1Now Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt, and Jacob said to his sons, “Why do you look at one another?”

2He said, “Behold, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there, and buy for us from there, so that we may live, and not die.”

3Joseph’s ten brothers went down to buy grain from Egypt.

4But Jacob didn’t send Benjamin, Joseph’s brother, with his brothers; for he said, “Lest perhaps harm happen to him.”

5The sons of Israel came to buy amongst those who came, for the famine was in the land of Canaan.

6Joseph was the governor over the land. It was he who sold to all the people of the land. Joseph’s brothers came, and bowed themselves down to him with their faces to the earth.

7Joseph saw his brothers, and he recognised them, but acted like a stranger to them, and spoke roughly with them. He said to them, “Where did you come from?” They said, “From the land of Canaan, to buy food.”

8Joseph recognised his brothers, but they didn’t recognise him.

9Joseph remembered the dreams which he dreamt about them, and said to them, “You are spies! You have come to see the nakedness of the land.”

10They said to him, “No, my lord, but your servants have come to buy food.

11We are all one man’s sons; we are honest men. Your servants are not spies.”

12He said to them, “No, but you have come to see the nakedness of the land!”

13They said, “We, your servants, are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan; and behold, the youngest is today with our father, and one is no more.”

14Joseph said to them, “It is like I told you, saying, ‘You are spies!’

15By this you shall be tested. By the life of Pharaoh, you shall not go out from here, unless your youngest brother comes here.

16Send one of you, and let him get your brother, and you shall be bound, that your words may be tested, whether there is truth in you, or else by the life of Pharaoh surely you are spies.”

17He put them all together into custody for three days.

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

19If you are honest men, then let one of your brothers be bound in your prison; but you go, carry grain for the famine of your houses.

20Bring your youngest brother to me; so will your words be verified, and you won’t die.” They did so.

21They said to one another, “We are certainly guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the distress of his soul, when he begged us, and we wouldn’t listen. Therefore this distress has come upon us.”

22Reuben answered them, saying, “Didn’t I tell you, saying, ‘Don’t sin against the child,’ and you wouldn’t listen? Therefore also, behold, his blood is required.”

23They didn’t know that Joseph understood them; for there was an interpreter between them.

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

25Then Joseph gave a command to fill their bags with grain, and to restore each man’s money into his sack, and to give them food for the way. So it was done to them.

26They loaded their donkeys with their grain, and departed from there.

27As one of them opened his sack to give his donkey food in the lodging place, he saw his money. Behold, it was in the mouth of his sack.

28He said to his brothers, “My money is restored! Behold, it is in my sack!” Their hearts failed them, and they turned trembling to one another, saying, “What is this that God has done to us?”

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

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

31We said to him, ‘We are honest men. We are no spies.

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

33The 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 houses, and go your way.

34Bring your youngest brother to me. Then I will know that you are not spies, but that you are honest men. So I will deliver your brother to you, and you shall trade in the land.’”

35As they emptied their sacks, behold, each man’s bundle of money was in his sack. When they and their father saw their bundles of money, they were afraid.

36Jacob, their father, said to them, “You have bereaved me of my children! Joseph is no more, Simeon is no more, and you want to take Benjamin away. All these things are against me.”

37Reuben spoke to his father, saying, “Kill my two sons, if I don’t bring him to you. Entrust him to my care, and I will bring him to you again.”

38He said, “My son shall not go down with you; for his brother is dead, and he only is left. If harm happens to him along the way in which you go, then you will bring down my grey hairs with sorrow to Sheol.” ⁴⁹