Genesis 42:1–38

¹Eventually Jacob got to see that there were cereals in Egypt. Then Jacob said to his sons: “Why do ​YOU​ keep looking at one another?”²And he added: “Here I have heard that there are cereals in Egypt. Go down there and buy for us from there, that we may keep alive and not die off.”³Accordingly ten brothers of Joseph went down to buy grain from Egypt.⁴But Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph’s brother, with his other brothers, because he said: “Otherwise a fatal accident may befall him.”

⁵So Israel’s sons came along with the others who were coming to buy, because the famine existed in the land of Ca′naan.⁶And Joseph was the man in power over the land. He was the one that did the selling to all people of the earth. Consequently Joseph’s brothers came and bowed low to him with their faces to the earth.⁷When Joseph got to see his brothers, he at once recognized them, but he made himself unrecognizable to them. So he spoke harshly with them and said to them: “Where have ​YOU​ come from?” to which they said: “From the land of Ca′naan to buy foodstuffs.”

⁸Thus Joseph recognized his brothers, but they themselves did not recognize him.⁹Immediately Joseph remembered the dreams that he had dreamed respecting them, and he went on to say to them: “YOU​ are spies! YOU​ have come to see the exposed condition of the land!”¹⁰Then they said to him: “No, my lord, but your servants have come to buy foodstuffs.¹¹We are all of us sons of but one man. We are upright men. Your servants do not act as spies.”¹²But he said to them: “Not so! Because ​YOU​ have come to see the exposed condition of the land!”¹³At this they said: “Your servants are twelve brothers. We are the sons of but one man in the land of Ca′naan; and here the youngest is with our father today, whereas the other one is no more.”

¹⁴However, Joseph said to them: “It is what I have spoken to ​YOU, saying, ‘YOU​ are spies!’¹⁵By this ​YOU​ will be tested out. As Phar′aoh lives, ​YOU​ will not go out of here except when ​YOUR​ youngest brother comes here.¹⁶Send one of ​YOU​ that he may get ​YOUR​ brother while ​YOU​ have been bound, that ​YOUR​ words may be tested out as the truth in ​YOUR​ case. And if not, then, as Phar′aoh lives, ​YOU​ are spies.”¹⁷With that he put them together in custody for three days.

¹⁸After that Joseph said to them on the third day: “Do this and keep alive. I fear the [true] God.¹⁹If ​YOU​ are upright, let one of ​YOUR​ brothers be kept bound in ​YOUR​ house of custody, but the rest of ​YOU​ go, take cereals for the famine in ​YOUR​ houses.²⁰Then ​YOU​ will bring ​YOUR​ youngest brother to me, that ​YOUR​ words may be found trustworthy; and ​YOU​ will not die.” And they proceeded to do so.

²¹And they began to say one to the other: “Unquestionably we are guilty with regard to our brother, because we saw the distress of his soul when he implored compassion on our part, but we did not listen. That is why this distress has come upon us.”²²Then Reu′ben answered them, saying: “Did not I say to ​YOU, ‘Do not sin against the child,’ but ​YOU​ did not listen? And now his blood, here it is certainly asked back.”²³As for them, they did not know that Joseph was listening, because there was an interpreter between them.²⁴Consequently he turned away from them and began to weep. Then he returned to them and spoke to them and took Sim′e‧on from them and bound him before their eyes.²⁵After that Joseph gave the command, and they went filling up their receptacles with grain. Also, they were to return the money of the men to each one’s individual sack and to give them provisions for the journey. Accordingly it was done so to them.

²⁶So they loaded their cereals upon their asses and got on their way from there.²⁷When one opened his sack to give fodder to his ass at the lodging place, he got to see his money, and here it was in the mouth of his bag.²⁸At that he said to his brothers: “My money has been returned and now here it is in my bag!” Then their hearts sank, so that they turned trembling to one another, saying: “What is this God has done to us?”

²⁹At length they came to Jacob their father to the land of Ca′naan and told him all the things that had befallen them, saying:³⁰“The man who is the lord of the country spoke harshly with us, since he took us for men spying on the country.³¹But we said to him, ‘We are upright men. We do not act as spies.³²We are twelve brothers, the sons of our father. One is no more, and the youngest is today with our father in the land of Ca′naan.’³³But the man who is the lord of the country said to us, ‘By this I am going to know ​YOU​ are upright: Have one brother of ​YOURS​ stay with me. Then ​YOU​ take something for the famine in ​YOUR​ houses and go.³⁴And bring ​YOUR​ youngest brother to me, that I may know that ​YOU​ are no spies but ​YOU​ are upright. Your brother I shall give back to ​YOU, and ​YOU​ may carry on business in the land.’”

³⁵And it came about that when they were emptying their sacks here was each one’s bundle of money in his sack. And they as well as their father got to see their bundles of money, and they became afraid.³⁶Then Jacob their father exclaimed to them: “It is I ​YOU​ have bereaved! Joseph is no more and Sim′e‧on is no more, and Benjamin ​YOU​ are going to take! It is upon me that all these things have come!”³⁷But Reu′ben said to his father: “My own two sons you may put to death if I do not bring him back to you. Give him over to my care, and I shall be the one to return him to you.”³⁸However, he said: “My son will not go down with ​YOU​ men, because his brother is dead and he has been left by himself. If a fatal accident should befall him on the way on which ​YOU​ would go, then ​YOU​ would certainly bring down my gray hairs with grief to She′ol.”