Beginning

Judah Pledges for Benjamin

43 Now the famine was severe in the land. ² When they finished eating the grain they had brought from Egypt their father said to them, “Go back. Buy us a little food.”

³ But Judah said to him, “The man warned us firmly saying, ‘You won’t see my face unless your brother is with you.’ ⁴ If you send our brother with us, we will go down and buy grain for you for food. ⁵ But if you won’t send him, we won’t go down, because the man said to us, ‘You won’t see my face unless your brother is with you.’”

⁶ Then Israel said, “Why did you do evil to me by telling the man that you have another brother?”

⁷ They said, “The man questioned particularly about us and about our relatives saying, ‘Is your father still alive? Do you have a brother?’ So we spoke to him on the basis of these words. How could we possibly know that he would say, ‘Bring your brother down’”?

⁸ Then Judah said to his father Israel, “Please, send the boy with me and we’ll get up and go, so that we’ll live and not die—we and you, and our children. ⁹ I myself will be his pledge. You can demand him back from my own hand. If I don’t bring him back to you and place him before you, then you can blame me all my days. ¹⁰ If we had not delayed, we could have returned twice by now.”

¹¹ Then their father Israel said to them, “If it must be so, then do this: take some of the best products of the land in your bags, and bring an offering down to the man—a little balsam and a little honey, gum and myrrh, pistachios and almonds. ¹² Also take in your hand a double portion of silver, and bring back in your hand the silver that had been returned in the mouth of your sacks. Perhaps it was a mistake. ¹³ Take your brother too—now, get up, go back to the man! ¹⁴ May El Shaddai grant you mercy before the man, so that he may release your other brother to you, along with Benjamin. As for me, if I am bereaved, I am bereaved.”

The Brothers Return With Benjamin

¹⁵ Then the men took this offering. They also took the double portion of silver in their hand, as well as Benjamin. So they got up and went down to Egypt, and stood before Joseph. ¹⁶ When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the one over his house, “Bring the men into the house. Slaughter an animal and prepare it, for the men will eat with me this afternoon. ¹⁷ So the man did as Joseph said, and the man brought the men into Joseph’s house. ¹⁸ But the men were afraid, because they had been brought into Joseph’s house. They said, “It’s because of the silver that was returned to our sacks the first time that we are being brought in—to pounce on us and fall on us and take us as slaves, along with our donkeys.”

¹⁹ So they approached the man who was over Joseph’s house and spoke to him at the entrance of the house. ²⁰ “I beg your pardon, my lord!” they said. “We indeed came down on the previous occasion to buy grain for food. ²¹ When we came to the lodge and opened our sacks, behold, there was each man’s money at the opening of the sack, the full amount of our money. So we’ve returned it in our hand. ²² Moreover, we’ve brought down other money in our hand to buy grain for food. We didn’t know who put our money into our sacks.”

²³ “Be at peace,” he replied. “Don’t be afraid. Your God and the God of your father has given you treasure in your sacks. Your money had come to me.”

Then he brought Simeon out to them, ²⁴ and the man brought the men into Joseph’s house, gave them water and they washed their feet. He also provided fodder for their donkeys. ²⁵ So they prepared the offering for Joseph’s coming at noon, for they had heard that they were going to eat there. ²⁶ When Joseph came home, they brought him the offering in their hand into the house, and they bowed down to the ground to him. ²⁷ Then he asked if they were well, and said, “Is he well—your elderly father that you told me about? Is he still alive?”

²⁸ “Your servant, our father, is well,” they said. “He’s still alive.” Then they knelt and bowed down.

²⁹ Then he lifted his eyes and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother’s son, and said, “Is this your youngest brother whom you mentioned to me?” Then he said, “May God be gracious to you, my son.” ³⁰ Then Joseph hurried out because his compassion grew warm and tender toward his brother so that he wanted to cry. So he went into an inner room and wept there.

