Genesis 42:15-38

15by this you will be tested: 1by the life of Pharaoh, you shall not go from this place unless your youngest brother comes here! 16Send one of you that he may get your brother, while you remain confined, that your words may be tested, whether there is 2truth in you. But if not, by the life of Pharaoh, surely you are spies.” 17So he put them all together in 3prison for three days.

18Now Joseph said to them on the third day, “Do this and live, for 4I fear God: 19if you are honest men, let one of your brothers be confined in 5your prison; but as for the rest of you, go, carry grain for the famine of your households, 20and 6bring your youngest brother to me, so your words may be verified, and you will not die.” And they did so. 21Then they said to one another, “7Truly we are guilty concerning our brother, because we saw the distress of his soul when he pleaded with us, yet we would not listen; therefore this distress has come upon us.” 22Reuben answered them, saying, “8Did I not tell 9you, ‘Do not sin against the boy’; and you would not listen? 1011Now comes the reckoning for his blood.” 23They did not know, however, that Joseph understood, for there was an interpreter between them. 24He turned away from them and 12wept. But when he returned to them and spoke to them, he 13took Simeon from them and bound him before their eyes. 2514Then Joseph gave orders to fill their bags with grain and to restore every man’s money in his sack, and to give them provisions for the journey. And thus it was done for them.

26So they loaded their donkeys with their grain and departed from there. 27As one of them opened his sack to give his donkey fodder at the lodging place, he saw his 15money; and behold, it was in the mouth of his sack. 28Then he said to his brothers, “My money has been returned, and behold, it is even in my sack.” And their hearts 16sank, and they turned 17trembling to one another, saying, “18What is this that God has done to us?”

29When they came to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan, they told him all that had happened to them, saying, 30“The man, the lord of the land, 19spoke harshly with us, and took us for spies of the country. 31But we said to him, ‘We are 20honest men; we are not spies. 32We are twelve brothers, sons of our father; one is no longer alive, and the youngest is with our father today in the land of Canaan.’ 33The man, the lord of the land, said to us, ‘21By this I will know that you are honest men: leave one of your brothers with me and take grain for the famine of your households, and go. 34But bring your youngest brother to me that I may know that you are not spies, but 22honest men. I will give your brother to you, and you may 23trade in the land.’”

35Now it came about as they were emptying their sacks, that behold, 24every man’s bundle of money was in his sack; and when they and their father saw their bundles of money, they were dismayed. 36Their father Jacob said to them, “You have 25bereaved me of my children: Joseph is no more, and Simeon is no more, and you would take Benjamin; all these things are against me.” 37Then Reuben spoke to his father, saying, “You may put my two sons to death if I do not bring him back to you; put him in my 26care, and I will return him to you.” 38But 27Jacob said, “My son shall not go down with you; for his 28brother is dead, and he alone is left. 29If harm should befall him on the journey 30you are taking, then you will 31bring my gray hair down to Sheol in sorrow.”