Beginning

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.

Joseph tests his brothers

44 Joseph told the servant who took care of his house, ‘Fill the men's bags. Give them as much food as their animals can carry. Put each man's money back in the top of his bag. ² Then take my silver cup and put it in the top of the youngest man's bag. Put it with the money that he brought to pay for his food.’ The servant did what Joseph had told him to do. ³ When morning came, the men started their journey with their donkeys. ⁴ They had travelled only a short way from the city. Then Joseph said to his servant, ‘Go now and follow those men. When you find them, say to them, “My master was kind to you. So why have you done this bad thing against us? ⁵ You have taken my master's own special cup. It is the cup that he drinks from. He also uses it to find out about future things. You have done a very bad thing!” ’

⁶ So Joseph's servant followed the men and he reached them. He told them Joseph's message. ⁷ But the brothers said to him, ‘Sir, why do you say these things? We are your servants. We would not do anything like that! ⁸ When we found the money in our bags last time, we brought it back to you from Canaan. So we would never take valuable silver or gold things from your master's house. ⁹ If any one of us has this silver cup, he must die. We others will become your slaves, sir.’ ¹⁰ The servant said, ‘What you say is fair. Whoever has the cup, will become my slave. The rest of you will go free.’

¹¹ Each of the brothers quickly put his bag on the ground and opened it. ¹² Then the servant began to look in the bags. He began with the oldest brother's bag and he finished with the youngest brother's bag. Then he found the cup in Benjamin's bag! ¹³ When this happened, all the brothers were very upset. They tore their clothes. Then they put their bags back on their donkeys. They returned to the city.

¹⁴ Joseph was still in his house when Judah and his brothers arrived. They threw themselves on the ground in front of Joseph. ¹⁵ Joseph said, ‘Why have you done this bad thing? You should have known about an important man like me. I can use magic to find out what people do.’ ¹⁶ Judah said, ‘We do not know what to say to you, my lord. We cannot say that we did not do this. God has shown that we are guilty of this sin. Now we are your slaves. We are all your slaves, as well as the one who had your cup in his bag.’

¹⁷ But Joseph said, ‘I would not do a thing like that! Only the man who had the cup will be my slave. The rest of you can return to your father. You may go as my friends.’

¹⁸ Then Judah went and he spoke to Joseph. He said, ‘Please, my lord. Let me speak to you. You have all of Pharaoh's authority, but please do not be angry with me, your servant. ¹⁹ You asked us, “Do you have a father or another brother?” ²⁰ And we replied, “We have a father who is very old. He has a young son who was born when our father was already old. That son's brother is dead. He is the only son of his mother who still lives. His father loves him.” ²¹ Then you said, “Bring your youngest brother to me so that I can see him.” ²² And we said, “The boy cannot leave his father. If he leaves him, his father will die.” ²³ But you said to us, “Your youngest brother must come with you. If he does not come, I will not let you see me again.” ²⁴ We returned to our father and we told him what you said. ²⁵ After some time, our father said, “Go back to Egypt and buy some more food for us.” ²⁶ But we said, “We cannot go back there. We can only go if our youngest brother goes with us. If he is not with us, we will not be able to see the man again.” ²⁷ Then my father said to us, “My wife gave birth to two sons. ²⁸ One of them went away and he never returned. So I said, ‘A wild animal must have eaten him.’ I have not seen him since that happened. ²⁹ If you take my youngest son away from me too, something bad may happen to him. I am already an old man. If I lose Benjamin, I would be so sad that I would die.” ’

³⁰ Judah continued and he said, ‘So, my lord, I could not go back to my father without his youngest son. My father stays alive because of this boy. ³¹ If my father sees that his son is not with us, he will die. Because we did not bring the boy back to him, he will be sad enough to die. ³² I promised my father that I would take care of the boy. I said, “I will bring the boy back. If I do not, then you can say that I am guilty. I will be guilty for all of my life.” ³³ Please sir, let me stay here as your slave, instead of the boy. Let the boy return home with his brothers. ³⁴ I cannot go back to my father if the boy is not with me. I never want to see how upset my father would be.’^[f]

Joseph says who he is

45 After Judah said this, Joseph could not control himself. He did not want to cry in front of all his servants. So he shouted, ‘Make everyone go away from me!’ So there was no one still there with Joseph, except his brothers. Then he told his brothers who he was. ² Joseph wept loudly, so that the Egyptians heard him. All the people in Pharaoh's house knew about it.