³¹ Then he washed his face, came out, and controlled himself. “Serve the food,” he said. ³² So they served him by himself, them by themselves, and the Egyptians who were eating with him by themselves (for Egyptians could not eat with the Hebrews because it was an abomination to Egyptians). ³³ They were seated before him, the firstborn according to his birthright and the youngest according to his youth. The men looked at each other in astonishment. ³⁴ Then portions were brought to them from before him—and Benjamin’s portion was five times larger than any of their portions. Yet they drank and made merry with him.

Joseph Tests His Brothers

44 Then he commanded the one over his household saying, “Fill the men’s sacks with as much food as they are able to carry and put money in the opening of each man’s sack. ² Put my cup, the silver cup, in the opening of the sack of the youngest along with his grain money.” So he did as Joseph told him.

³ When the morning dawned, the men were sent off, they and their donkeys. ⁴ They left the city and did not get far, when Joseph said to the one over his household, “Get up, go after the men. When you catch up to them, say to them, “Why have you repaid evil for good? ⁵ Isn’t this the one from which my lord drinks? He even uses it especially to discern by divination. What you’ve done is evil!” ⁶ So he caught up to them and spoke these words to them.

⁷ They said to him, “Why does my lord say such things? Far be it from your servants to do such a thing as this. ⁸ Look, the money we found in the opening of our bags, we brought back to you from the land of Canaan. So how could we steal silver or gold from your lord’s house? ⁹ Whoever among your servants is found with it, let him die! And we, we’ll also be my lord’s slaves.”

¹⁰ “Even now let it be according to your words,” he said. “The one with whom it is found shall be my slave. But the rest of you shall be innocent.”

¹¹ Then each man quickly lowered his sack to the ground and each man opened his sack. ¹² He searched them beginning with the eldest and finishing with the youngest, and the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack. ¹³ Then they tore their clothing, and each one loaded up his donkey and they returned to the city.

¹⁴ When Judah and his brothers entered Joseph’s house, he was still there. They fell to the ground before him. ¹⁵ “What’s this deed you’ve done?” Joseph said to them, “Didn’t you know that a man like me can discern by divination?”

¹⁶ Then Judah said, “What can we say to my lord? What can we speak? How can we justify ourselves? God has exposed your servants’ guilt. We are now my lord’s slaves—both we as well as the one in whose hand the cup was found.”

¹⁷ But he said, “Far be it from me to do this. The one in whose hand the cup was found—he will be my slave. But you, go up to your father in peace.”

Parashat Vayigash

Judah Pleads for Benjamin

¹⁸ Then Judah approached him and said, “I beg your pardon, my lord. Please let your servant say a word in my lord’s ears, and don’t be angry with your servant, since you are like Pharaoh. ¹⁹ My lord asked his servants saying, ‘Do you have a father or a brother?’ ²⁰ So we said to my lord, ‘We have a father who is old, a child born to him of his old age is young. Now his brother is dead, so he is the only one of his mother’s children left, and his father loves him.’ ²¹ Then you said to your servants, ‘Bring him down to me so that I can look at him.’ ²² But we said to my lord, ‘The boy cannot leave his father. If he were to leave his father, he would die.’ ²³ Then you said to your servants, ‘Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you won’t see my face again.’

²⁴ “Now when we went up to your servant, my father, we told him my lord’s words. ²⁵ Then our father said, ‘Go back, buy us a little grain for food.’ ²⁶ So we said, ‘We won’t go down unless we have our youngest brother with us—then we’ll go down. For we won’t see the man’s face unless our youngest brother is with us.’

²⁷ “Then your servant my father said to us, ‘You yourselves know that my wife bore me two sons. ²⁸ One went out from me, so I said, “He must have been torn to shreds,” and I haven’t seen him since. ²⁹ And if you also take this one away from before me and an accident happens to him, then you’ll bring my grey hair down to the evil of Sheol.’

