Beginning

43 But the hunger and destitution and starvation were very severe and extremely distressing in the land [Canaan].

² And when [the families of Jacob’s sons] had eaten up the grain which the men had brought from Egypt, their father said to them, Go again; buy us a little food.

³ But Judah said to him, The man solemnly and sternly warned us, saying, You shall not see my face again unless your brother is with you.

⁴ If you will send our brother with us, we will go down [to Egypt] and buy you food;

⁵ But if you will not send him, we will not go down; for the man said to us, You shall not see my face unless your brother is with you.

⁶ And Israel said, Why did you do me such a wrong and suffer this evil to come upon me by telling the man that you had another brother?

⁷ And they said, The man asked us straightforward questions about ourselves and our relatives. He said, Is your father still alive? Have you another brother? And we answered him accordingly. How could we know that he would say, Bring your brother down here?

⁸ And Judah said to Israel his father, Send the lad with me and we will arise and go, that we may live and not die, both we and you and also our little ones.

⁹ I will be security for him; you shall require him of me [personally]; if I do not bring him back to you and put him before you, then let me bear the blame forever.

¹⁰ For if we had not lingered like this, surely by now we would have returned the second time.

¹¹ And their father Israel said to them, If it must be so, now do this; take of the choicest products in the land in your sacks and carry down a present to the man, a little balm (balsam) and a little honey, aromatic spices and gum (of rock rose) or ladanum, pistachio nuts, and almonds.

¹² And take double the [grain] money with you; and the money that was put back in the mouth of your sacks, carry it again with you; there is a possibility that [its being in your sacks] was an oversight.

¹³ Take your brother and arise and return to the man;

¹⁴ May God Almighty give you mercy and favor before the man, that he may release to you your other brother and Benjamin. If I am bereaved [of my sons], I am bereaved.

¹⁵ Then the men took the present, and they took double the [grain] money with them, and Benjamin; and they arose and went down to Egypt and stood before Joseph.

¹⁶ And when Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the steward of his house, Bring the men into the house and kill an animal and make ready, for the men will dine with me at noon.

¹⁷ And the man did as Joseph ordered and brought the men to Joseph’s house.

¹⁸ The men were afraid because they were brought to Joseph’s house; and they said, We are brought in because of the money that was returned in our sacks the first time we came, so that he may find occasion to accuse and assail us, take us for slaves, and seize our donkeys.

¹⁹ So they came near to the steward of Joseph’s house and talked with him at the door of the house,

²⁰ And said, O sir, we came down truly the first time to buy food;

²¹ And when we came to the inn, we opened our sacks and there was each man’s money, full weight, returned in the mouth of his sack. Now we have brought it back again.

²² And we have brought down with us other money to buy food; we do not know who put our money in our sacks.

²³ But [the steward] said, Peace be to you, fear not; your God and the God of your father has given you treasure in your sacks. I received your money. And he brought Simeon out to them.

²⁴ And the man brought the men into Joseph’s house and gave them water, and they washed their feet; and he gave their donkeys provender.

²⁵ And they made ready the present they had brought for Joseph before his coming at noon, for they heard that they were to dine there.

²⁶ And when Joseph came home, they brought into the house to him the present which they had with them, and bowed themselves to him to the ground.

²⁷ He asked them of their welfare and said, Is your old father well, of whom you spoke? Is he still alive?

²⁸ And they answered, Your servant our father is in good health; he is still alive. And they bowed down their heads and made obeisance.

²⁹ And he looked up and saw his [full] brother Benjamin, his mother’s [only other] son, and said, Is this your youngest brother, of whom you spoke to me? And he said, God be gracious to you, my son!

³⁰ And Joseph hurried from the room, for his heart yearned for his brother, and he sought privacy to weep; so he entered his chamber and wept there.

³¹ And he washed his face and went out, and, restraining himself, said, Let dinner be served.

