Joseph's Brothers Return to Egypt

¹Now the famine was qsevere in the land. ²And when they had eaten the grain that they had brought from Egypt, their father said to them, “Go again, buy us a little food.” ³But Judah said to him, “The man solemnly warned us, saying, ‘You shall not see my face unless your rbrother is with you.’ ⁴If you will send our brother with us, we will go down and buy you food. ⁵But if you will not send him, we will not go down, for the man said to us, ‘You shall not see my face, unless your brother is with you.’” ⁶Israel said, “Why did you treat me so badly as to tell the man that you had another brother?” ⁷They replied, “The man questioned us carefully about ourselves and our kindred, saying, ‘Is your father still alive? Do you have another brother?’ What we told him was in answer to these questions. Could we in any way know that he would say, ‘Bring your brother down’?” ⁸And Judah said to Israel his father, “Send the boy with me, and we will arise and go, that we may slive and not die, both we and you and also our little ones. ⁹I will be a pledge of his safety. From my hand you shall require him. tIf I do not bring him back to you and set him before you, then let me bear the blame forever. ¹⁰If we had not delayed, we would now have returned twice.”

¹¹Then their father Israel said to them, “If it must be so, then do this: take some of the choice fruits of the land in your bags, and carry a present down to the man, a little ubalm and a little honey, gum, myrrh, pistachio nuts, and almonds. ¹²Take double the money with you. Carry back with you the money vthat was returned in the mouth of your sacks. Perhaps it was an oversight. ¹³Take also your brother, and arise, go again to the man. ¹⁴May wGod Almighty1 xgrant you mercy before the man, and may he send back your other brother and Benjamin. And as for me, yif I am bereaved of my children, I am bereaved.”

¹⁵So the men took this present, and they took double the money with them, and Benjamin. They arose and went down to Egypt and stood before Joseph.

¹⁶When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the zsteward of his house, “Bring the men into the house, and slaughter an animal and make ready, for the men are to dine with me at noon.” ¹⁷The man did as Joseph told him and brought the men to Joseph's house. ¹⁸And the men were afraid because they were brought to Joseph's house, and they said, “It is because of the money, which was replaced in our sacks the first time, that we are brought in, so that he may assault us and fall upon us to make us servants and seize our donkeys.” ¹⁹So they went up to the steward of Joseph's house and spoke with him at the door of the house, ²⁰and said, a“Oh, my lord, bwe came down the first time to buy food. ²¹And cwhen we came to the lodging place we opened our sacks, and there was each man's money in the mouth of his sack, our money in full weight. So we have brought it again with us, ²²and we have brought other money down with us to buy food. We do not know who put our money in our sacks.” ²³He replied, “Peace to you, do not be afraid. Your God and the God of your father has put treasure in your sacks for you. I received your money.” Then he brought Simeon out to them. ²⁴And when the man had brought the men into Joseph's house and dgiven them water, and they had washed their feet, and when he had given their donkeys fodder, ²⁵they prepared ethe present for Joseph's coming at noon, for they heard that they should eat bread there.

²⁶When Joseph came home, they brought into the house to him the present that they had with them and fbowed down to him to the ground. ²⁷And he inquired about their welfare and said, “Is your father well, the old man gof whom you spoke? Is he still alive?” ²⁸They said, “Your servant our father is well; he is still alive.” And they hbowed their heads and prostrated themselves. ²⁹And he lifted up his eyes and saw his brother Benjamin, ihis mother's son, and said, “Is this your youngest brother, gof whom you spoke to me? God be gracious to you, my son!” ³⁰Then Joseph hurried out, for jhis compassion grew warm for his brother, and he sought a place to weep. And he entered his chamber and kwept there. ³¹Then he washed his face and came out. And lcontrolling himself he said, “Serve the food.” ³²They served him by himself, and them by themselves, and the Egyptians who ate with him by themselves, because the Egyptians could not eat with the Hebrews, for that is man abomination to the Egyptians. ³³And they sat before him, the firstborn according to his birthright and the youngest according to his youth. And the men looked at one another in amazement. ³⁴nPortions were taken to them from Joseph's table, but Benjamin's portion was ofive times as much as any of theirs. And they drank and were merry2 with him.