1Now Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt. So Jacob said to his sons, "Why do you keep looking at one another?"
2He said, "Look, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy some for us, so that we may live and not die."
4But Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph's brother, with his brothers. He said, "Something bad might happen to him."
5So the sons of Israel came to buy grain along with the others who came, for the famine was in the land of Canaan.
6Joseph was the governor over the land. He was the one 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 he knew who they were. But he acted like a stranger to them and spoke roughly to them. He said to them, "Where do you come from?" They said, "From the land of Canaan, to buy food."
8Joseph knew his brothers, but they did not know him.
9Joseph remembered the dreams he had dreamed about them. He said to them, "You are spies. You have come to see the nakedness of the land."
10They said to him, "No, my lord. Your servants have come to buy food."
11"We 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."
13They said, "Your servants are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan. Look, the youngest is with our father today, and one is no more."
14Joseph said to them, "It is just as I told you: you are spies."
15This is how you will be tested. By the life of Pharaoh, you shall not leave this place unless your youngest brother comes here.
16"Send one of you, and let him bring your brother. The rest of you will be kept in prison, so that your words may be tested, to see whether there is any truth in you. If not, then by the life of Pharaoh you are surely spies."
17And he put them all together in prison 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 kept in the prison where you are held. The rest of you go and carry grain for your hungry households.
20"But bring your youngest brother to me. Then your words will be shown to be true, and you will not die." And they did so.
21They said to one another, "We are truly guilty about our brother. We saw the anguish of his soul when he begged us, and we would not listen. That is why this trouble has come upon us."
22Reuben answered them, "Did I not tell you, 'Do not sin against the boy'? But you would not listen. Now, look, his blood is being required of us."
23They did not know that Joseph understood them, for he spoke to them through an interpreter.
24He turned away from them and wept. Then he came back to them and spoke with them. He took Simeon from among them and had him tied up before their eyes.
25Then Joseph gave orders to fill their sacks with grain, to put every man's money back in his sack, and to give them food for the journey. This was done for them.
26They loaded their donkeys with the grain and went away from there.
27At the lodging place, one of them opened his sack to give his donkey food, and he saw his money. There it was in the mouth of his sack.
28He said to his brothers, "My money has been put back. Look, it is here in my sack." Their hearts sank, and they were afraid. They said to one another, "What is this that God has done to us?"
29They came to Jacob their father in the land of Canaan and told him everything that had happened to them. They said,
30"The man who is lord of the land spoke roughly to us, and treated us as spies of the country."
31We said to him, 'We are honest men. We are not spies.
32We are twelve brothers, sons of our father. One is no more, and the youngest is with our father today in the land of Canaan.'
33The man, the lord of the country, said to us, 'This is how I will know that you are honest men. Leave one of your brothers here with me, take food for your hungry households, and go.
34"Then bring your youngest brother to me. Then I will know that you are not spies, but honest men. I will give you back your brother, and you may trade in the land.'"
35Then, as they emptied their sacks, each man's bundle of money was in his sack. When they and their father saw the bundles of money, they were afraid.
36Jacob their father said to them, "You have taken my children from me. Joseph is no more, and Simeon is no more, and now you will take Benjamin away. Everything is against me."
37Reuben spoke to his father and said, "Kill my two sons if I do not bring him back to you. Put him in my hands, and I will bring him back to you."
38But he said, "My son shall not go down with you. His brother is dead, and he alone is left. If something bad happens to him on the way you go, then you will bring my gray hairs down to the grave in sorrow."