Genesis 43:2 | 81 place un less your youn gest broth er comes here .
16
Send one of your num ber to get your broth er ; the rest of you will be kept in pris on , so that your words may be test ed to see if you are tell ing the truth . If you are not , then as sure ly as Phar aoh lives , you are spies !” 17 And he put them all in custo dy for three days .
18
On the third day , Jo seph said to them , “ Do this and you will live , for I fear God : 19 If you are hon est men , let one of your broth ers stay here in pris on , while the rest of you go and take grain back for your starv ing house holds . 20 But you must bring your youn gest broth er to me , so that your words may be ver i fied and that you may not die .” This they pro ceed ed to do .
21
They said to one an oth er , “ Sure ly we are be ing pun ished be cause of our broth er . We saw how dis tressed he was when he plead ed with us for his life , but we would not lis ten ; that ’ s why this dis tress has come on us .”
22
Reu ben re plied , “ Didn ’ t I tell you not to sin against the boy ? But you wouldn ’ t lis ten ! Now we must give an ac count ing for his blood .” 23 They did not re al ize that Jo seph could un der stand them , since he was us ing an in ter pret er .
24
He turned away from them and be gan to weep , but then came back and spoke to them again . He had Sim e on tak en from them and bound be fore their eyes .
25
Jo seph gave or ders to fill their bags with grain , to put each man ’ s sil ver back in his sack , and to give them pro vi sions for their jour ney . Af ter this was done for them , 26 they load ed their grain on their don keys and left .
27
At the place where they stopped for the night one of them opened his sack to get feed for his don key , and he saw his sil ver in the mouth of his sack . 28 “ My sil ver has been re turned ,” he said to his broth ers . “ Here it is in my sack .”
Their hearts sank and they turned to each other trem bling and said , “ What is this that God has done to us ?”
29
When they came to their fa ther Ja cob in the land of Ca naan , they told him all that had hap pened to them . They said , 30 “ The man who is lord over the land spoke harsh ly to us and treat ed us as though we were spy ing on the land . 31 But we said to him , ‘ We are hon est men ; we are not spies . 32 We were twelve broth ers , sons of one fa ther . One is no more , and the youn gest is now with our fa ther in Ca naan .’
33
“ Then the man who is lord over the land said to us , ‘ This is how I will know wheth er you are hon est men : Leave one of your broth ers here with me , and take food for your starv ing house holds and go . 34 But bring your youn gest broth er to me so I will know that you are not spies but hon est men . Then I will give your broth er back to you , and you can trade a in the land .’ ”
35
As they were emp ty ing their sacks , there in each man ’ s sack was his pouch of sil ver ! When they and their fa ther saw the mon ey pouch es , they were fright ened . 36 Their fa ther Ja cob said to them , “ You have de prived me of my chil dren . Jo seph is no more and Sim e on is no more , and now you want to take Ben ja min . Ev ery thing is against me !”
37
Then Reu ben said to his fa ther , “ You may put both of my sons to death if I do not bring him back to you . En trust him to my care , and I will bring him back .”
38
But Ja cob said , “ My son will not go down there with you ; his broth er is dead and he is the only one left . If harm comes to him on the jour ney you are tak ing , you will bring my gray head down to the grave in sor row .”
The Second Journey to Egypt
Now the fam ine was still se vere in the land .
43
2
So when they had eat en all the grain they had brought from Egypt , their fa ther said to them , “ Go back and buy us a lit tle more food .”
a
34 Or move about freely kind of oath appears in an Egyptian inscription from the twentieth century BC . 42:22 not to sin against the boy This indicates that all ten of Joseph ’ s older brothers are morally at fault for what happened to him . we must give an accounting for his blood This could indicate that the brothers never told Reuben what they actually did to Joseph — he seems to think Joseph is dead . 42:24 Simeon The second oldest brother , who was a son of Leah ( Ge 29:33 ), and one of the two brothers who slaughtered the men of Shechem ( ch . 34 ). 42:27 place where they stopped for the night This refers to a temporary encampment , not an inn .
42:29 – 34 Joseph ’ s ten older brothers recount the misfortunes of their trip to their father Jacob . Perhaps sensing that Jacob does not trust them to take care of Benjamin , they spin the story as positively as they can . They seem to believe that if Jacob will allow Benjamin to accompany them to Egypt , then all tensions will be resolved . Although Jacob is silent during this discussion , the outlook seems favorable until v . 36 .
42:37 You may put both of my sons to death Since Reuben had four sons ( 46:9 ), the text likely refers to two of his sons . 42:38 to the grave The Hebrew text here uses the word she ’ ol ( see note on 37:35 ).
43:1 – 34 When the famine grows more severe and food supplies run low , Jacob must send his sons back to Egypt for additional grain . But they refuse to go without Benjamin . Judah — acting as the firstborn in place of Reuben , Simeon and Levi ( see note on 49:8 )— agrees to take responsibility for Benjamin ’ s safety , and Jacob reluctantly allows Benjamin to travel with him ( compare 37:25 – 28 ). Once the brothers present Benjamin to Joseph , Simeon is restored to them ( compare 42:24 ). Joseph also prepares a feast and tests them further to see whether they have changed ( see 42:11 ).