Genesis 42
1When Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt, he said to his sons, “Why are you looking at one another?”
2He said, “Behold, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy grain for us there so that we will live and not die.”
3So Joseph’s ten brothers went down to buy grain from Egypt.
4But Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph’s brother, with his brothers, for he said, “Some disaster might happen to him.”
5And so the sons of Israel were among those who came to buy grain, for the famine was in the land of Canaan.
6Joseph was the one in power over the land. It was he who sold grain to all the people of the land. Joseph’s brothers came and bowed down before him with their faces to the ground.
7Joseph saw his brothers and recognized them, but he acted like a stranger to them and spoke harshly to them. He said to them, “Where did you come from?” 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 dreamed about them, and 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.”
12He said to them, “No! You have come to see the nakedness of the land!”
13But they said, “We, your servants, are 12 brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan, and behold, today the youngest is with our father and one is no more.”
14Then Joseph said to them, “It is like I said to you, you are spies!
15This is how you will be tested: by the life of Pharaoh, you will not depart from this place unless your youngest brother comes here.
16Send one of you to get your brother. The rest of you will be confined as prisoners, so that your words may be tested, whether there is truth in you. Or else, by the life of Pharaoh, surely you are spies.”
17Then he put them all together in custody for three days.
18Joseph said to them the third day, “Do this and live, for I fear God:
19if you are honest men, then let one of your brothers be confined where you are now in prison, but the rest of you go and carry grain for your hungry households.
20And bring your youngest brother to me. In this way your words will be verified, and you will not die.” And they agreed to do that.
21Then they said to one another, “We are truly guilty concerning our brother because we saw the distress of his soul when he begged us and we would not listen. That is why this distress has come upon us.”
22Reuben answered them, saying, “Did I not tell you, saying, do not sin against the child, but you would not listen? So now, behold, his blood is required.”
23But they did not know that Joseph understood them, for there was an interpreter between them.
24He stepped away from them and wept. Then he returned to them and spoke to them, and he took Simeon from among them and bound him before their eyes.
25Then Joseph gave a command to fill their bags with grain, and to put each man’s money back into his sack, and to give them food for the journey. So that was done for them.
26So they loaded their donkeys with their grain and departed from there.
27As one of them opened his sack to give his donkey food in the lodging place, he saw his money. Behold, it was in the mouth of his pack.
28He said to his brothers, “My money has been put back! Behold, it is in my pack!” Their hearts failed them, and trembling, they turned to one another, saying, “What is this that God has done to us?”
29They came to Jacob their father in the land of Canaan, and told him all that had happened to them, saying,
30“The man, the lord of the land, spoke harshly to us and treated us as if we were spying on the land.
31We said to him, ‘We are honest men; we are not spies.
32We are 12 brothers, sons of our father. One is no more, and today the youngest is with our father in the land of Canaan.’
33The man, the lord of the land, said to us, ‘This is how I will know that you are honest men: leave one of your brothers with me, and take grain for your hungry households, and go.
34Bring your youngest brother to me, then I will know that you are not spies but that you are honest men. Then I will give your brother back to you, and you will be able to trade in the land.’”
35But when they emptied their sacks, behold, each man’s pouch of money was in his sack. And when they and their father saw their pouches of money, they were afraid.
36Jacob their father said to them, “You have bereaved me of my children! Joseph is no more, Simeon is no more, and you want to take Benjamin away. All these things have come upon me.”
37Reuben spoke to his father, saying, “You may kill two of my sons if I do not bring him to you. Put him in my hands, and I will bring him to you again.”
38He said, “My son will not go down with you, for his brother is dead and he alone is left. If some disaster happens to him on the journey on which you are going, then you will bring my gray hairs in sorrow down to Sheol.”