Genesis 42

1And Jacob sees that there is grain in Egypt, and Jacob says to his sons, “Why do you look at each other?”

2He also says, “Behold, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt, go down there, and buy for us from there, and we live and do not die”;

3and the ten brothers of Joseph go down to buy grain in Egypt,

4and Benjamin, Joseph’s brother, Jacob has not sent with his brothers, for he said, “Lest harm meet him.”

5And the sons of Israel come to buy in the midst of those coming, for the famine has been in the land of Canaan,

6and Joseph is the ruler over the land, he who is selling to all the people of the land, and Joseph’s brothers come and bow themselves to him—face to the earth.

7And Joseph sees his brothers, and discerns them, and makes himself strange to them, and speaks sharp things with them, and says to them, “From where have you come?” And they say, “From the land of Canaan—to buy food.”

8And Joseph discerns his brothers, but they have not discerned him,

9and Joseph remembers the dreams which he dreamed of them and says to them, “You [are] spies; you have come to see the nakedness of the land.”

10And they say to him, “No, my lord, but your servants have come to buy food;

11we [are] all of us sons of one man, we [are] right men; your servants have not been spies”;

12and he says to them, “No, but you have come to see the nakedness of the land”;

13and they say, “Your servants [are] twelve brothers; we [are] sons of one man in the land of Canaan, and behold, the young one [is] with our father today, and one is not.”

14And Joseph says to them, “This [is] that which I have spoken to you, saying, You [are] spies,

15by this you are proved: [as] Pharaoh lives, if you go out from this—except by your young brother coming here;

16send one of you, and let him bring your brother, and you, remain bound, and let your words be proved, whether truth be with you: and if not, [as] Pharaoh lives, surely you [are] spies”;

17and he gathers them into confinement [for] three days.

18And Joseph says to them on the third day, “Do this and live; I fear God!

19If you [are] right men, let one of your brothers be bound in the house of your confinement, and you, go, carry in grain [for] the famine of your houses,

20and you bring your young brother to me, and your words are established, and you do not die”; and they do so.

21And they say to one another, “Truly we [are] guilty concerning our brother, because we saw the distress of his soul, in his making supplication to us, and we did not listen: therefore this distress has come on us.”

22And Reuben answers them, saying, “Did I not speak to you, saying, Do not sin against the boy? And you did not listen; and his blood also, behold, it is required.”

23And they have not known that Joseph understands, for the interpreter [is] between them;

24and he turns around from them, and weeps, and turns back to them, and speaks to them, and takes Simeon from them, and binds him before their eyes.

25And Joseph commands, and they fill their vessels [with] grain, also to put back the money of each of them into his sack, and to give to them provision for the way; and one does to them so.

26And they lift up their grain on their donkeys, and go from there,

27and the one opens his sack to give provender to his donkey at a lodging-place, and he sees his money, and behold, it [is] in the mouth of his bag,

28and he says to his brothers, “My money has been put back, and also, behold, in my bag”: and their heart goes out, and they tremble, to one another saying, “What [is] this God has done to us!”

29And they come to their father Jacob, to the land of Canaan, and they declare to him all the things meeting them, saying,

30“The man, the lord of the land, has spoken with us sharp things, and makes us as spies of the land;

31and we say to him, We [are] right men, we have not been spies,

32we [are] twelve brothers, sons of our father, one is not, and the young one [is] today with our father in the land of Canaan.

33And the man, the lord of the land, says to us, By this I know that you [are] right men—leave one of your brothers with me, and take [for] the famine of your houses and go,

34and bring your young brother to me, and I know that you [are] not spies, but you [are] right men; I give your brother to you, and you trade with the land.”

35And it comes to pass, they are emptying their sacks, and behold, the bundle of each man’s silver [is] in his sack, and they see their bundles of silver, they and their father, and are afraid;

36and their father Jacob says to them, “You have bereaved me; Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and Benjamin you take—all these [things] have been against me.”

37And Reuben speaks to his father, saying, “You put to death my two sons, if I do not bring him to you; give him into my hand, and I bring him back to you”;

38and he says, “My son does not go down with you, for his brother [is] dead, and he by himself is left; when harm has met him in the way in which you go, then you have brought down my grey hairs in sorrow to Sheol.”