Shared Word Translation
Genesis 42
Jacob Sends His Sons to Egypt
When Jacob learned that there was grain in Egypt, Jacob said to his sons, “Why do you keep looking at one another?” And he said, “Behold, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy grain for us from there, that we may live and not die.” So ten of Joseph’s brothers went down to buy grain from Egypt. But Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph’s brother, with his brothers, for he said, “Lest harm befall him.” Thus the sons of Israel came to buy grain among those who came, for the famine was in the land of Canaan also.
Joseph’s Brothers Bow Before Him
Now Joseph was governor over the land. He was the one who sold grain to all the people of the land. And Joseph’s brothers came and bowed themselves before him with their faces to the ground. Joseph saw his brothers and recognized them, but he treated them as strangers and spoke harshly to them. He said to them, “Where do you come from?” They said, “From the land of Canaan, to buy food.” Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him. Then 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.”
They said to him, “No, my lord, but your servants have come to buy food. We are all sons of one man. We are honest men. Your servants have never been spies.” But he said to them, “No, it is the nakedness of the land that you have come to see.” They said, “We your servants are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan. Behold, the youngest is this day with our father, and one is no more.”
But Joseph said to them, “It is as I said to you: you are spies. By this you shall be tested. By the life of Pharaoh, you shall not leave this place unless your youngest brother comes here. Send one of you and let him bring your brother, while you remain confined, that your words may be tested, whether there is truth in you. Otherwise, by the life of Pharaoh, surely you are spies.” And he put them all together in custody for three days.
Joseph Tests His Brothers
On the third day Joseph said to them, “Do this and live, for I fear God: if you are honest men, let one of your brothers remain confined in your prison, but the rest of you go and carry grain for the famine of your households. Then bring your youngest brother to me, so your words will be verified, and you shall not die.” And they did so.
Then they said to one another, “Truly we are guilty concerning our brother, because we saw the distress of his soul when he pleaded with us, and we would not listen. Therefore this distress has come upon us.” Reuben answered them, saying, “Did I not tell you, ‘Do not sin against the boy’? But you would not listen. And now an accounting for his blood is required.” They did not know that Joseph understood them, for an interpreter stood between them. Then he turned away from them and wept. Afterward he returned to them and spoke with them. And he took Simeon from among them and bound him before their eyes.
The Brothers Return to Canaan
Then Joseph gave orders to fill their bags with grain and to return every man’s silver into his sack and to give them provisions for the journey. And it was done for them. So they loaded their grain upon their donkeys and departed from there. As one of them opened his sack to give his donkey fodder at the lodging place, he saw his silver. And behold, it was in the mouth of his sack. He said to his brothers, “My silver has been returned! And behold, it is in my sack!” Then their hearts failed them, and they turned trembling to one another, saying, “What is this that God has done to us?”
When they came to Jacob their father in the land of Canaan, they told him all that had happened to them, saying, “The man, the lord of the land, spoke harshly to us and treated us as spies of the land. But we said to him, ‘We are honest men. We have never been spies. We are twelve brothers, sons of our father. One is no more, and the youngest is this day with our father in the land of Canaan.’ Then 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, take grain for the famine of your households, and go. Bring your youngest brother to me. Then I shall know that you are not spies but honest men. I will return your brother to you, and you may trade in the land.’”
As they emptied their sacks, behold, every man’s bundle of silver was in his sack. And when they and their father saw their bundles of silver, they were afraid. And Jacob their father said to them, “You have bereaved me of my children. Joseph is no more, Simeon is no more, and now you would take Benjamin. All these things are against me.” Then 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 will return him to you.” But 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 that you are to make, then you would bring down my gray hair in sorrow to Sheol.”