But the men were afraid because they were taken to Joseph’s house. They said, “We have been brought here because of the money that was returned in our bags the first time. They intend to overpower us, seize us, make us slaves, and take our donkeys.”

So they approached Joseph’s steward and spoke to him at the doorway of the house.

They said, “Sir, we really did come down here the first time only to buy food.

When we came to the place where we lodged for the night and opened our bags of grain, each one’s money was at the top of his bag! It was the full amount of our money, and we have brought it back with us.

We have brought additional money with us to buy food. We don’t know who put our money in the bags.”

Then the steward said, “May you be well. Don’t be afraid. Your God and the God of your father must have put treasure in your bags. I received your money.” Then he brought Simeon out to them.

The steward brought the men into Joseph’s house, gave them water to wash their feet, and got feed for their donkeys.

Since the men had heard that they were going to eat a meal there, they prepared their gift for Joseph’s arrival at noon.

When Joseph came home, they brought him the gift they had carried into the house, and they bowed to the ground before him.

They answered, “Your servant our father is well. He is still alive.” And they bowed down to honor him.

When he looked up and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother’s son, he asked, “Is this your youngest brother that you told me about?” Then he said, “May God be gracious to you, my son.”

Joseph hurried out because he was overcome with emotion for his brother, and he was about to weep. He went into an inner room to weep.

They served him by himself, his brothers by themselves, and the Egyptians who were eating with him by themselves, because Egyptians could not eat with Hebrews, since that is abhorrent to them.

They were seated before him in order by age, from the firstborn to the youngest. The men looked at each other in astonishment.

Portions were served to them from Joseph’s table, and Benjamin’s portion was five times larger than any of theirs. They drank, and they got intoxicated with Joseph.

They had not gone very far from the city when Joseph said to his steward, “Get up. Pursue the men, and when you overtake them, say to them, ‘Why have you repaid evil for good?

Isn’t this the cup that my master drinks from and uses for divination? What you have done is wrong!’”

When he overtook them, he said these words to them.

They said to him, “Why does my lord say these things? Your servants could not possibly do such a thing.

We even brought back to you from the land of Canaan the money we found at the top of our bags. How could we steal gold and silver from your master’s house?

If any of us is found to have it, he must die, and we also will become my lord’s slaves.”

The steward replied, “What you have said is right, but only the one who is found to have it will be my slave, and the rest of you will be blameless.”

So each one quickly lowered his sack to the ground and opened it.

Then they tore their clothes, and each one loaded his donkey and returned to the city.

When Judah and his brothers reached Joseph’s house, he was still there. They fell to the ground before him.

“What is this you have done?” Joseph said to them. “Didn’t you know that a man like me could uncover the truth by divination?”

“What can we say to my lord?” Judah replied. “How can we plead? How can we justify ourselves? God has exposed your servants’ iniquity. We are now my lord’s slaves—both we and the one in whose possession the cup was found.”

Then Joseph said, “I swear that I will not do this. The man in whose possession the cup was found will be my slave. The rest of you can go in peace to your father.”

But Judah approached him and said, “Sir, please let your servant speak personally to my lord. Do not be angry with your servant, for you are like Pharaoh.

My lord asked his servants, ‘Do you have a father or a brother?’

Then you said to your servants, ‘Bring him to me so that I can see him.’

But we said to my lord, ‘The boy cannot leave his father. If he were to leave, his father would die.’

Then you said to your servants, ‘If your younger brother does not come down with you, you will not see me again.’

“This is what happened when we went back to your servant my father: We reported your words to him.

We told him, ‘We cannot go down unless our younger brother goes with us. So if our younger brother isn’t with us, we cannot see the man.’

Your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons.

One left—I said that he must have been torn to pieces—and I have never seen him again.

If you also take this one from me and anything happens to him, you will bring my gray hairs down to Sheol in sorrow.’

“So if I come to your servant my father and the boy is not with us—his life is wrapped up with the boy’s life—

when he sees that the boy is not with us, he will die. Then your servants will have brought the gray hairs of your servant our father down to Sheol in sorrow.

