Genesis 42
42
1 Now Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt, and Jacob said to his sons, “Why do you look at one another?” 2He 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.” 3Joseph’s ten brothers went down to buy grain from Egypt. 4But Jacob didn’t send Benjamin, Joseph’s brother, with his brothers; for he said, “Lest perhaps harm happen to him.” 5The sons of Israel came to buy among those who came, for the famine was in the land of Canaan. 6Joseph 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. 7Joseph 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. 9Joseph 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. 11We 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!’ 15By this you shall be tested. By the life of Pharaoh, you shall not go out from here, unless your youngest brother comes here. 16Send 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.” 17He 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. 19If 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. 20Bring your youngest brother to me; so will your words be verified, and you won’t die.”
They did so. 21They 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.” 22Reuben 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.” 23They didn’t know that Joseph understood them; for there was an interpreter between them. 24He 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. 25Then 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. 27As 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. 28He 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?” 29They 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. 31We said to him, ‘We are honest men. We are no spies. 32We are twelve brothers, sons of our father; one is no more, and the youngest is today with our father in the land of Canaan.’ 33The 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. 34Bring 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. 36Jacob, 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.”#42:38 Sheol is the place of the dead.
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Genesis 42
42
Joseph’s brothers went to Egypt country
1Joseph’s father Jacob, he lived in Canaan country with his other sons. At that time, there was no rain and no food plants growing in Canaan country. Then somebody said to Jacob, “There is lots of food in Egypt country.”
So Jacob talked to his sons, and he said to them, “Don’t just stand around doing nothing. 2Somebody told me that there is lots of food in Egypt country. Go there and buy food for all of us. If you don’t go and buy food for us, we will die.”#Acts 7:12
3So 10 of Jacob’s sons left Canaan country, and they went to Egypt country to buy food there. Those 10 men were Joseph’s half-brothers. They had the same father as Joseph, but different mothers. 4You know, Joseph had one other brother too. His name was Benjamin. Joseph and Benjamin had the same father and mother. Their father Jacob really loved Benjamin. So Jacob didn’t want Benjamin to go to Egypt with his brothers. He thought, “Benjamin might get hurt, or he might die.” So Benjamin stayed at home with his father.
5In Egypt country, Jacob’s sons went to buy food, and there were lots of other people from Canaan country there too. You see, there was no rain and no food plants growing anywhere in Canaan, so the Canaan people had to go to Egypt to buy food.
Joseph pretended that he didn’t know his brothers
6At that time, Joseph was in charge of Egypt country, and he was the one that sold food to everybody. So Joseph’s brothers came to him, and they got down on their knees and put their faces near the ground, to show him respect.#Genesis 37:7 7-8But they didn’t know that he was their brother Joseph. They thought that he was one of the Egypt people.
Joseph looked at those men, and he saw that they were his brothers. But Joseph pretended that he didn’t know them. He talked to them in the Egypt language, and somebody else talked to Joseph’s brothers in their own language and told them the things Joseph said. And Joseph talked in a rough way to them. He said, “Where do you mob come from?”
His brothers said, “We come from Canaan country. We want to buy food here in Egypt.”
9Then Joseph remembered those dreams that he had a long time before. Those dreams showed that one day, Joseph’s brothers will all bend down in front of him, to show him respect.#Genesis 37:5-10
Joseph kept on pretending that he didn’t know them. He said to his brothers, “I reckon you mob are lying to me. I reckon you are my enemies. You came here to find out about our country, so that your people can attack us.”
10But they said to him, “No, sir, that’s not true. We respect you. We came here to buy food. 11You know, we are all brothers, with the same father. We are good men, and we don’t tell lies. We are not your enemies.”
12Joseph said, “I don’t believe you. I reckon you came here to find out about our country, so that your people can attack us.”
13They said, “No, sir. Those things that we told you, they are true. We are from a family of 12 brothers. We all have the same father, and he lives in Canaan country. Our youngest brother stayed at home with our father, and our other brother isn’t with us any more.”
14But Joseph said, “Stop talking, you mob. I know for sure that you are my enemies. 15So I’m going to test you mob, to see if you are lying. You said, ‘Our youngest brother is with our father in Canaan country.’ All right, I want your youngest brother to come here, so that I can see him. I’m telling you strongly, if your brother doesn’t come here, I will not let you leave this place. Pharaoh, the big boss of this country, he is the one that gives me the power to promise that.”
16Then Joseph said to his brothers, “This is how I am going to test you mob. One of you has to go back to your home country and get your youngest brother, then bring him back here. The rest of you mob have to stay here, and I will put you in jail. If your youngest brother comes here, then I will know that you told me the true story, and I will let you go free. But if he doesn’t come, then I will know that you are my enemies. I will be really sure, just like I’m really sure that Pharaoh is alive.”
17Then Joseph put his brothers in jail, and they stayed there for 3 days.
18At the end of those 3 days, Joseph talked to his brothers again. He said to them, “You know, I respect God and I want to do the right thing. So if you do what I say, I will not kill you.”
