Joseph's Brothers: The Journeys, the Cup and Judah's Plea

Genesis 42

¹ Now Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt, and Jacob said to his sons, “Why do you look at one another?”

² He said, “Behold, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there, and buy for us from there, so that we may live, and not die.”

³ Joseph’s ten brothers went down to buy grain from Egypt.

⁴ But Jacob didn’t send Benjamin, Joseph’s brother, with his brothers; for he said, “Lest perhaps harm happen to him.”

⁵ The sons of Israel came to buy among those who came, for the famine was in the land of Canaan.

⁶ Joseph was the governor over the land. It was he who sold to all the people of the land. Joseph’s brothers came, and bowed themselves down to him with their faces to the earth.

⁷ Joseph saw his brothers, and he recognized them, but acted like a stranger to them, and spoke roughly with them. He said to them, “Where did you come from?” They said, “From the land of Canaan, to buy food.”

⁸ Joseph recognized his brothers, but they didn’t recognize him.

⁹ Joseph remembered the dreams which he dreamed about them, and said to them, “You are spies! You have come to see the nakedness of the land.”

¹⁰ They said to him, “No, my lord, but your servants have come to buy food.

¹¹ We are all one man’s sons; we are honest men. Your servants are not spies.”

¹² He said to them, “No, but you have come to see the nakedness of the land!”

¹³ They said, “We, your servants, are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan; and behold, the youngest is today with our father, and one is no more.”

¹⁴ Joseph said to them, “It is like I told you, saying, ‘You are spies!’

¹⁵ By this you shall be tested. By the life of Pharaoh, you shall not go out from here, unless your youngest brother comes here.

¹⁶ Send one of you, and let him get your brother, and you shall be bound, that your words may be tested, whether there is truth in you, or else by the life of Pharaoh surely you are spies.”

¹⁷ He put them all together into custody for three days.

¹⁸ Joseph said to them the third day, “Do this, and live, for I fear God.

¹⁹ If you are honest men, then let one of your brothers be bound in your prison; but you go, carry grain for the famine of your houses.

²⁰ Bring your youngest brother to me; so will your words be verified, and you won’t die.” They did so.

²¹ They said to one another, “We are certainly guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the distress of his soul, when he begged us, and we wouldn’t listen. Therefore this distress has come upon us.”

²² Reuben answered them, saying, “Didn’t I tell you, saying, ‘Don’t sin against the child,’ and you wouldn’t listen? Therefore also, behold, his blood is required.”

²³ They didn’t know that Joseph understood them; for there was an interpreter between them.

²⁴ He turned himself away from them, and wept. Then he returned to them, and spoke to them, and took Simeon from among them, and bound him before their eyes.

²⁵ Then Joseph gave a command to fill their bags with grain, and to restore each man’s money into his sack, and to give them food for the way. So it was done to them.

²⁶ They loaded their donkeys with their grain, and departed from there.

²⁷ As 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 sack.

²⁸ He said to his brothers, “My money is restored! Behold, it is in my sack!” Their hearts failed them, and they turned trembling to one another, saying, “What is this that God has done to us?”

²⁹ They came to Jacob their father, to the land of Canaan, and told him all that had happened to them, saying,

³⁰ “The man, the lord of the land, spoke roughly with us, and took us for spies of the country.

³¹ We said to him, ‘We are honest men. We are no spies.

³² We are twelve brothers, sons of our father; one is no more, and the youngest is today with our father in the land of Canaan.’

³³ The man, the lord of the land, said to us, ‘By this I will know that you are honest men: leave one of your brothers with me, and take grain for the famine of your houses, and go your way.

³⁴ Bring your youngest brother to me. Then I will know that you are not spies, but that you are honest men. So I will deliver your brother to you, and you shall trade in the land.’ ”

³⁵ As they emptied their sacks, behold, each man’s bundle of money was in his sack. When they and their father saw their bundles of money, they were afraid.

³⁶ Jacob, 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 are against me.”

³⁷ Reuben spoke to his father, saying, “Kill my two sons, if I don’t bring him to you. Entrust him to my care, and I will bring him to you again.”

