1 When aJacob saw that there was grain in Egypt, Jacob said to his sons, “Why do you look at one another?”
2 And he said, “Indeed I have heard that there is grain in Egypt; go down to that place and buy for us there, that we may alive and not die.”
3 So Joseph’s ten brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt.
4 But Jacob did not send Joseph’s brother Benjamin with his brothers, for he said, a“Lest some calamity befall him.”
5 And the sons of Israel went to buy grain among those who journeyed, for the famine was ain the land of Canaan.
6 Now Joseph was governor aover the land; and it was he who sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph’s brothers came and bbowed down before him with their faces to the earth.
7 Joseph saw his brothers and recognized them, but he acted as aa stranger to them and spoke roughly to them. Then he said to them, “Where do you come from?” And they said, “From the land of Canaan to buy food.”
8 So Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him.
9 Then Joseph aremembered the dreams which he had dreamed about them, and said to them, “You are spies! You have come to see the1 nakedness of the land!”
10 And 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 But he said to them, “No, but you have come to see the nakedness of the land.”
13 And they said, “Your servants are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan; and in fact, the youngest is with our father today, and one ais no more.”
14 But Joseph said to them, “It is as I spoke to you, saying, ‘You are spies!’
15 In this manner you shall be tested: aBy the life of Pharaoh, you shall not leave this place unless your youngest brother comes here.
16 Send one of you, and let him bring your brother; and you shall be1 kept in prison, that your words may be tested to see whether thereis any truth in you; or else, by the life of Pharaoh, surely you are spies!”
17 So he1 put them all together in prison athree days.
18 Then Joseph said to them the third day, “Do this and live, afor I fear God:
19 If you are honest men, let one of your brothers be confined to your prison house; but you, go and carry grain for the famine of your houses.
20 And bring your youngaest brother to me; so your words will be verified, and you shall not die.” And they did so.
21 Then they said to one another, a“We are truly guilty concerning our brother, for we saw the anguish of his soul when he pleaded with us, and we would not hear; btherefore this distress has come upon us.”
22 And Reuben answered them, saying, a“Did I not speak to you, saying, ‘Do not sin against the boy’; and you would not listen? Therefore behold, his blood is now brequired of us.”
23 But they did not know that Joseph understood them, for he spoke to them through an interpreter.
24 And he turned himself away from them and awept. Then he returned to them again, and talked with them. And he took bSimeon from them and bound him before their eyes.
The Brothers Return to Canaan
25 Then Joseph agave a command to fill their sacks with grain, to brestore every man’s money to his sack, and to give them provisions for the journey. cThus he did for them.
26 So they loaded their donkeys with the grain and departed from there.
27 But as aone ofthem opened his sack to give his donkey feed at the encampment, he saw his money; and there it was, in the mouth of his sack.
28 So he said to his brothers, “My money has been restored, and there it is, in my sack!” Then their hearts1 failed them and they were afraid, saying to one another, “What is this that God has done to us?”
29 Then they went to Jacob their father in the land of Canaan and told him all that had happened to them, saying:
30 “The man whois lord of the land aspoke roughly to us, and took us for 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 this day in the land of Canaan.’
33 Then the man, the lord of the country, said to us, a‘By this I will know that you are honest men: Leave one of your brothers here with me, take foodfor the famine of your households, and be gone.
34 And bring your ayoungest brother to me; so I shall know that you are not spies, but that you are honest men. I will grant your brother to you, and you may btrade in the land.’ ”
35 Then it happened as they emptied their sacks, that surprisingly aeach man’s bundle of money was in his sack; and when they and their father saw the bundles of money, they were afraid.
36 And Jacob their father said to them, “You have abereaved me: Joseph is no more, Simeon is no more, and you want to take bBenjamin. All these things are against me.”
GENESIS, the book of the origin or production of all things, consists of two parts: the first, comprehended in the first through eleventh chapters, gives a general history; the second, contained in the subsequent chapters, gives a special history. The two parts are essentially connected; the one, which sets out with an account of the descent of the human race from a single pair, the introduction of sin into the world, and the announcement of the scheme of divine mercy for repairing the ruins of the fall, was necessary to pave the way for relating the other, namely, the call of Abraham, and the selection of his posterity for carrying out the gracious purpose of God. An evident unity of method, therefore, pervades this book, and the information contained in it was of the greatest importance to the Hebrew people, as without it they could not have understood the frequent references made in their law to the purposes and promises of God regarding themselves. The arguments that have been already adduced as establishing the Mosaic origin of the Pentateuch prove of course that Moses was the author of Genesis. The few passages on which the rationalists grounded their assertions that it was the composition of a later age have been successfully shown to warrant no such conclusion; the use of Egyptian words and the minute acquaintance with Egyptian life and manners, displayed in the history of Joseph, harmonize with the education of Moses, and whether he received his information by immediate revelation, from tradition, or from written documents, it comes to us as the authentic work of an author who wrote as he was inspired by the Holy Ghost (II Peter 1:21).
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