Genesis 42:1-28 ▼

1 And Jacob sees that there is grain in Egypt, and Jacob says to his sons, “Why do you look at each other?”

2 He also says, “Behold, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt, go down there, and buy for us from there, and we live and do not die”;

3 and the ten brothers of Joseph go down to buy grain in Egypt,

4 and Benjamin, Joseph’s brother, Jacob has not sent with his brothers, for he said, “Lest harm meet him.”

5 And the sons of Israel come to buy in the midst of those coming, for the famine has been in the land of Canaan,

6 and Joseph is the ruler over the land, he who is selling to all the people of the land, and Joseph’s brothers come and bow themselves to him—face to the earth.

7 And Joseph sees his brothers, and discerns them, and makes himself strange to them, and speaks sharp things with them, and says to them, “From where have you come?” And they say, “From the land of Canaan—to buy food.”

8 And Joseph discerns his brothers, but they have not discerned him,

9 and Joseph remembers the dreams which he dreamed of them and says to them, “You [are] spies; you have come to see the nakedness of the land.”

10 And they say to him, “No, my lord, but your servants have come to buy food;

11 we [are] all of us sons of one man, we [are] right men; your servants have not been spies”;

12 and he says to them, “No, but you have come to see the nakedness of the land”;

13 and they say, “Your servants [are] twelve brothers; we [are] sons of one man in the land of Canaan, and behold, the young one [is] with our father today, and one is not.”

14 And Joseph says to them, “This [is] that which I have spoken to you, saying, You [are] spies,

15 by this you are proved: [as] Pharaoh lives, if you go out from this—except by your young brother coming here;

16 send one of you, and let him bring your brother, and you, remain bound, and let your words be proved, whether truth be with you: and if not, [as] Pharaoh lives, surely you [are] spies”;

17 and he gathers them into confinement [for] three days.

18 And Joseph says to them on the third day, “Do this and live; I fear God!

19 If you [are] right men, let one of your brothers be bound in the house of your confinement, and you, go, carry in grain [for] the famine of your houses,

20 and you bring your young brother to me, and your words are established, and you do not die”; and they do so.

21 And they say to one another, “Truly we [are] guilty concerning our brother, because we saw the distress of his soul, in his making supplication to us, and we did not listen: therefore this distress has come on us.”

22 And Reuben answers them, saying, “Did I not speak to you, saying, Do not sin against the boy? And you did not listen; and his blood also, behold, it is required.”

23 And they have not known that Joseph understands, for the interpreter [is] between them;

24 and he turns around from them, and weeps, and turns back to them, and speaks to them, and takes Simeon from them, and binds him before their eyes.

25 And Joseph commands, and they fill their vessels [with] grain, also to put back the money of each of them into his sack, and to give to them provision for the way; and one does to them so.

26 And they lift up their grain on their donkeys, and go from there,

27 and the one opens his sack to give provender to his donkey at a lodging-place, and he sees his money, and behold, it [is] in the mouth of his bag,

28 and he says to his brothers, “My money has been put back, and also, behold, in my bag”: and their heart goes out, and they tremble, to one another saying, “What [is] this God has done to us!”