Genesis 42:1-9 ▼

1 When Jacob learned that there was grain in Egypt, he said to his sons, “Why are you staring at one another?”

2 “Look,” he added, “I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy some for us, so that we may live and not die.”

3 So ten 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 said, “I am afraid that harm might befall him.”

5 So the sons of Israel were among those who came to buy grain, since the famine had also spread to the land of Canaan.

6 Now Joseph was the ruler of the land; he was the one who sold grain to all its people. So when his brothers arrived, they bowed down before him with their faces to the ground.

7 And when Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them, but he treated them as strangers and spoke harshly to them. “Where have you come from?” he asked. “From the land of Canaan,” they replied. “We are here to buy food.”

8 Although Joseph recognized his brothers, they did not recognize him.

9 Joseph remembered his dreams about them and said, “You are spies! You have come to see if our land is vulnerable.”