³² And [the servants] set out [the food] for [Joseph] by himself, and for [his brothers] by themselves, and for those Egyptians who ate with him by themselves, according to the Egyptian custom not to eat food with the Hebrews; for that is an abomination to the Egyptians.

³³ And [Joseph’s brothers] were given seats before him—the eldest according to his birthright and the youngest according to his youth; and the men looked at one another amazed [that so much was known about them].

³⁴ [Joseph] took and sent helpings to them from before him, but Benjamin’s portion was five times as much as any of theirs. And they drank freely and were merry with him.

44 And he commanded the steward of his house, saying, Fill the men’s sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put every man’s money in his sack’s mouth.

² And put my cup, the silver cup, in the sack’s mouth of the youngest, with his grain money. And [the steward] did according to what Joseph had said.

³ As soon as the morning was light, the men were sent away, they and their donkeys.

⁴ When they had left the city and were not yet far away, Joseph said to his steward, Up, follow after the men; and when you overtake them, say to them, Why have you rewarded evil for good? [Why have you stolen the silver cup?]

⁵ Is it not my master’s drinking cup with which he divines [the future]? You have done wrong in doing this.

⁶ And the steward overtook them, and he said to them these same words.

⁷ They said to him, Why does my lord say these things? Far be it from your servants to do such a thing!

⁸ Note that the money which we found in the mouths of our sacks we brought back to you from the land of Canaan. Is it likely then that we would steal from your master’s house silver or gold?

⁹ With whomever of your servants [your master’s cup] is found, not only let that one die, but the rest of us will be my lord’s slaves.

¹⁰ And the steward said, Now let it be as you say: he with whom [the cup] is found shall be my slave, but [the rest of] you shall be blameless.

¹¹ Then quickly every man lowered his sack to the ground and every man opened his sack.

¹² And [the steward] searched, beginning with the eldest and stopping with the youngest; and the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack.

¹³ Then they rent their clothes; and after each man had loaded his donkey again, they returned to the city.

¹⁴ Judah and his brethren came to Joseph’s house, for he was still there; and they fell prostrate before him.

¹⁵ Joseph said to them, What is this thing that you have done? Do you not realize that such a man as I can certainly detect and know by divination [everything you do without other knowledge of it]?

¹⁶ And Judah said, What shall we say to my lord? What shall we reply? Or how shall we clear ourselves, since God has found out and exposed the iniquity of your servants? Behold, we are my lord’s slaves, the rest of us as well as he with whom the cup is found.

¹⁷ But [Joseph] said, God forbid that I should do that; but the man in whose hand the cup is found, he shall be my servant; and as for [the rest of] you, arise and go in peace to your father.

¹⁸ Then Judah came close to [Joseph] and said, O my lord, let your servant, I pray you, speak a word to you in private, and let not your anger blaze against your servant, for you are as Pharaoh [so I will speak as if directly to him].

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; and his brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother’s [offspring], and his father loves him.

²¹ And you said to your servants, Bring him down to me, that I may set my eyes on him.

²² And we said to my lord, The lad cannot leave his father; for if he should do so, his father would die.

²³ And you told your servants, Unless your youngest brother comes with you, you shall not see my face again.

²⁴ And when we went back to your servant my father, we told him what my lord had said.

²⁵ And our father said, Go again and buy us a little food.

²⁶ But we said, We cannot go down. If our youngest brother is with us, then we will go down; for we may not see the man’s face except our youngest brother is with us.

²⁷ And your servant my father said to us, You know that [Rachel] my wife bore me two sons:

²⁸ And the one went out from me, and I said, Surely he is torn to pieces, and I have never seen him since.

²⁹ And if you take this son also from me, and harm or accident should befall him, you will bring down my gray hairs with sorrow and evil to Sheol (the place of the dead).

