Genesis 42
1 Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt and said to his sons, “Why are you just standing there looking at one another?”
2 He added, “I hear there is grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy some for us, so we may live and not die.”
3 Ten of Joseph’s brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt.
4 But Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph’s brother, with them, because he thought, “Something bad might happen to him.”
5 The sons of Israel went to buy grain among those who were going, because there was famine in the land of Canaan.
6 Joseph was the ruler of the land; he was the one who sold grain to all the people of the land. Joseph’s brothers came and bowed before him, with their faces to the ground.
7 Joseph saw his brothers and recognized them, but he acted as if he did not know them and spoke harshly to them. “Where have you come from?” he asked. “From the land of Canaan, to buy food,” they replied.
8 Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him.
9 Joseph remembered the dreams he had dreamed about them and said, “You are spies! You have come to see where the land is unprotected.”
10 They replied, “No, my lord. 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 But he insisted, “No! You have come to see where the land is unprotected.”
13 They said, “Your servants are twelve brothers, sons of one man, in the land of Canaan. The youngest is with our father today, and the other is no more.”
14 Joseph said to them, “It is just as I told you: ‘You are spies.’
15 This is how you will be put to the test: by the life of Pharaoh, you will not leave here unless your youngest brother comes here.
16 Send one of you to fetch your brother, while the rest of you remain in custody. In this way your words will be put to the test, to see whether there is any truth in you. If not, by the life of Pharaoh, you are spies!”
17 Then he put them all in custody for three days.
18 On the third day, Joseph said to them, “Do this and you will live, for I fear God.
19 If you are honest men, let one of your brothers remain in custody in the house where you are being held. The rest of you may go and take grain to relieve the hunger in your households.
20 Then bring your youngest brother to me. In this way your words will be confirmed, and you will not die.” And they did so.
21 They said to one another, “We are truly guilty because of our brother. We saw his anguish when he begged us, but we would not listen; that is why this anguish has come upon us.”
22 Reuben answered, “Didn’t I tell you, ‘Do not sin against the boy’? But you would not listen, and now his blood is being called to account.”
23 They did not know that Joseph understood them, because an interpreter was between them.
24 He turned away from them and wept. Then he returned and spoke with them. He took Simeon from among them and bound him in front of their eyes.
25 Joseph ordered that their packs be filled with grain, that each man’s silver be returned to his sack, and that they be given provisions for the journey. This was done for them.
26 They loaded the grain onto their donkeys and left there.
27 At the lodging place, one of them opened his sack to give fodder to his donkey and saw his silver. There it was, at the opening of his pack.
28 He said to his brothers, “My silver has been returned! Look, here it is in my pack!” Their hearts failed them, and trembling, they said to one another, “What is this that God has done to us?”
29 They came to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan and told him everything that had happened to them:
30 “The man, the lord of the land, spoke harshly to us and treated us as spies in the land.
31 We told 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, ‘This is how I will know that you are honest men: leave one of your brothers with me, take what you need to relieve the hunger in your households, and go.
34 Bring your youngest brother to me, and then I will know that you are not spies, but honest men. I will return your brother to you, and you may trade in the land.’”
35 As they emptied their sacks, each man found his bundle of silver inside his sack. When they and their father saw the bundles of silver, they were afraid.
36 Their father Jacob said to them, “You are leaving me without children! Joseph is no more, Simeon is no more, and now you want to take Benjamin. All this is falling on me!”
37 Reuben said to his father, “You may kill my two sons if I do not bring him back to you. Put him in my hands, and I will bring him back to you.”
38 But he said, “My son will not go down with you, because his brother is dead, and he is the only one left. If some disaster happens to him on the journey you are taking, you will bring my gray hair down to Sheol in sorrow.”
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