1 Now Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt, and Jacob said to his sons, “Why do you look at one another?” 2 And he said, “Look, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy grain for us from there, so we may live and not die.” 3 So Joseph’s ten brothers went down to buy grain from Egypt. 4 But Jacob didn’t send Benjamin, Joseph’s brother, with his brothers, because he said, “So nothing bad will happen to him.” 5 And Israel’s sons came to buy among those who came because of the famine that was in the land of Canaan.
6 And Joseph, he was the governor over the land. He was the one who sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph’s brothers came and bowed themselves down to him with their faces to the earth. 7 And Joseph saw his brothers and he recognized them, but acted like a stranger to them and spoke roughly with them. And he said to them, “Where did you come from?”
And they said, “From the land of Canaan, to buy food.”
8 So Joseph recognized his brothers but they didn’t recognize him. 9 Now Joseph remembered the dreams which he dreamed about them, and said to them, “You are spies! You have come to see the land’s weaknesses.”
10 And they said to him, “No, my master, but your servants have come to buy food! 11 We are all the sons of one man. We are honest. Your servants are not spies!”
12 But he said to them, “No, but you have come to see the land’s weaknesses!”
13 So they said, “We, your servants, are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan. And look, the youngest is with our father today, and one is gone.”
14 But Joseph said to them, “It is like I told you, saying, ‘You are spies!’ 15 You will be examined in this way: By the life of Pharaoh, you will not leave this place unless your youngest brother comes here. 16 Send one of you, and let him get your brother. And you shall be imprisoned and your story will be examined whether there is truth in you. Otherwise, by the life of Pharaoh, surely you are spies!” 17 And he put them all together under guard for three days.
18 Then Joseph said to them on the third day, “Do this, and live. I have awe for God. 19 If you are honest, let one of your brothers be imprisoned in your guardhouse. And you go, take back grain for your hungry households. 20 Then bring your youngest brother to me, so your story will be verified, and you won’t die.”
So they did so. 21 And they said to one another, “We are certainly guilty concerning our brother since we saw his heartfelt trouble when he begged us, and we wouldn’t listen. That’s why this trouble is happening to us.” 22 And Reuben responded to them, saying, “Didn’t I tell you, saying, ‘Don’t commit a crime against the boy,’ and you wouldn’t listen? And also, look, we are being held accountable for his blood.” 23 And they didn’t know that Joseph understood them; for there was an interpreter between them. 24 And he turned himself away from them, and wept. Then he returned to them, and spoke to them, and took Shimon from among them, and tied him up in front of their eyes. 25 Then Joseph gave a command to fill their sacks with grain, and to put each man’s silver back into his sack, and to give them food for the way. And this was done for them.
26 So they loaded their donkeys with their grain, and departed from there. 27 And as one of them opened his sack to give his donkey food in the lodging place, he saw his silver. Look, it was in the mouth of his sack. 28 So he said to his brothers, “My silver was put back! Look, it is in my sack!” And their hearts failed them, and they turned trembling to one another, saying, “What is this that God has done to us?” 29 And they came to Jacob their father in the land of Canaan and told him everything that had happened to them, saying, 30 “The man, the master of the land, spoke roughly to us, and accused us of being spies of the country. 31 But we said to him, ‘We are honest men. We are not spies. 32 We are twelve brothers, sons of our father; one is no more, and the youngest is with our father today in the land of Canaan.’ 33 And the man, the master 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 your hungry households, and go your way. 34 Then bring your youngest brother to me. Then I will know that you are not spies, but that you are honest men. I will give your brother to you, and you may trade in the land.’”
35 Now it was, as they emptied their sacks, look, each man’s bundle of silver was in his sack! And when they and their father saw their bundles of silver, they were afraid. 36 And their father Jacob said to them, “You are making me lose my children! Joseph is gone, Shimon is gone, and you are going to take Benjamin! All these things are against me!”
37 Then Reuben spoke to his father, saying, “Kill my two sons if I don’t bring him to you. Put him in my care, and I will bring him back to you.”
38 But he said, “My son will not go down with you, because his brother is dead and he is only one left. If something bad happens to him along the way in which you go, then you will bring down my gray hairs to the grave in sorrow.”