1 Jacob learned that there was grain for sale in Egypt, and he said to his sons, "Why do you keep staring at one another?"
2 He went on, "I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down and buy some for us there, so that we may stay alive and not die."
3 So ten of Joseph's brothers went down to buy grain from Egypt.
4 But Jacob would not send Joseph's brother Benjamin with his brothers, for he said, "Something bad might happen to him."
5 So the children of Israel came to buy grain along with the others who were coming, for the famine had reached the land of Canaan.
6 Joseph was the ruler over the land, the one who sold grain to all its people. When Joseph's brothers arrived, they bowed down before him with their faces to the ground.
7 As soon as Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them, but he acted like a stranger toward them and spoke roughly to them. "Where do you come from?" he asked. "From the land of Canaan," they said, "to buy food."
8 Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him.
9 Then Joseph remembered the dreams he had dreamed about them, and he said to them, "You are spies! You have come to see where the land lies exposed."
10 "No, my lord," they answered him. "Your servants have come to buy food.
11 We are all sons of one man. We are honest men; your servants are not spies."
12 "Not so," he told them. "You have come to see where the land lies exposed."
13 They said, "Your servants are twelve brothers, sons of one man in the land of Canaan. The youngest is now with our father, and one is no longer living."
14 Joseph said to them, "It is just as I told you: you are spies!
15 This is how you will be put to the test: as Pharaoh lives, you will not leave this place unless your youngest brother comes here.
16 Send one of your number to fetch your brother, while the rest of you are kept in confinement. Then your words will be tested to see whether you are telling the truth. If not, as Pharaoh lives, you are spies!"
17 And he locked them all up in custody for three days.
18 On the third day Joseph said to them, "Do this and you will live, for I fear God.
19 If you are honest men, let one of your brothers stay bound in the house where you are held, while the rest of you go and take grain home to your starving families.
20 Then bring your youngest brother to me. That way your words will be proved true, and you will not die." And they agreed to this.
21 They said to one another, "Surely we are bearing the guilt for what we did to our brother. We saw how distressed he was when he begged us for mercy, and we would not listen. That is why this distress has come upon us."
22 Reuben answered them, "Did I not tell you not to sin against the boy? But you would not listen. Now there is a reckoning for his blood."
23 They did not know that Joseph could understand them, since he was using an interpreter.
24 He turned away from them and wept. Then he came back and spoke to them, and he took Simeon from among them and had him bound before their eyes.
25 Joseph gave orders to fill their containers with grain, to return each man's silver to his sack, and to give them supplies for the journey. This was done for them.
26 They loaded the grain on their donkeys and set off from there.
27 At the place where they spent the night, one of them opened his sack to feed his donkey, and he saw his silver right there in the mouth of his bag.
28 "My silver has been returned!" he said to his brothers. "Here it is in my bag!" Their hearts sank, and they turned to one another trembling and said, "What is this God has done to us?"
29 When they reached their father Jacob in the land of Canaan, they told him everything that had happened to them.
30 "The man who is lord of the land spoke roughly to us," they said, "and treated us as men spying on the country.
31 We told him, 'We are honest men, not spies.
32 We are twelve brothers, sons of the same father. One is no longer living, and the youngest is now with our father in the land of Canaan.'
33 Then the man who is lord of the land told us, 'This is how I will know whether you are honest men: leave one of your brothers here with me, take grain for your starving families, and go.
34 But bring your youngest brother to me, so that I will know you are not spies but honest men. Then I will give your brother back to you, and you may move about the land freely.'"
35 Then, as they were emptying their sacks, there in each man's sack was his pouch of silver! When they and their father saw the pouches of silver, they were frightened.
36 Their father Jacob said to them, "You are robbing me of my children! Joseph is gone, Simeon is gone, and now you want to take Benjamin. All of this falls on me!"
37 Then Reuben said to his father, "You may put my two sons to death if I do not bring him back to you. Entrust him to my care, and I will bring him back to you."
38 But Jacob said, "My son will not go down with you. His brother is dead, and he is the only one left. If any harm comes to him on the journey you are taking, you will bring my gray head down to Sheol in grief."