Genesis 42:1-13 ▼

1 Now Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt, and Jacob said to his sons, |Why are you staring at one another?|

2 He said, |Behold, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt; go down there and buy [some] for us from that place, so that we may live and not die.|

3 Then ten brothers of Joseph went down to buy grain from Egypt.

4 But Jacob did not send Joseph's brother Benjamin with his brothers, for he said, |I am afraid that harm may befall him.|

5 So the sons of Israel came to buy grain among those who were coming, for the famine was in the land of Canaan [also].

6 Now Joseph was the ruler over the land; he was the one who sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph's brothers came and bowed down to him with [their] faces to the ground.

7 When Joseph saw his brothers he recognized them, but he disguised himself to them and spoke to them harshly. And he said to them, |Where have you come from?| And they said, |From the land of Canaan, to buy food.|

8 But Joseph had recognized his brothers, although they did not recognize him.

9 Joseph remembered the dreams which he had about them, and said to them, |You are spies; you have come to look at the undefended parts of our land.|

10 Then they said to him, |No, my lord, but your servants have come to buy food.

11 |We are all sons of one man; we are honest men, your servants are not spies.|

12 Yet he said to them, |No, but you have come to look at the undefended parts of our land!|

13 But they said, |Your servants are twelve brothers [in all], the sons of one man in the land of Canaan; and behold, the youngest is with our father today, and one is no longer alive.|