1Jacob saw that there was grain available in Egypt, so Jacob asked his sons, “Why are you just looking at each other?”
2He continued, “I’ve heard there’s grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy some for us, so we can live and not starve.”
3Joseph’s ten brothers went down to Egypt to buy grain.
4But Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph’s full brother, with them because he thought, “Something bad might happen to him.”
5The sons of Israel arrived to buy grain along with others who were coming, because there was a famine in the land of Canaan.
6Joseph was the ruler over the land, and he was the one who sold grain to all the people. When Joseph’s brothers arrived, they bowed down to him with their faces to the ground.
7Joseph saw his brothers and recognized them, but he pretended not to know them and spoke harshly to them. He asked, “Where do you come from?” They replied, “From the land of Canaan to buy food.”
8Joseph recognized his brothers, but they didn’t recognize him.
9Joseph remembered the dreams he had about them and said to them, “You are spies! You have come to see how defenseless our land is.”
10They said to him, “No, my lord, your servants have only come to buy food.
11We are all sons of the same man; we are honest men. Your servants are not spies.”
12He said to them, “No, you have come to see how defenseless our land is!”
13They said, “We, your servants, are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan. The youngest is with our father today, and one of us is no longer alive.”
14Joseph said to them, “It is just as I told you: ‘You are spies!’
15This is how you will be tested. As surely as Pharaoh lives, you will not leave this place unless your youngest brother comes here.
16Send one of you to go get your brother, while the rest of you will be held captive. This will prove whether your words are true. If not, then as surely as Pharaoh lives, you are spies.”
17He put all of them in prison for three days.
18On the third day, Joseph said to them, “Do this and you will live, because I fear God:
19If you are honest men, let one of your brothers remain locked up here in your prison. The rest of you, go and take grain back for your starving households.
20Then bring your youngest brother to me. This will prove your words are true, and you will not die.” And they did as he said.
21They said to each other, “We are certainly guilty about our brother. We saw how upset he was when he begged us, and we wouldn’t listen. That’s why this trouble has come upon us.”
22Reuben answered them, saying, “Didn’t I tell you, ‘Don’t sin against the boy,’ and you wouldn’t listen? Now we are being held accountable for his blood.”
23They didn’t know that Joseph understood them, because there was an interpreter between them.
24He turned away from them and cried. Then he came back to them and spoke. He took Simeon from among them and had him tied up right before their eyes.
25Then Joseph gave orders to fill their bags with grain, to put each man’s money back into his sack, and to give them supplies for their journey. This was done for them.
26They loaded their donkeys with their grain and left there.
27As one of them opened his sack to feed his donkey at the lodging place, he saw his money. There it was, right at the top of his sack.
28He told his brothers, “My money has been returned! Look, it’s in my sack!” Their hearts sank, and they turned to each other, trembling, and asked, “What has God done to us?”
29When they came to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan, they told him everything that had happened to them.
30They said, “The man, the ruler of the land, spoke harshly to us and accused us of being spies in the country.
31We told him, ‘We are honest men. We are not spies.’
32‘We are twelve brothers, sons of our father; one is gone, and the youngest is with our father today in the land of Canaan.’
33The man, the ruler of the land, said to us, ‘This is how I will know that you are honest men: leave one of your brothers with me, take grain for the famine in your homes, and go on your way.’
34‘Bring your youngest brother to me. Then I will know that you are not spies, but honest men. I will then give your brother back to you, and you can trade in the land.’”
35As they emptied their sacks, they found each man’s money bag in his sack. When they and their father saw their money bags, they were frightened.
36Their father Jacob said to them, “You have robbed me of my children! Joseph is gone, Simeon is gone, and now you want to take Benjamin. All these things are happening to me.”
37Reuben said to his father, “You can kill my two sons if I don’t bring him back to you. Entrust him to my care, and I will bring him back.”
38Jacob said, “My son will not go down with you; because his brother is dead, and he is the only one left. If anything bad happens to him on the journey you are taking, then you will bring down my gray hairs to the grave in sorrow.”