³⁸ He said, “My son shall not go down with you; for his brother is dead, and he only is left. If harm happens to him along the way in which you go, then you will bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Sheol.”

Genesis 43

¹ The famine was severe in the land.

² When they had eaten up the grain which they had brought out of Egypt, their father said to them, “Go again, buy us a little more food.”

³ Judah spoke to him, saying, “The man solemnly warned us, saying, ‘You shall not see my face, unless your brother is with you.’

⁴ If you’ll send our brother with us, we’ll go down and buy you food;

⁵ but if you don’t send him, we won’t go down, for the man said to us, ‘You shall not see my face, unless your brother is with you.’ ”

⁶ Israel said, “Why did you treat me so badly, telling the man that you had another brother?”

⁷ They said, “The man asked directly concerning ourselves, and concerning our relatives, saying, ‘Is your father still alive? Have you another brother?’ We just answered his questions. Is there any way we could know that he would say, ‘Bring your brother down’?”

⁸ Judah said to Israel, his father, “Send the boy with me, and we’ll get up and go, so that we may live, and not die, both we, and you, and also our little ones.

⁹ I’ll be collateral for him. From my hand will you require him. If I don’t bring him to you, and set him before you, then let me bear the blame forever;

¹⁰ for if we hadn’t delayed, surely we would have returned a second time by now.”

¹¹ Their father, Israel, said to them, “If it must be so, then do this: Take from the choice fruits of the land in your bags, and carry down a present for the man, a little balm, a little honey, spices and myrrh, nuts, and almonds;

¹² and take double money in your hand, and take back the money that was returned in the mouth of your sacks. Perhaps it was an oversight.

¹³ Take your brother also, get up, and return to the man.

¹⁴ May God Almighty give you mercy before the man, that he may release to you your other brother and Benjamin. If I am bereaved of my children, I am bereaved.”

¹⁵ The men took that present, and they took double money in their hand, and Benjamin; and got up, went down to Egypt, and stood before Joseph.

¹⁶ When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the steward of his house, “Bring the men into the house, and butcher an animal, and prepare; for the men will dine with me at noon.”

¹⁷ The man did as Joseph commanded, and the man brought the men to Joseph’s house.

¹⁸ The men were afraid, because they were brought to Joseph’s house; and they said, “Because of the money that was returned in our sacks the first time, we’re brought in; that he may seek occasion against us, attack us, and seize us as slaves, along with our donkeys.”

¹⁹ They came near to the steward of Joseph’s house, and they spoke to him at the door of the house,

²⁰ and said, “Oh, my lord, we indeed came down the first time to buy food.

²¹ When we came to the lodging place, we opened our sacks, and behold, each man’s money was in the mouth of his sack, our money in full weight. We have brought it back in our hand.

²² We have brought down other money in our hand to buy food. We don’t know who put our money in our sacks.”

²³ He said, “Peace be to you. Don’t be afraid. Your God, and the God of your father, has given you treasure in your sacks. I received your money.” He brought Simeon out to them.

²⁴ The man brought the men into Joseph’s house, and gave them water, and they washed their feet. He gave their donkeys fodder.

²⁵ They prepared the present for Joseph’s coming at noon, for they heard that they should eat bread there.

²⁶ When Joseph came home, they brought him the present which was in their hand into the house, and bowed themselves down to the earth before him.

²⁷ He asked them of their welfare, and said, “Is your father well, the old man of whom you spoke? Is he yet alive?”

²⁸ They said, “Your servant, our father, is well. He is still alive.” They bowed down humbly.

²⁹ He lifted up his eyes, and saw Benjamin, his brother, his mother’s son, and said, “Is this your youngest brother, of whom you spoke to me?” He said, “God be gracious to you, my son.”

³⁰ Joseph hurried, for his heart yearned over his brother; and he sought a place to weep. He entered into his room, and wept there.

³¹ He washed his face, and came out. He controlled himself, and said, “Serve the meal.”

³² They served him by himself, and them by themselves, and the Egyptians who ate with him by themselves, because the Egyptians don’t eat with the Hebrews, for that is an abomination to the Egyptians.

