Genesis 42:6-28 - Joseph Sends Nine Of His Brothers Back To Canaan

⁶ Joseph 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. ⁷ Joseph 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 did not recognize him. ⁹ Joseph 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. ¹¹ We 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 this day with our father, and one is no more."

¹⁴ Joseph said to them, "It is like I told you, saying, 'You are spies.' ¹⁵ By this you shall be tested. By the life of Pharaoh, you shall not go forth from here, unless your youngest brother comes here. ¹⁶ Send 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." ¹⁷ He 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. ¹⁹ If 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. ²⁰ Bring your youngest brother to me; so will your words be verified, and you won't die." They did so.

²¹ They said one to 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."

²² Reuben answered them, saying, "Did I not tell you, saying, 'Do not sin against the child,' and you wouldn't listen? Therefore also, behold, his blood is required."

²³ They did not know that Joseph understood them; for there was an interpreter between them. ²⁴ He 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. ²⁵ Then Joseph gave a command to fill their bags with grain, and to restore every 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.

²⁷ As 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. ²⁸ He said to his brothers, "My money is restored. Behold, it is in my sack." Their hearts failed them, and they turned trembling one to another, saying, "What is this that God has done to us?"