³ Joseph said to his brothers, ‘I am Joseph! Is my father still alive?’ But his brothers could not answer him because they were too frightened. They could see Joseph was there in front of them!^[g]

⁴ Then Joseph said to them, ‘Come near to me.’ So they did that. He said, ‘I am your brother Joseph. I am the one that you sold to become a slave in Egypt! ⁵ But do not be upset. Do not be angry with yourselves because you sold me like that. No! It was God who sent me here! He sent me here before you came. He did that so that I could save people's lives. ⁶ There has been a famine for two years already. No food will grow for another five years. ⁷ But God sent me to come here before you. Because of that, your family would stay alive. God would do a great thing to save you and your descendants. ⁸ So you did not really send me here. It was God who did that! He made me Pharaoh's most important officer, as if I am his father. I take care of everything in Pharaoh's palace. I have authority to rule over all of Egypt.^{[h] 9} Now hurry back to my father. Say to him, “This is what your son Joseph says: God has made me lord over all Egypt. Come here to me. Come now. ¹⁰ You can live in the region called Goshen. You, your children and your grandchildren can live there. You can bring your sheep, goats and cows, together with everything that you have. In Goshen you will all be near me. ¹¹ I will take care of you there. I will give food to you, because there will be five more years of famine. If you do not come here, you and all your family and servants will become very poor.” ’

¹² Joseph continued to say to his brothers, ‘As I speak to you now, you can all see clearly that I really am Joseph. My brother Benjamin also knows that. ¹³ Tell my father about the authority that I have here in Egypt. Tell him about everything that you have seen here. Then bring my father here quickly.’

¹⁴ Then Joseph hugged his brother Benjamin and he wept. Benjamin hugged Joseph and he also wept. ¹⁵ Joseph continued to weep as he kissed each of his other brothers too. After this, his brothers began to talk to Joseph.

¹⁶ Pharaoh then heard that Joseph's brothers had arrived in Egypt. Pharaoh and his officers were happy to know that. ¹⁷ Pharaoh said to Joseph, ‘Tell your brothers to do this. Say to them, “Put food on your donkeys and return home to Canaan. ¹⁸ Then bring your father and your families to come here to me. I will give you the best land in Egypt to live on. You will have all the best things that the land gives to you.”  ¹⁹ You must also tell your brothers, “Take some carts from here in Egypt. Your wives and children can ride in them to come back here. Bring your father and come quickly. ²⁰ Do not worry. You do not have to bring all your things from your own country. The best things of Egypt will belong to you.” ’

²¹ So Jacob's sons did what Pharaoh said. Joseph gave them carts as Pharaoh had told him to do. He also gave them food for their journey. ²² Joseph gave new clothes to each of his brothers. But he gave 300 silver coins and five sets of clothes to Benjamin. ²³ Joseph also sent these things to his father:

²⁴ Then Joseph sent his brothers to start their journey. As they left, he said to them, ‘Do not argue with each other on your way home!’

²⁵ The brothers left Egypt and they returned home to their father Jacob in Canaan. ²⁶ They told him, ‘Joseph is still alive! He rules over all of Egypt!’ Jacob was so surprised that he did not believe what they said. ²⁷ So Jacob's sons told him everything that Joseph had said to them. Jacob saw the carts that Joseph had sent to carry him back to Egypt. Then Jacob felt stronger again. ²⁸ Jacob said, ‘Now I believe you! My son Joseph is still alive! I will go and see him before I die.’