Genesis 42

1When Jacob learned that there was grain in Egypt, he said to his sons, “Why do you keep looking at one another?”

2He said, “Look, I 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 from Egypt.

4But Jacob did not send Joseph’s brother Benjamin with his brothers, because he was afraid that harm might come to him.

5So the sons of Israel came to buy grain along with the others who came, for the famine was in the land of Canaan.

6Now Joseph was the governor over the land; he was the one who sold grain to all the people of the land. So Joseph’s brothers came and bowed down to him with their faces to the ground.

7When Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them, but he acted like a stranger to them and spoke harshly to them. “Where do you come from?” he asked. They answered, “From the land of Canaan, to buy food.”

8Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him.

9Then Joseph remembered the dreams he had had about them, and he said to them, “You are spies! You have come to see where the land is unprotected.”

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

11We are all sons of one man. We are honest men; your servants are not spies.”

12He said to them, “No, you have come to see where the land is unprotected.”

13They said, “Your servants were twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan. The youngest is with our father now, and one is no more.”

14Joseph 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, while the rest of you stay in prison. That way your words will be tested to see whether you are telling the truth. If not, then as surely as Pharaoh lives, you are spies!”

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

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 confined in the prison where you are held, while the rest of you go and take grain back for your starving households.

20Then bring your youngest brother to me, so that your words may be proved true and you will not die.” And they did so.

21They said to one another, “We are truly guilty concerning our brother. We saw his distress when he pleaded with us, but we would not listen. That is why this distress has come on us.”

22Reuben answered them, “Did I not tell you, ‘Do not sin against the boy’? But you would not listen. Now we must answer 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 he came back and spoke to them. He took Simeon from them and had him bound before their eyes.

25Then Joseph 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.

26They loaded their grain on their donkeys and left.

27At the place where they stopped for the night, one of them opened his sack to get feed for his donkey, and he saw his silver right there in the mouth of his sack.

28He said to his brothers, “My silver has been returned! It is right here in my sack!” Their hearts sank, and they turned to one another trembling and said, “What is this that God has done to us?”

29When they came to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan, they told him all that had happened to them. They said,

30“The man who is lord of the land spoke harshly to us and treated us as if we were spying on the land.

31But we said to him, ‘We are honest men; we are not spies.

32We were twelve brothers, sons of our father. One is no more, and the youngest is now with our father in the land of Canaan.’

33Then the man who is lord of the land said to us, ‘This is how I will know whether you are honest men: leave one of your brothers here with me, take food for your starving households, and go.

34But bring your youngest brother to me. Then I will know that you are not spies but honest men. I will give your brother back to you, and you may trade in the land.’”

35As they were emptying their sacks, there in each man’s sack was his bag of silver. When they and their father saw the bags of silver, they were afraid.

36Their father Jacob said to them, “You have robbed me of my children! Joseph is no more, Simeon is no more, and now you want to take Benjamin. 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 to you.”

38But he said, “My son will not go down with you, for his brother is dead, and he is the only one left. If harm comes to him on the journey you are taking, you will bring my gray head down to Sheol in grief.”