Genesis 44
44
1And he commanded him who was over his house, saying, Fill the men's sacks with food, as much as they can carry; and put every man's money in the mouth of his sack. 2And put my cup, the silver cup, in the mouth of the sack of the youngest, and his grain-money. And he did according to the word of Joseph which he had spoken. 3In the morning, when it was light, the men were sent away, they and their asses. 4They were gone out of the city, and not yet far off, when Joseph said to him who was over his house, Up! follow after the men; and when thou overtakest them, thou shalt say to them, Why have ye rewarded evil for good? 5Is not this it in which my lord drinks, and in which indeed he divines? Ye have done evil in what ye have done. 6And he overtook them, and he spoke to them these words. 7And they said to him, Why does my lord speak such words as these? Far be it from thy servants to do such a thing! 8Behold, the money that we found in our sacks' mouths we have brought again to thee from the land of Canaan; and how should we steal out of thy lord's house silver or gold? 9With whomsoever of thy servants it is found, let him die; and we also will be my lord's bondmen. 10And he said, Now also let it be according to your words: let him with whom it is found be my bondman, but ye shall be blameless. 11And they hasted and laid down every man his sack on the ground, and opened every man his sack. 12And he searched carefully: he began at the eldest, and ended at the youngest; and the cup was found in Benjamin's sack. 13Then they rent their clothes, and loaded every man his ass, and they returned to the city. 14And Judah and his brethren came to Joseph's house; and he was still there; and they fell down before him to the ground. 15And Joseph said to them, What deed is this which ye have done? Did ye not know that such a man as I can certainly divine? 16And Judah said, What shall we say to my lord? what shall we speak, and how justify ourselves? God#GodHebrew: Elohim has found out the iniquity of thy servants; behold, we are my lord's bondmen, both we, and he in whose hand the cup has been found. 17And he said, Far be it from me to do so! The man in whose hand the cup has been found, he shall be my bondman; but as for you, go up in peace to your father.
18Then Judah came near to him, and said, Ah! my lord, let thy servant, I pray thee, speak a word in my lord's ears, and let not thine anger burn against thy servant; for thou art even as Pharaoh. 19My lord asked his servants, saying, Have ye a father, or a brother? 20And we said to my lord, We have an aged father, and a child born to him in his old age, yet young; and his brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother; and his father loves him. 21And thou saidst unto thy servants, Bring him down to me, that I may set mine eye on him. 22And we said to my lord, The youth cannot leave his father: if he should leave his father, his father would die. 23And thou saidst to thy servants, Unless your youngest brother come down with you, ye shall see my face no more. 24And it came to pass when we came up to thy servant my father, we told him the words of my lord. 25And our father said, Go again, buy us a little food. 26But we said, We cannot go down: if our youngest brother be with us, then will we go down; for we cannot see the man's face unless our youngest brother is with us. 27And thy servant my father said to us, Ye know that my wife bore me two sons; 28and the one went out from me, and I said, He must certainly have been torn in pieces; and I have not seen him again hitherto. 29And if ye take this one also from me, and mischief should befall him, ye will bring down my grey hairs with misery to Sheol. 30And now, when I come to thy servant my father, and the lad is not with us, — seeing that his life is bound up with his life, 31it will come to pass when he sees that the lad is not there, that he will die; and thy servants will bring down the grey hairs of thy servant our father with sorrow to Sheol. 32For thy servant became surety for the lad to my father, saying, If I bring him not to thee, then I shall be guilty toward my father all my days. 33And now, let thy servant stay, I pray thee, instead of the lad a bondman to my lord, and let the lad go up with his brethren; 34for how should I go up to my father if the lad were not with me? — lest I see the evil that would come on my father.
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Genesis 44: DARBY
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First published in 1890. This edition is maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society.
Genesis 44
44
Joseph pretended that Benjamin stole a cup
1Joseph talked to his worker, the one that was in charge of all the other workers in his house. Joseph said to that worker, “Fill up those men’s bags with food. Put lots of food in them, so that they are really full. Then get the money that they paid for that food, and hide that money in their bags, on top of the food. Do that for every one of those men.”
2Joseph also said, “Get my special cup, the one that is made of silver. Hide that cup in the youngest man’s bag, on top of the food, with the money he paid for that food.” And Joseph’s worker did all those things that Joseph said.
3The next morning, as soon as the sun came up, Joseph’s workers helped those men get ready to go home. Those men got their food bags, and they put those bags on their donkeys, and then they started to go home.
4When those men were just a little bit away from Joseph’s town, Joseph said to his worker, “Quick, chase those men until you catch up with them. Then say to them, ‘My boss was very good to you, but you mob did a bad thing to him. You stole his silver cup. 5That cup is really special. My boss drinks from that cup, and he uses it to find out things that will happen later on. But you mob stole that cup. That was a really wrong thing to do.’ ”
6So Joseph’s worker chased those men until he caught up with them. Then he talked to those men, and he said those things that Joseph told him to say. 7But those men said to him, “Sir, we don’t know why you said those things. We didn’t steal your boss’s cup. We respect you and your boss, and we don’t want to do bad things to you. No way.”
