1Now Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt, and Jacob said to his sons, “Why do you keep looking at one another?”
2And he said, “Look, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy some for us from there, so that we may live and not die.”
3So ten of Joseph’s brothers went down to buy grain from Egypt.
4But Benjamin, Joseph’s brother, Jacob did not send with his brothers, for he said, “Lest harm befall him.”
5So the sons of Israel came to buy among those who came, for the famine was in the land of Canaan.
6Now Joseph was the ruler over the land; he was the one who sold grain to all the people of the land. And Joseph’s brothers came and bowed down to him, faces to the ground.
7When Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them, but he made himself a stranger to them and spoke harshly with them. He said to them, “Where have you come from?” And they said, “From the land of Canaan, to buy food.”
8Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him.
9And Joseph remembered the dreams that he had dreamed about them, and he said to them, “You are spies! You have come to see the nakedness of the land.”
10But they 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.”
12But he said to them, “No, for you have come to see the nakedness of the land.”
13And they said, “Your servants are twelve brothers, sons of one man in the land of Canaan; and behold, the youngest is with our father today, and one is no more.”
14But Joseph said to them, “It is just as I said to you: you are spies!
15By this you shall be tested: as Pharaoh lives, you shall not leave this place unless your youngest brother comes here.
16Send one of you, and let him fetch your brother, while you remain bound, so that your words may be tested, whether the truth is with you. And if not, as Pharaoh lives, surely you are spies!”
17And he gathered them into custody for three days.
18On the third day Joseph said to them, “Do this and live, for I fear God:
19If you are honest men, let one of your brothers be bound in your place of custody, while the rest of you go and carry grain for the famine of your households,
20and bring your youngest brother to me, so that your words may be confirmed and you will not die.” And they did so.
21Then they said to one another, “Truly we are guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the distress of his soul when he pleaded with us, and we did not listen. That is why this distress has come upon us.”
22And Reuben answered them, saying, “Did I not tell you, ‘Do not sin against the boy,’ but you would not listen? So now, behold, his blood is required.”
23They did not know that Joseph understood, for there was an interpreter between them.
24Then he turned away from them and wept. When he returned to them and spoke with them, he took Simeon from them and bound him before their eyes.
25Then Joseph gave orders to fill their vessels with grain, and to return each man’s silver to his sack, and to give them provisions for the journey. And this was done for them.
26So they loaded their grain on their donkeys and went off from there.
27When one of them opened his sack to give fodder to his donkey at the lodging place, he saw his silver — and behold, it was in the mouth of his sack.
28He said to his brothers, “My silver has been returned! And look, it is even in my sack!” And their heart failed them, and they turned trembling to one another, saying, “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, saying,
30“The man, the lord of the land, spoke harshly with us and treated us as if we were spies on the land.
31But we said to him, ‘We are honest men; we have never been spies.
32We are twelve brothers, sons of our father; one is no more, and the youngest is today with our father in the land of Canaan.’
33Then the man, the lord of the land, said to us, ‘By this I shall know that you are honest men: leave one of your brothers with me, and take grain for the hunger of your households and go.
34And bring your youngest brother to me, so that I may know that you are not spies but honest men. Then I will give your brother back to you, and you may trade throughout the land.’
35Now it happened, as they were emptying their sacks, that behold, each man’s bundle of silver was in his sack. When they and their father saw their bundles of silver, they were afraid.
36And Jacob their father said to them, ‘You have bereaved me of my children: Joseph is no more, and Simeon is no more, and now you would take Benjamin. All these things are 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 hand, and I myself will return him to you.’
38But he said, ‘My son shall not go down with you, for his brother is dead and he alone is left. If harm should befall him on the journey you are to take, then you would bring down my gray head in sorrow to Sheol.’
Open in the interactive reader →Where this passage connects across Scripture — each link typed and reasoned, part of the AIT Bible Nexus Chart.