Genesis 42

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

And he said, “I've heard there's grain in Egypt. Go down and buy some for us, so we can live and not die.”

So ten of Joseph's brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt.

But Jacob didn't send Benjamin, Joseph's brother, with the others, because he thought something might happen to him.

So the sons of Israel were among those who went to buy grain, because there was famine in Canaan too.

Now Joseph was the governor of the land, the one who sold grain to all its people. So Joseph's brothers came and bowed down to him with their faces to the ground.

And Joseph saw his brothers and recognised them, but he acted like a stranger and spoke harshly to them. “Where do you come from?” he said. “From Canaan,” they said. “To buy food.”

Joseph recognised his brothers, but they didn't recognise him.

And Joseph remembered the dreams he'd had about them, and he said to them, “You're spies. You've come to see where our defences are weak.”

“No, sir,” they said. “Your servants have come to buy food.

We're all sons of the one man. We're honest men. Your servants aren't spies.”

“No,” he said to them. “You've come to see where our defences are weak.”

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

And Joseph said to them, “It's just as I said. You're spies.

This is how you'll be tested. As surely as Pharaoh lives, you won't leave this place unless your youngest brother comes here.

Send one of you to get your brother. The rest of you will be kept in prison, so your words can be tested to see if you're telling the truth. If not, then as surely as Pharaoh lives, you're spies.”

And he put them all in custody for three days.

On the third day Joseph said to them, “Do this and you'll live, because I fear God.

If you're honest men, let one of your brothers stay here in prison while the rest of you go and take grain back for your starving households.

But you must bring your youngest brother to me, so your words can be proved true and you won't die.” And they did so.

And they said to each other, “We're being punished because of our brother. We saw how distressed he was when he begged us for his life, and we wouldn't listen. That's why this trouble has come on us.”

And Reuben said to them, “Didn't I tell you not to sin against the boy? But you wouldn't listen. Now we're being called to account for his blood.”

They didn't know that Joseph could understand them, because he was using an interpreter.

He turned away from them and wept. Then he came back and spoke to them again. He took Simeon from them and had him tied up in front of them.

Joseph gave orders to fill their bags with grain, to put each man's silver back in his sack, and to give them supplies for the journey. And it was done for them.

So they loaded their grain on their donkeys and left.

At 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 in the mouth of the sack.

“My silver's been put back,” he said to his brothers. “It's here in my sack.” And their hearts sank, and they turned to each other trembling and said, “What's this that God has done to us?”

When they came to their father Jacob in Canaan, they told him everything that had happened to them.

“The man who's the lord of that country spoke harshly to us,” they said, “and treated us like spies.

But we told him, ‘We're honest men. We're not spies.

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

And the man who's the lord of that country said to us, ‘This is how I'll know whether you're honest men. Leave one of your brothers with me, take food for your starving households and go.

But bring your youngest brother to me, so I'll know you're not spies but honest men. Then I'll give you your brother back, and you can trade in the land.’”

As they were emptying their sacks, there in each man's sack was his bag of silver. And when they and their father saw the bags of silver, they were frightened.

And their father Jacob said to them, “You've taken my children from me. Joseph is no more, Simeon is no more, and now you want to take Benjamin. Everything's against me.”

And Reuben said to his father, “You can put both my sons to death if I don't bring him back to you. Put him in my care, and I'll bring him back.”

But Jacob said, “My son isn't going down there with you. His brother is dead, and he's the only one left. If anything happens to him on the journey you're making, you'll bring my grey head down to the grave in sorrow.”