³⁰ “Now if I come to your servant my father and the boy isn’t with us, since his life is bound to his life, ³¹ when he sees that the boy is no more, he’ll die. Then your servants will bring the grey hair of your servant our father down to Sheol in grief. ³² For your servant became pledge for the boy with my father saying, ‘If I don’t bring him back to you, I will bear the blame before my father all my days.’ ³³ So now, please let your servant remain as my lord’s slave in the boy’s place, and let the boy go up with his brothers. ³⁴ For how can I go up to my father and the boy is not with me? Else I must see the evil that would come upon my father!”

Joseph Reveals Himself

45 Now Joseph could no longer restrain himself in front of all those who were standing by him, so he cried out, “Get everyone away from me!” So no one stood with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. ² But he gave his voice to weeping so that the Egyptians heard, and Pharaoh’s household heard. ³ Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! Is my father still alive?” And his brothers were unable to answer him because they were terrified at his presence.

⁴ Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Please come near me.” So they came near. “I’m Joseph, your brother—the one you sold to Egypt,” he said. ⁵ “So now, don’t be grieved and don’t be angry in your own eyes that you sold me here—since it was for preserving life that God sent me here before you. ⁶ For there has been two years of famine in the land, and there will be five more years yet with no plowing or harvesting. ⁷ But God sent me ahead of you to ensure a remnant in the land and to keep you alive for a great escape. ⁸ So now, it wasn’t you, you didn’t send me here, but God! And He made me as a father to Pharaoh, lord over his whole house and ruler over the entire land of Egypt.

⁹ “Go up quickly to my father and say to him, ‘Thus says your son, Joseph: God has made me lord over all Egypt. Come down to me. Don’t delay. ¹⁰ Then you’ll live in the land of Goshen, and be close to me, you and your children and your children’s children, your flocks and your cattle, and everything that belongs to you. ¹¹ I’ll provide food for you there—for the famine will last another five years—otherwise you’ll lose everything, you and your household, and everything that belongs to you.’ ¹² And look, you and my brother Benjamin can see with your own eyes that it’s my mouth that’s speaking to you. ¹³ You must tell my father about all my honor in Egypt, and about all that you’ve seen. And you must quickly bring my father down here.”

¹⁴ Then he fell upon his brother Benjamin’s neck and wept while Benjamin wept upon his neck, ¹⁵ and he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them. Finally after this, his brothers talked with him.

¹⁶ When the commotion was heard in Pharaoh’s house—“Joseph’s brothers have come!”—it was good in the eyes of Pharaoh and his servants, ¹⁷ So Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Say to your brothers: ‘Do this! Load your animals and go to the land of Canaan. ¹⁸ Then get your father, your households, and come to me. I’ll give you the best of the land of Egypt, and you will eat the fat of the land.’ ¹⁹ You are also commanded to say: “Do this! Take for yourselves wagons from the land of Egypt for your little children and for your wives, and pick up your father and come. ²⁰ Don’t be concerned about your goods, because the best of all the land of Egypt is yours.’”

²¹ So the sons of Israel did so. Joseph gave them carts by Pharaoh’s command and he gave them provisions for the journey. ²² To each of them he gave a change of clothes, while to Benjamin he gave 300 pieces of silver and five sets of clothes. ²³ Also to his father he sent the following: ten donkeys carrying from the best of Egypt, and ten female donkeys carrying grain and food and provisions for his father’s journey. ²⁴ Then he sent his brothers off, and as they departed, he said to them, “Don’t be anxious on the way.”

²⁵ Then they went up from Egypt and came to the land of Canaan, to Jacob their father. ²⁶ They told him saying, “Joseph is still alive and he is ruler of the whole land of Egypt!”

His heart went numb, for he did not believe them. ²⁷ But they told him all of Joseph’s words that he had told them. When he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to pick him up, the spirit of their father Jacob revived. ²⁸ Then Israel said, “Enough! My son Joseph is still alive. I must go and see him, before I die.”