Genesis 42

1Jacob saw that grain was to be had in Egypt, and he asked his sons, “Why do you keep staring at one another?” 2He said, “I am told there is grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy us grain, so that we stay alive and do not die.” 3Ten of Joseph’s brothers set off down to Egypt for grain. 4But Jacob kept Benjamin, Joseph’s brother, at home and did not send him with the others, because he was afraid something might happen to him. 5The sons of Israel came to buy grain along with everyone else who was coming, because the famine had reached the land of Canaan. 6Joseph was the man in power over the country, and he oversaw the sale of grain to all its people. Joseph’s brothers came in and bowed low before him, their faces to the ground. 7Joseph knew his brothers the moment he saw them, but he treated them like strangers and spoke to them sternly. He demanded, “Where have you come from?” They said, “We have come from Canaan to buy food.” 8Joseph knew his brothers, but they had no idea who he was. 9Joseph called to mind the dreams he had dreamed about them. “You are spies,” he told them. “You came to look for the weak spots in our country’s defenses.” 10“Not at all, my lord,” they protested. “Your servants have come for nothing but food. 11We are all brothers, sons of one father, and we are honest men. Your servants are no spies.” 12“Not so,” he told them. “You have come to spy out where the land is unguarded.” 13They answered, “There are twelve of us, your servants, all brothers, sons of one man in the land of Canaan. The youngest is at home with our father just now, and one brother is gone.” 14“It is exactly what I said,” Joseph told them. “You are spies. 15Here is how I will test you. I swear by Pharaoh’s life that you will not get out of here until your youngest brother shows up. 16Pick one of you to go and bring your brother back, and the others will be held in prison. Then we will find out whether there is any truth in what you say. If there is not, I swear by Pharaoh’s life, you are spies!” 17Then he locked them all up together for three days. 18On the third day Joseph told them, “I am a God-fearing man, so if you do what I say, you will live. 19If you are as honest as you say, let one of your brothers stay locked up where you have been held, and the others may go and carry grain home to feed your hungry families. 20Then bring your youngest brother to me. That way what you have said will be proved true, and you will not have to die.” And they agreed to this. 21They said to each other, “We really are guilty over what we did to our brother. We watched his anguish as he begged us for mercy, and we refused to listen. Now this same anguish has come down on us.” 22Reuben broke in, “I told you, did I not, not to harm the boy? You would not hear of it. And now his blood is being demanded back from us.” 23They had no idea that Joseph understood them, since he had been speaking to them through an interpreter. 24Joseph stepped away from them and wept. When he came back, he talked with them again, then picked out Simeon and had him tied up right in front of them. 25Joseph ordered his men to fill the brothers’ containers with grain, to slip each man’s money back into his sack, and to give them food for the road. They did all this for them. 26They loaded the grain onto their donkeys and set off. 27When they stopped for the night, one of them opened his sack to feed his donkey and saw his money lying at the top of the sack. 28He called to his brothers, “Someone has given my money back! Look, it is right here in my sack!” Their courage failed them. They turned to one another, shaking, and asked, “What has God done to us?” 29Back home with their father Jacob in the land of Canaan, they gave him a full account of all that had happened to them. 30“The man who rules that country was harsh with us. He accused us of coming to spy out the land. 31We told him, ‘We are honest. We are no spies. 32There were twelve of us brothers, all sons of one father. One is gone, and the youngest is at home with our father in Canaan right now.’ 33Then the man, the ruler of the land, told us, ‘This is how I will know you are honest. One of your brothers stays here with me; the rest of you take what your hungry families need and go. 34And bring me your youngest brother; then I will be sure you are honest men and no spies. I will hand your brother back to you, and you may move about the country and do business.’” 35Then they began emptying their sacks, and in each man’s sack lay his purse of money. When they and their father saw the purses, fear came over them. 36Their father Jacob said to them, “You are leaving me childless! Joseph is no more, Simeon is no more, and now you would take Benjamin from me too. All of it lands on me!” 37Reuben told his father, “If I do not bring him home to you, you can kill my own two sons. Leave him in my charge, and I will see that he comes back to you.” 38But Jacob said, “My son will not go down with you. His brother is dead, and he alone remains. If anything happened to him on your journey, you would bring me, gray-haired, down to the grave in grief.”