Feb.
11
Genesis
42
Gen
42:1 Now Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt, and Jacob said to
his sons, "Why do you look at one another?"
Gen
42:2 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."
Gen
42:3 Joseph's ten brothers went down to buy grain from Egypt.
Gen
42:4 But Jacob didn't send Benjamin, Joseph's brother, with his
brothers; for he said, "Lest perhaps harm happen to him."
Gen
42:5 The sons of Israel came to buy among those who came, for the
famine was in the land of Canaan.
Gen
42:6 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.
Gen
42:7 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."
Gen
42:8 Joseph recognized his brothers, but they didn't recognize him.
Gen
42:9 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."
Gen
42:10 They said to him, "No, my lord, but your servants have
come to buy food.
Gen
42:11 We are all one man's sons; we are honest men. Your servants
are not spies."
Gen
42:12 He said to them, "No, but you have come to see the
nakedness of the land."
Gen
42:13 They said, "We, your servants, are twelve brothers, the
sons of one man in the land of Canaan; and behold, the youngest is
this day with our father, and one is no more."
Gen
42:14 Joseph said to them, "It is like I told you, saying, 'You
are spies.'
Gen
42:15 By this you shall be tested. By the life of Pharaoh, you shall
not go forth from here, unless your youngest brother comes here.
Gen
42:16 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."
Gen
42:17 He put them all together into custody for three days.
Gen
42:18 Joseph said to them the third day, "Do this, and live,
for I fear God.
Gen
42:19 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.
Gen
42:20 Bring your youngest brother to me; so will your words be
verified, and you won't die." They did so.
Gen
42:21 They said one to 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."
Gen
42:22 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."
Gen
42:23 They didn't know that Joseph understood them; for there was an
interpreter between them.
Gen
42:24 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.
Gen
42:25 Then Joseph gave a command to fill their bags with grain, and
to restore every man's money into his sack, and to give them food for
the way. So it was done to them.
Gen
42:26 They loaded their donkeys with their grain, and departed from
there.
Gen
42:27 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.
Gen
42:28 He said to his brothers, "My money is restored! Behold,
it is in my sack!" Their hearts failed them, and they turned
trembling one to another, saying, "What is this that God has
done to us?"
Gen
42:29 They came to Jacob their father, to the land of Canaan, and
told him all that had happened to them, saying,
Gen
42:30 "The man, the lord of the land, spoke roughly with us,
and took us for spies of the country.
Gen
42:31 We said to him, 'We are honest men. We are no spies.
Gen
42:32 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.'
Gen
42:33 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.
Gen
42:34 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.' "
Gen
42:35 It happened as they emptied their sacks, that behold, every
man's bundle of money was in his sack. When they and their father saw
their bundles of money, they were afraid.
Gen
42:36 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."
Gen
42:37 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."
Gen
42:38 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."