³⁰ Now therefore, when I come to your servant my father and the lad is not with us, since his life is bound up in the lad’s life and his soul knit with the lad’s soul,

³¹ When he sees that the lad is not with us, he will die; and your servants will be responsible for his death and will bring down the gray hairs of your servant our father with sorrow to Sheol.

³² For your servant became security for the lad to my father, saying, If I do not bring him to you, then I will bear the blame to my father forever.

³³ Now therefore, I pray you, let your servant remain instead of the youth [to be] a slave to my lord, and let the young man go home with his [half] brothers.

³⁴ For how can I go up to my father if the lad is not with me?—lest I witness the woe and the evil that will come upon my father.

45 Then Joseph could not restrain himself [any longer] before all those who stood by him, and he called out, Cause every man to go out from me! So no one stood there with Joseph while he made himself known to his brothers.

² And he wept and sobbed aloud, and the Egyptians [who had just left him] heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard about it.

³ And Joseph said to his brothers, I am Joseph! Is my father still alive? And his brothers could not reply, for they were distressingly disturbed and dismayed at [the startling realization that they were in] his presence.

⁴ And Joseph said to his brothers, Come near to me, I pray you. And they did so. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt!

⁵ But now, do not be distressed and disheartened or vexed and angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me ahead of you to preserve life.

⁶ For these two years the famine has been in the land, and there are still five years more in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest.

⁷ God sent me before you to preserve for you a posterity and to continue a remnant on the earth, to save your lives by a great escape and save for you many survivors.

⁸ So now it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt.

⁹ Hurry and go up to my father and tell him, Your son Joseph says this to you: God has put me in charge of all Egypt. Come down to me; do not delay.

¹⁰ You will live in the land of Goshen, and you will be close to me—you and your children and your grandchildren, your flocks, your herds, and all you have.

¹¹ And there I will sustain and provide for you, so that you and your household and all that are yours may not come to poverty and want, for there are yet five [more] years of [the scarcity, hunger, and starvation of] famine.

¹² Now notice! Your own eyes and the eyes of my brother Benjamin can see that I am talking to you personally [in your language and not through an interpreter].

¹³ And you shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt and of all that you have seen; and you shall hurry and bring my father down here.

¹⁴ And he fell on his brother Benjamin’s neck and wept, and Benjamin wept on his neck.

¹⁵ Moreover, he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them; and after that his brothers conversed with him.

¹⁶ When the report was heard in Pharaoh’s house that Joseph’s brothers had come, it pleased Pharaoh and his servants well.

¹⁷ And Pharaoh said to Joseph, Tell your brothers this: Load your animals and return to the land of Canaan,

¹⁸ And get your father and your households and come to me. And I will give you the best in the land of Egypt and you will live on the fat of the land.

¹⁹ You therefore command them, saying, You do this: take wagons from the land of Egypt for your little ones and for your wives, and bring your father and come.

²⁰ Also do not look with regret or concern upon your goods, for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours.

²¹ And the sons of Israel did so; and Joseph gave them wagons, as the order of Pharaoh permitted, and gave them provisions for the journey.

²² To each of them he gave changes of raiment, but to Benjamin he gave 300 pieces of silver and five changes of raiment.

²³ And to his father he sent as follows: ten donkeys loaded with the good things of Egypt, and ten she-donkeys laden with grain, bread, and nourishing food and provision for his father [to supply all who were with him] on the way.

²⁴ So he sent his brothers away, and they departed, and he said to them, See that you do not disagree (get excited, quarrel) along the road.

²⁵ So they went up out of Egypt and came into the land of Canaan to Jacob their father,

²⁶ And they said to him, Joseph is still alive! And he is governor over all the land of Egypt! And Jacob’s heart began to stop beating and [he almost] fainted, for he did not believe them.

²⁷ But when they told him all the words of Joseph which he had said to them, and when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father revived [and warmth and life returned].

²⁸ And Israel said, It is enough! Joseph my son is still alive. I will go and see him before I die.