Genesis 42:17-38 ▼

17 Then he put them all together in prison for three days.

18 And Joseph said to them on the third day, “Do this and live, for I fear God:

19 if you are honest men, let one of your brothers be confined in your prison; but as for the rest of you, go, bring grain for the famine of your households,

20 and bring your youngest brother to me, so your words may be proven true, and you will not die.” And they did so.

21 Then they said to one another, “Surely we are guilty concerning our brother because we saw the distress of his soul when he begged us, yet we would not listen; therefore this distress has come upon us.”

22 And Reuben answered them, saying, “Did I not tell you, saying, ‘Do not sin against the boy’; yet you would not listen? So also his blood, behold, it is required of us.”

23 Now they did not know that Joseph was listening, for there was an interpreter between them.

24 And he turned away from them and wept. Then he returned to them and spoke to them. And he took Simeon from them and bound him before their eyes.

25 Then Joseph gave a command to fill their bags with grain and to restore every man’s money in his sack and to give them provisions for the journey. And thus it was done for them.

26 So they loaded their donkeys with their grain and went from there.

27 Then one of them opened his sack to give his donkey fodder at the lodging place. And he saw his money; and behold, it was in the mouth of his sack.

28 So he said to his brothers, “My money has been returned, and behold, it is even in my sack.” And their hearts sank, and they turned trembling to one another, saying, “What is this that God has done to us?”

29 Then they came to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan and told him all that had happened to them, saying,

30 “The man, the lord of the land, spoke harshly with us and took us for spies of the country.

31 So we said to him, ‘We are honest men; we are not spies.

32 We are twelve brothers, sons of our father; one is no more, and the youngest is with our father today in the land of Canaan.’

33 Then the man, the lord of the land, said to us, ‘By this I will know that you are honest men: leave one of your brothers with me and take grain for the famine of your households, and go.

34 But bring your youngest brother to me that I may know that you are not spies, but honest men. I will give your brother to you, and you may trade in the land.’”

35 Now it happened that they were emptying their sacks, and behold, every man’s bundle of money was in his sack; and they and their father saw their bundles of money, and they feared.

36 And their father Jacob said to them, “You have bereaved me of my children: Joseph is no more, and Simeon is no more, and you would take Benjamin; all these things are against me.”

37 Then Reuben spoke to his father, saying, “You may put my two sons to death if I do not bring him back to you; put him in my hand, and I will return him to you.”

38 But Jacob said, “My son shall not go down with you; for his brother is dead, and he alone remains. If harm should befall him on the journey on which you are going, then you will bring my gray hair down to Sheol in sorrow.”