19Then Joseph said to them, “You told me that you are good men, and you don’t tell lies. So listen, this is what you have to do. Pick one man from your mob, and I will keep that man here in jail. The rest of you mob, you can go back to your home country. You can take food with you, and you can give that food to your families, because they are really hungry. 20Then get your youngest brother, and bring him here to me. Then I will know that you told me the true story, and I will not kill you.”
So Joseph’s brothers agreed to do what he said. But they still didn’t know that he was their brother Joseph. They still thought he was an Egypt man.
21Then Joseph’s brothers talked to each other in their own language. They said, “You know, a long time ago, we made bad trouble for our brother Joseph. We chucked him into a big hole in the ground, and then we sold him to some men from the Midian tribe. At that time, we saw that he was really frightened, and he asked us strongly to be good to him, but we didn’t listen. That’s the reason why we’ve got this bad trouble now. God is punishing us for those things that we did to Joseph.”
22Then Joseph’s oldest brother Reuben, he said to the others, “You know, I told you mob not to hurt Joseph, but you didn’t listen to me. And look, now God is doing payback to us.”#Genesis 37:21-22
23Joseph listened to his brothers, and he understood what they said, because he knew their language. But Joseph’s brothers didn’t know that he understood them. You see, Joseph always talked to his brothers in the Egypt language, then somebody else talked to them in their own language and told them what Joseph said. So they thought he only talked the Egypt language.
24When Joseph heard his brothers say those things, he wanted to cry. So he went to a place where they couldn’t see him, and he cried.
After a while, Joseph stopped crying. Then he went back to his brothers, and he talked to them in the Egypt language again. And Joseph picked his brother Simeon to stay in Egypt country. He told his men to tie up Simeon, and they tied him up in front of his brothers.
Joseph’s brothers went back to Canaan country
25Then Joseph got ready to send his brothers back to Canaan country. He said to his workers, “Fill up these men’s bags with food, so that they can take it home to their families. And give them some food to eat on the way home too.” And those workers did what Joseph said.
Joseph’s brothers already paid for that food, but Joseph talked secretly to his workers, and he said, “Get the money that those men paid us, and hide it in their food bags.” So those workers did what Joseph said. Then they gave those food bags to Joseph’s brothers, with the money inside. But Joseph’s brothers didn’t know that their money was in those bags.
26Then Joseph’s brothers put their food bags on their donkeys, and they left that place and started to go back towards Canaan country. 27Later that day, they stopped in another place, to camp there that night. One of Joseph’s brothers wanted food for his donkey, so he opened his food bag. Then he saw his money in there on top of the food, and he got a shock. 28He said to his brothers, “Somebody gave my money back. They hid it in my bag. Look, here it is, on top of the food.”
Then Joseph’s brothers got really worried. They thought, “Those Egypt people will think that we stole this money.” They were really frightened, and their bodies started to shake. They said to each other, “This thing that happened to us, it’s really bad. God is punishing us.”
29The next day, they kept going towards Canaan country, and they kept on camping along the way. When they got to Canaan country, they went to their father Jacob, and they told him about the things that happened to them in Egypt country. 30They said, “The man that is in charge of Egypt country, he talked in a rough way to us. He thought we were his enemies, and he said to us, ‘I reckon you came here to find out about our country, so that your people can attack us.’ 31But we said to him, ‘We are good men, and we don’t tell lies. We are not your enemies. 32We are from a family of 12 brothers, and we all have the same father. One brother isn’t with us any more, and our youngest brother is with our father in Canaan country.’ 33Then that man, the one that is in charge in Egypt, he said to us, ‘I’m going to test you mob, to see if those things you said are true. This is what you have to do. You have to pick one of your brothers to stay here with me. The rest of you mob can go back to your home country. You can take food with you, and give it to your families, because they are really hungry. 34After that, you have to get your youngest brother, and you have to bring him here to me. Then I will know that you are not my enemies. Yes, I will know that you are good men, and you didn’t lie to me. Then I will give your other brother back to you, the one that stayed here in Egypt country. And then I will let you buy and sell things in my country.’ ”
35After Joseph’s brothers told their father those things, they all opened their bags, and they started to take out the food. Then all of them saw their money in those bags. And their father Jacob saw that money too. They all got a shock, and they were frightened.
Jacob didn’t let his sons take Benjamin to Egypt country
36Jacob’s sons wanted to take their brother Benjamin back to Egypt country, just like Joseph told them to. That made Jacob sad. So Jacob said to his sons, “I don’t want to lose any more of my kids. My son Joseph isn’t here any more, and my son Simeon isn’t here any more. And now you want to take my son Benjamin away from me too. All those things are really sad for me.”
37Then Reuben, Jacob’s oldest son, he talked to his father Jacob. Reuben said, “Let me take Benjamin to Egypt country. I will look after him, and I promise that I will bring him back to you. If I don’t bring him back to you, then you can kill my 2 sons.”
38But Jacob said, “No. I will not let Benjamin go with you mob to Egypt country. You know that I really loved Benjamin’s mother Rachel. We had 2 sons together, Joseph and Benjamin. Now Joseph is dead, and Benjamin is the only one left. If I let him go with you, he might get hurt, or he might die. You know, I am an old man. If you mob take Benjamin to Egypt country, and something bad happens to him, I will be so sad that I will die.”
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