1 When Jacob learned that there was grain in Egypt, he said to his sons, “ Why do you keep looking at each other?
2 Listen,” he went on, “ I have heard there is grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy some for us so that we will live and not die.”
3 So 10 of Joseph’s brothers went down to buy grain from Egypt.
4 But Jacob did not send Joseph’s brother Benjamin with his brothers, for he thought, “ Something might happen to him.”
5 The sons of Israel were among those who came to buy grain, for the famine was in the land of Canaan.
6 Joseph was in charge of the country; he sold grain to all its people. His brothers came and bowed down before him with their faces to the ground.
7 When Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them, but he treated them like strangers and spoke harshly to them.“ Where do you come from ? ” he asked.“ From the land of Canaan to buy food,” they replied.
8 Although Joseph recognized his brothers, they did not recognize him.
9 Joseph remembered his dreams about them and said to them, “ You are spies. You have come to see the weakness of the land.”
10 “ No, my lord. Your servants have come to buy food,” they said.
11 “ We are all sons of one man. We are honest; your servants are not spies.”
12 “ No,” he said to them. “ You have come to see the weakness of the land.”
13 But they replied, “ We, your servants, were 12 brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan. The youngest is now with our father, and one is no longer living.”