8Those men kept on talking to Joseph’s worker. They said, “Sir, think about that other time when we came to your country to buy food. On the way home to Canaan country, we found money in our food bags, on top of the food. But we didn’t try to keep that money. No, we wanted to give it back to you. So the next time we came to your country, we brought that money with us, to give it to you. That shows that we are good men. So you can be sure that we didn’t steal anything made of silver or gold from your boss’s house.”
9Then those men said to Joseph’s worker, “Sir, you can look in all our bags. And if you find that silver cup, then you can kill the man that has the cup in his bag. Then the rest of us mob, we will become your work-men, and we will work for you for no pay.”
10Joseph’s worker said, “All right, I will look in all your bags. And the man that has the cup in his bag, he has to become my work-man. Then I will let the rest of you mob go free.”
11So those men quickly took their bags off their donkeys, and they all opened their bags. 12And Joseph’s worker started to look in all those bags. He looked in the oldest man’s bag first, but the cup wasn’t there. Then he went to the next oldest man, and he looked in that man’s bag, but the cup wasn’t there. And he kept on doing that with all the men. He looked in all of their bags until he got to the youngest man. That young man’s name was Benjamin. Joseph’s worker looked in Benjamin’s bag, and he found that silver cup. 13Then all those men got a big shock, and they thought, “Now Benjamin will have to stay in Egypt country and work for that man.” So they got really upset. They were so upset that they tore their clothes. Then they put their bags back on their donkeys, and they went back to the town where Joseph lived.
Judah tried to save Benjamin
14Joseph was in his house, and he was waiting for those men to come back. Then those men got to the house. The one called Judah, he went inside the house, and his brothers went inside too. You know, all those men were Joseph’s brothers, but they still didn’t know that he was Joseph. So they quickly got down on their knees and put their faces near the ground, to show him respect.
15Joseph still wanted to trick them, so he said to them, “You know, I’m a very powerful man. I can do magic to find out things that nobody else knows. So I know that you mob stole my silver cup. Why did you do that bad thing?”
16Judah said to Joseph, “Sir, we don’t know what to say to you. We really don’t know what to say. We didn’t steal your cup. That’s the true story, but we don’t have any way to show you that it’s true.”
Then Judah said to Joseph, “Sir, a long time ago, we did bad things, and God knows that. Now God is showing you that we are guilty men. So listen, we will all become your work-men. Yes, that man that had your cup in his bag, he will become your work-man, and the rest of us mob, we will become your work-men too. And we will work for you for no pay.”
17But Joseph said, “No way. I don’t want to punish all of you like that. The man that had my cup in his bag, he is the only one that has to become my work-man. The rest of you mob, you can go home to your father, and I will not make any trouble for you.”
18Then Judah went more close to Joseph, and Judah said, “Sir, please let me say something to you, even though I am not an important person. I know that you are very important, just like Pharaoh, the big boss of Egypt country. So please don’t be angry with me for saying this. 19You know, sir, the last time we came here, you asked us, ‘Is your father still alive? And do you have another brother?’ 20Then we said to you, ‘Yes, sir. Our father is alive, and he is an old man. And we have a young brother too. He was born when our father was already old. We had one more brother, but he died. That brother that died, and our young brother, they had the same mother. So now our young brother is the only kid left from his mother. And our father really loves him.’ 21Then you said to us, ‘Go and get that young man, and bring him here to Egypt country, so that I can see him.’ 22But we said, ‘Sir, we can’t take that young man away from his father. If we do that, his father will be so sad that he will die.’ 23Then you said to us, ‘You mob can only come back here if you bring your youngest brother with you.’ ”
24Judah kept on talking to Joseph. He said, “Sir, we went back home to our father, and we told him those things that you said. 25Then, some time later, our father said to us, ‘Go back to Egypt, and buy a bit more food for us mob.’ 26But we said to him, ‘That man that is in charge of Egypt, he said to us, “You mob can only come back here if you bring your youngest brother with you.” ’ So we said to our father, ‘If you will let our youngest brother go with us to Egypt, then we will go. But if you don’t let him go with us, then we can’t go.’ 27Then my father said to us, ‘Listen, you know that I really loved my wife Rachel, and we only had 2 sons together. 28One of those sons went away, and he never came back. So I said, “I know what happened. A wild animal tore my son into little bits.” And I never saw him again. 29So now your youngest brother, he is the only one of Rachel’s sons that I have left. If you take him away from me, he might get hurt, or he might die. You know, I am an old man. If something bad happens to my son, I will be so sad that I will die.’ ”
30-31Judah kept on talking to Joseph. He said, “Sir, our father really loves that young man. He loves him more than anything else. And you know, our father is very old. I’m telling you, if I go back home to my father, and if that young man is not with us, then my father will be so sad that he will die. Yes, as soon as he sees that the young man is not with us, he will die straight away. We don’t want to do that to our father. 32Sir, I promised my father that I will look after that young man, and keep him safe. I said to my father, ‘If I don’t bring that young man back here to you, then you can blame me and say that I am guilty, and you can do that all my life.’ 33So please, sir, let me stay here and become your work-man, instead of that young man. And let that young man go back home with his brothers. 34If that young man is not with me, I can’t go back to my father. I don’t want to see my father get real sad and die. No way.”
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