When Jacob learned that there was grain for sale in Egypt, he
said to his sons, “Why do you look at one another?” And he said,
“Behold, I have heard that there is grain for sale in Egypt. Go
down and buy grain for us there, that we may live and not die.” So
ten of Joseph's brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt. But Jacob
did not send Benjamin, Joseph's brother, with his brothers, for he
feared that harm might happen to him. Thus the sons of Israel came
to buy among the others who came, for the famine was in the land of
Canaan.
Now Joseph was governor over the land. He was the one who sold to
all the people of the land. And Joseph's brothers came and bowed
themselves before him with their faces to the ground. Joseph saw
his brothers and recognized them, but he treated them like
strangers and spoke roughly to them. “Where do you come from?” he
said. They said, “From the land of Canaan, to buy food.” And Joseph
recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him. And Joseph
remembered the dreams that he had dreamed of them. And he said to
them, “You are spies; you have come to see the nakedness of the
land.” They said to him, “No, my lord, your servants have come to
buy food. We are all sons of one man. We are honest men. Your
servants have never been spies.”
He said to them, “No, it is the nakedness of the land that you
have come to see.” And they said, “We, your servants, are twelve
brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan, and behold,
the youngest is this day with our father, and one is no more.” But
Joseph said to them, “It is as I said to you. You are spies. By
this you shall be tested: by the life of Pharaoh, you shall not go
from this place unless your youngest brother comes here. Send one
of you, and let him bring your brother, while you remain confined,
that your words may be tested, whether there is truth in you. Or
else, by the life of Pharaoh, surely you are spies.” And he put
them all together in custody for three days.
On the third day Joseph said to them, “Do this and you will live,
for I fear God: if you are honest men, let one of your brothers
remain confined where you are in custody, and let the rest go and
carry grain for the famine of your households, and bring your
youngest brother to me. So your words will be verified, and you
shall not die.” And they did so. Then they said to one another, “In
truth we are guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the
distress of his soul, when he begged us and we did not listen. That
is why this distress has come upon us.” And Reuben answered them,
“Did I not tell you not to sin against the boy? But you did not
listen. So now there comes a reckoning for his blood.” They did not
know that Joseph understood them, for there was an interpreter
between them. Then he turned away from them and wept. And he
returned to them and spoke to them. And he took Simeon from them
and bound him before their eyes. And Joseph gave orders to fill
their bags with grain, and to replace every man's money in his
sack, and to give them provisions for the journey. This was done
for them.
Then they loaded their donkeys with their grain and departed. And
as one of them opened his sack to give his donkey fodder at the
lodging place, he saw his money in the mouth of his sack. He said
to his brothers, “My money has been put back; here it is in the
mouth of my sack!” At this their hearts failed them, and they
turned trembling to one another, saying, “What is this that God has
done to us?”
When they came to Jacob their father in the land of Canaan, they
told him all that had happened to them, saying, “The man, the lord
of the land, spoke roughly to us and took us to be spies of the
land. But we said to him, ‘We are honest men; we have never been
spies. We are twelve brothers, sons of our father. One is no more,
and the youngest is this day with our father in the land of
Canaan.’ Then the man, the lord of the land, said to us, ‘By this I
shall know that you are honest men: leave one of your brothers with
me, and take grain for the famine of your households, and go your
way. Bring your youngest brother to me. Then I shall know that you
are not spies but honest men, and I will deliver your brother to
you, and you shall trade in the land.’”
As they emptied their sacks, behold, every man's bundle of money
was in his sack. And when they and their father saw their bundles
of money, they were afraid. And Jacob their father said to them,
“You have bereaved me of my children: Joseph is no more, and Simeon
is no more, and now you would take Benjamin. All this has come
against me.” Then Reuben said to his father, “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.” But he said, “My son shall not go down with you,
for his brother is dead, and he is the only one left. If harm
should happen to him on the journey that you are to make, you would
bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Sheol.”
