‘You have brought great trouble to me! You should not have told the man that you had another brother.’ ⁷ The brothers replied, ‘The man asked us many questions about our family. He asked us, “Is your father still alive? Do you have another brother?” We only answered his questions. We did not know that he would say, “Bring your brother here.” ’

⁸ Then Judah said to his father Jacob, ‘Agree to send the boy with me. We will go to Egypt immediately. Then all our family can continue to live. We will not die.^{[b] 9} I promise you to keep Benjamin safe. I myself will take care of him and I will bring him back to you. If I do not bring him back home, then you should say that I am guilty. I will be guilty for all of my life. ¹⁰ We must go now! We have already talked for too long. By now, we could have gone to Egypt and returned twice!’

¹¹ Then their father Jacob said to them, ‘If you must take Benjamin, do what I tell you. Put some of the best things from our land in your bags. Take them to the man as a gift. Take some oil, some honey and some spices. Also take some myrrh, and some nuts.^{[c] 12} Also take twice the amount of money with you. You must give back the money that they put back into your bags last time. It may have been a mistake. ¹³ Take your brother Benjamin too. Go back to the man now. ¹⁴ I pray that God Almighty will help you. I pray that God will cause the man to be kind to you. Then he will let your older brother go free. He and Benjamin will return here with you. As for me, if I must lose my sons, then I will lose them. There is nothing that I can do to stop it.’

¹⁵ So the brothers took the gifts, and they took twice as much money with them. They took Benjamin and they hurried to Egypt. When they arrived there, they went to meet Joseph.

¹⁶ Joseph saw that Benjamin was with them. So he said to his servant who took care of his house, ‘Take these men to my house. Kill an animal and prepare it for a meal. These men will eat with me at noon.’ ¹⁷ The servant did as Joseph told him. He took the men to Joseph's house.

¹⁸ The brothers were frightened when the servant took them to Joseph's house. They thought, ‘He has brought us here because of the money that we found in our bags last time. Someone put it there before we returned home. Now he wants to punish us. He will take us to be his slaves. He will take our donkeys too.’

¹⁹ So the brothers went to Joseph's servant. They spoke to him at the door of Joseph's house before they went in. ²⁰ They said, ‘Please sir. The first time we came here, we came to buy food. ²¹ But on our journey back, we stopped at a place to sleep for the night. When we opened our bags, each of us found our money there. It was the same amount of money that each of us had taken to buy food in Egypt. The money was in the top of our bags. Now we have brought the money back here. ²² We have also brought more money so that we can buy more food. We do not know who put the money back into our bags.’

²³ The servant replied, ‘Do not worry. Everything is all right. Your God, the God of your father, put the valuable silver coins there. I received your money. No problem!’ Then the servant brought Simeon out to see his brothers.

²⁴ The servant took the men into Joseph's house. He gave them water to wash their feet. He also gave food to their donkeys. ²⁵ The brothers prepared their gifts to give to Joseph when he would arrive at noon. The servant had told them that they would eat a meal there.

²⁶ When Joseph arrived home, the brothers gave him the gifts that they had brought with them. They bent down low to the ground in front of him. ²⁷ Joseph asked them if they were well. Then he said, ‘You told me last time about your old father. How is he? Is he still alive?’ ²⁸ The brothers replied, ‘Your servant, our father, is still alive. And he is well.’ They bent down to the ground again, to respect Joseph.

²⁹ Then Joseph saw his brother Benjamin, his own mother's son.^[d] Joseph asked, ‘Is this your youngest brother? Is he the one that you told me about?’ Joseph said to Benjamin, ‘I pray that God will bless you, my son.’ ³⁰ Joseph loved Benjamin very much. He quickly went out of the room because he wanted to weep. Joseph went into his own room and he wept there. ³¹ After that, he washed his face. He returned to his brothers. He controlled himself and he said, ‘Prepare the food for them to eat.’ ³² The servants gave food to Joseph at his own table. The brothers sat together at a different table. And the Egyptians who ate there also sat together. The Egyptians could not eat a meal with Hebrews, because that would make the Egyptians ashamed. ³³ The brothers sat in a place where Joseph could see them. The servants told each of them where to sit, by their age. The oldest brother was at one end, all along to the youngest brother at the other end. The brothers were very surprised to see this.^[e]

³⁴ Then the servants took food from Joseph's table and they gave it to the brothers. Benjamin received the biggest amount of food. It was five times more than any of his brothers. The brothers also drank wine with Joseph and they were all very happy.