Jacob sent his sons to Egypt to get food

1When Jacob heard that there was food in Egypt, he said to his sons, “Why are you sitting around doing nothing?

2I have heard that there is food in Egypt. Go down and buy some food and bring it back here so that we can stay alive.”

3So 10 of Joseph's brothers left their home in Canaan and went to Egypt to buy food.

4But Jacob did not send Joseph's younger brother, Benjamin. You see Jacob was frightened that something bad might happen to him.

5A lot of people from Canaan were going to Egypt to buy food, and so Jacob's sons went with them. All the countries in that part of the world were having a hard time, no food would grow.

6Joseph was the boss over all of Egypt and if anyone wanted to buy food, they had to speak to him. And so, Joseph's brothers went to him and bowed down with their faces on the ground in front of him.

7As soon as Joseph saw his brothers, he knew who they were, but he acted like he did not know them. He spoke hard words to them and said, “Where do you come from?” His brothers answered, “We come from the country called Canaan. We have come to buy food.”

8Joseph knew who they were, but they did not know that he was Joseph, their brother.

9And Joseph remembered the dreams about them bowing down to him.Joseph's brothers bow down to him He said to them, “I think you are spies. You are looking to see if our country is weak, so that you can fight us.”

10But they cried out, “No Sir! We are not spies. We are like slaves to you. We just want to buy food.

11We are all good men and all have the same father. We are honest men and never tell lies. We are not spies.”

12Joseph said, “No. I think you have come to Egypt to see where our country is weak.”

13But Joseph's brothers said, “We are 10 of the 12 brothers from the same father and we all live in the country of Canaan. We left our little brother back home with our father, and we do not know where the other brother is. He is gone and he might be dead.”

14Then Joseph said, “No. I am right. You have come to find out about our country.

15But I will give you a chance to prove what you say is true. I have the power to say who can come to Egypt and who can go. I tell you that you will stay in Egypt until the brother you left behind comes and stands in front of me.

16I want one of you to go home and bring that brother to me. I will put the rest of you in jail until he comes back. If he comes back with his brother I will know that I can trust what you say. But if he does not come back I will know that you have told me a lie and that you really are spies. And the king trusts me to do the right thing.”

17Then Joseph told soldiers to take his brothers to jail.

18They were in jail for 2 days and on the third day, Joseph said to them, “I am a man who trusts and respects God, and so if you do what I say, you will stay alive.

19You have said that you are honest men that live the right way. Ok, only one of you has to stay here in jail. The rest of you can go back home with food to feed your hungry families.

20But I tell you, you have to bring your little brother back to me. If you do that, then I will know what you have said is true and I will not kill you.” The brothers said to Joseph, “We will do what you say.”

21They said to each other, “We are getting payback for what we did to our brother Joseph. All those years ago we saw that he was really frightened. He asked us again and again not to hurt him, but we would not listen. That is why we are having this trouble now.”

22Jacob's oldest son Reuben said, “I told you not to hurt the boy, but you didn't listen to me. All of us are getting payback for what we did.”

23Joseph's brothers were talking in their Hebrew language. They did not know that Joseph could understand what they were saying. You see he spoke to them in the Egyptian language and another man told the brothers what Joseph said in their own language.

24When Joseph heard what his brothers said about payback, he went into another room and cried. And when he had settled down, he went back to his brothers and talked to them again. Then Joseph told his soldiers to tie up Simeon and take him away from his brothers and put him in jail.

25Joseph told his workers to fill all the brother's bags with food seeds, as well as food for the trip home. And he told his workers to put the money his brothers had paid in the top of their bags. When all this was done,

26the brothers put their bags of seeds onto their donkeys and left Egypt to go back to Canaan.

27That night, they stopped to camp. One of the brothers opened his bag of seeds to give his donkey a feed. Straight away he found that his money was right there on the top.

28He called out to his brothers and said, “Hey, the money I paid for this food is here in the top of my bag.” And all the brothers were very frightened. They said, “What is going on. Why is God doing this to us?”

The brothers go back to Jacob.

29When the brothers got back to their home in Canaan, they told their father Jacob everything that had happened to them.

30They said, “The boss of Egypt said hard words to us. He said that we were spies and were finding out about his country.

31But we said, ‘We are honest men who live the right way. We are not spies.

32We told him that we were twelve brothers from the same father, but one of the brothers had gone and the last one was with you here in Canaan.’

33The boss of that country said, ‘I want to make sure that you are honest men that live the right way. One of you must stay behind in Egypt, while the rest of you take food back to your families.

34You have to bring your little brother back with you. If you bring him back, I will know that you are not spies and that you are honest men that live the right way. And I will give you back the brother who is in jail and all of you can be free to go anywhere in this country of Egypt.’”

35The brothers emptied all their bags of seeds, and each brother found his money right at the top of their bags. When Jacob and his sons saw the money, they were all very frightened.

36Then Jacob cried out, “What is happening? Do you want me to lose all my sons? Joseph has gone and now Simeon has gone. Do you want to take Benjamin from me too? All this trouble is going against me.”

37Jacob's eldest son Reuben said to his father, “I promise you father. I will look after Benjamin and bring him back to you. If I do not keep my promise, then you can kill my 2 sons.”

38But Jacob said, “No. I will not let you take Benjamin to Egypt. His brother Joseph is dead and Benjamin is the only son left from my wife Rachel. I am frightened that something bad will happen to him. If anything happened to him I would be really sad until I die.”