The Brothers Go to Egypt
1When Jacob learned that there was grain in Egypt, he said to his sons, “Why are you just standing around looking at each other? 2I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy some for us, so that we may live and not die.” 3So ten of Joseph’s brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt. 4But Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph’s brother, with the others, for he thought, “Something might happen to him.” 5So the sons of Israel were among those who went to buy grain, for the famine was in the land of Canaan as well. 6Now Joseph was the ruler of the land, the one who sold grain to all its people. So when Joseph’s brothers arrived, they bowed down to him with their faces to the ground. 7As soon as Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them, but he treated them as strangers and spoke harshly to them. “Where do you come from?” he asked. “From the land of Canaan,” they said, “to buy food.” 8Although Joseph recognized his brothers, they did not recognize him. 9He remembered the dreams he had about them and said to them, “You are spies! You have come to see where our land is unprotected.” 10“No, my lord,” they said. “Your servants have come to buy food. 11We are all the sons of one man. We are honest men; your servants are not spies.” 12“No!” he said. “You have come to see where our land is unprotected.” 13But they said, “Your servants are twelve brothers, sons of one man in the land of Canaan. The youngest is now with our father, and one is no longer with us.” 14But Joseph said to them, “It is just as I told you: you are spies! 15This is how you will be tested: as surely as Pharaoh lives, you will not leave this place unless your youngest brother comes here. 16Send one of you to get your brother; the rest of you will remain in custody, so that your words can be tested to see if you are telling the truth. If not, as surely as Pharaoh lives, you are spies!” 17And he put them all in custody for three days.
A Demand and a Hostage
18On the third day, Joseph said to them, “Do this and you will live, for I fear God. 19If you are honest men, let one of your brothers stay here in custody, while the rest of you go and take grain back for your starving households. 20But you must bring your youngest brother to me, so that your words can be verified and you will not die.” This is what they did. 21They said to one another, “Surely we are being punished because of our brother. We saw how distressed he was when he pleaded with us for his life, but we would not listen; that is why this distress has come on us.” 22Reuben replied, “Did I not tell you not to sin against the boy? But you would not listen! Now we must account for his blood.” 23They did not know that Joseph understood them, since he was speaking to them through an interpreter. 24He turned away from them and wept, then came back and spoke to them again. He took Simeon from among them and had him bound before their eyes. 25Joseph gave orders to fill their bags with grain, to put each man’s silver back in his sack, and to give them provisions for the journey. This was done for them. 26So they loaded their grain on their donkeys and left. 27At the place where they stopped for the night, one of them opened his sack to feed his donkey and saw his silver right there in the mouth of his sack. 28“My silver has been returned!” he said to his brothers. “Here it is, right in my sack!” Their hearts sank, and they turned to one another trembling, saying, “What is this that God has done to us?”
Report to Jacob
29They went to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan and told him everything that had happened to them. 30“The man who is lord of the land,” they said, “spoke harshly to us and treated us like spies scouting the country. 31We told him, ‘We are honest men, we are not spies. 32We are twelve brothers, sons of one father. One is no longer with us, and the youngest is now with our father in the land of Canaan.’ 33But the man who is lord of the land said to us, ‘This is how I will know you are honest men: leave one of your brothers here with me, take food for your starving households, and go. 34Bring your youngest brother back to me, and I will know that you are not spies but honest men. Then I will give your brother back to you, and you may trade freely in the land.’” 35As they were emptying their sacks, there in each man’s sack was his bundle of silver. When they and their father saw the bundles of silver, they were afraid. 36Their father Jacob said to them, “You have deprived me of my children! Joseph is gone, Simeon is gone, and now you want to take Benjamin too. Everything is against me!” 37Then Reuben said to his father, “You may put my two sons to death if I do not bring him back to you. Put him in my care, and I will bring him back.” 38But Jacob said, “My son will not go down with you. His brother is dead, and he is all that is left. If anything happens to him on the journey you are taking, you will bring my gray head down to Sheol in sorrow.”