³³ They sat before him, the firstborn according to his birthright, and the youngest according to his youth, and the men marveled with one another.

³⁴ He sent portions to them from before him, but Benjamin’s portion was five times as much as any of theirs. They drank, and were merry with him.

Genesis 44

¹ He commanded the steward of his house, saying, “Fill the men’s sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put each man’s money in his sack’s mouth.

² Put my cup, the silver cup, in the sack’s mouth of the youngest, with his grain money.” He did according to the word that Joseph had spoken.

³ As soon as the morning was light, the men were sent away, they and their donkeys.

⁴ When they had gone out of the city, and were not yet far off, Joseph said to his steward, “Up, follow after the men. When you overtake them, ask them, ‘Why have you rewarded evil for good?

⁵ Isn’t this that from which my lord drinks, and by which he indeed divines? You have done evil in so doing.’ ”

⁶ He overtook them, and he spoke these words to them.

⁷ They said to him, “Why does my lord speak such words as these? Far be it from your servants that they should do such a thing!

⁸ Behold, the money, which we found in our sacks’ mouths, we brought again to you out of the land of Canaan. How then should we steal silver or gold out of your lord’s house?

⁹ With whomever of your servants it is found, let him die, and we also will be my lord’s slaves.”

¹⁰ He said, “Now also let it be according to your words. He with whom it is found will be my slave; and you will be blameless.”

¹¹ Then they hurried, and each man took his sack down to the ground, and each man opened his sack.

¹² He searched, beginning with the oldest, and ending at the youngest. The cup was found in Benjamin’s sack.

¹³ Then they tore their clothes, and each man loaded his donkey, and returned to the city.

¹⁴ Judah and his brothers came to Joseph’s house, and he was still there. They fell on the ground before him.

¹⁵ Joseph said to them, “What deed is this that you have done? Don’t you know that such a man as I can indeed do divination?”

¹⁶ Judah said, “What will we tell my lord? What will we speak? How will we clear ourselves? God has found out the iniquity of your servants. Behold, we are my lord’s slaves, both we and he also in whose hand the cup is found.”

¹⁷ He said, “Far be it from me that I should do so. The man in whose hand the cup is found, he will be my slave; but as for you, go up in peace to your father.”

¹⁸ Then Judah came near to him, and said, “Oh, my lord, please let your servant speak a word in my lord’s ears, and don’t let your anger burn against your servant; for you are even as Pharaoh.

¹⁹ My lord asked his servants, saying, ‘Have you a father, or a brother?’

²⁰ We said to my lord, ‘We have a father, an old man, and a child of his old age, a little one; and his brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother; and his father loves him.’

²¹ You said to your servants, ‘Bring him down to me, that I may set my eyes on him.’

²² We said to my lord, ‘The boy can’t leave his father, for if he should leave his father, his father would die.’

²³ You said to your servants, ‘Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you will see my face no more.’

²⁴ When we came up to your servant my father, we told him the words of my lord.

²⁵ Our father said, ‘Go again and buy us a little food.’

²⁶ We said, ‘We can’t go down. If our youngest brother is with us, then we will go down: for we may not see the man’s face, unless our youngest brother is with us.’

²⁷ Your servant, my father, said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons.

²⁸ One went out from me, and I said, “Surely he is torn in pieces;” and I haven’t seen him since.

²⁹ If you take this one also from me, and harm happens to him, you will bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Sheol.’

³⁰ Now therefore when I come to your servant my father, and the boy is not with us; since his life is bound up in the boy’s life;

³¹ it will happen, when he sees that the boy is no more, that he will die. Your servants will bring down the gray hairs of your servant, our father, with sorrow to Sheol.

³² For your servant became collateral for the boy to my father, saying, ‘If I don’t bring him to you, then I will bear the blame to my father forever.’

³³ Now therefore, please let your servant stay instead of the boy, my lord’s slave; and let the boy go up with his brothers.

³⁴ For how will I go up to my father, if the boy isn’t with me?—lest I see the evil that will come on my father.”