Your servant became accountable to my father for the boy, saying, ‘If I do not return him to you, I will always bear the guilt for sinning against you, my father.’

For how can I go back to my father without the boy? I could not bear to see the grief that would overwhelm my father.”

Joseph could no longer keep his composure in front of all his attendants, so he called out, “Send everyone away from me!” No one was with him when he revealed his identity to his brothers.

Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! Is my father still living?” But they could not answer him because they were terrified in his presence.

Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Please, come near me,” and they came near. “I am Joseph, your brother,” he said, “the one you sold into Egypt.

And now don’t be worried or angry with yourselves for selling me here, because God sent me ahead of you to preserve life.

For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there will be five more years without plowing or harvesting.

God sent me ahead of you to establish you as a remnant within the land and to keep you alive by a great deliverance.

Therefore it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household, and ruler over all the land of Egypt.

“Return quickly to my father and say to him, ‘This is what your son Joseph says: “God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me without delay.

Look! Your eyes and my brother Benjamin’s eyes can see that it is I , Joseph, who am speaking to you.

Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Tell your brothers, ‘Do this: Load your animals and go on back to the land of Canaan.

Get your father and your families, and come back to me. I will give you the best of the land of Egypt, and you can eat from the richness of the land.’

You are also commanded, ‘Do this: Take wagons from the land of Egypt for your young children and your wives and bring your father here.

Do not be concerned about your belongings, for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours.’”

So Joseph sent his brothers on their way, and as they were leaving, he said to them, “Don’t argue on the way.”

So they went up from Egypt and came to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan.

But when they told Jacob all that Joseph had said to them, and when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to transport him, the spirit of their father Jacob revived.

Then Israel said, “Enough! My son Joseph is still alive. I will go to see him before I die.”

Israel set out with all that he had and came to Beer-sheba, and he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac.

That night God spoke to Israel in a vision: “Jacob, Jacob!” He said.

And Jacob replied, “Here I am.”

God said, “I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there.

I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you back. Joseph will put his hands on your eyes.”

Jacob left Beer-sheba. The sons of Israel took their father Jacob in the wagons Pharaoh had sent to carry him, along with their children and their wives.

They also took their cattle and possessions they had acquired in the land of Canaan. Then Jacob and all his children went with him to Egypt.

His sons and grandsons, his daughters and granddaughters, indeed all his offspring, he brought with him to Egypt.

These are the names of the Israelites, Jacob and his sons, who went to Egypt:

Jacob’s firstborn: Reuben.

These were Leah’s sons born to Jacob in Paddan-aram, as well as his daughter Dinah. The total number of persons: 33.

These were the sons of Zilpah—whom Laban gave to his daughter Leah—that she bore to Jacob: 16 persons.

Manasseh and Ephraim were born to Joseph in the land of Egypt. They were born to him by Asenath daughter of Potiphera, a priest at On.

These were Rachel’s sons who were born to Jacob: 14 persons.

These were the sons of Bilhah, whom Laban gave to his daughter Rachel. She bore to Jacob: seven persons.

The total number of persons belonging to Jacob—his direct descendants, not including the wives of Jacob’s sons—who came to Egypt: 66.

And Joseph’s sons who were born to him in Egypt: two persons.
All those of Jacob’s household who had come to Egypt: 70 persons.

Now Jacob had sent Judah ahead of him to Joseph to prepare for his arrival at Goshen. When they came to the land of Goshen,

Joseph hitched the horses to his chariot and went up to Goshen to meet his father Israel. Joseph presented himself to him, threw his arms around him, and wept for a long time.

Then Israel said to Joseph, “At last I can die, now that I have seen your face and know you are still alive!”

Joseph said to his brothers and to his father’s household, “I will go up and inform Pharaoh, telling him: My brothers and my father’s household, who were in the land of Canaan, have come to me.

you are to say, ‘Your servants, both we and our fathers, have raised livestock from our youth until now.’ Then you will be allowed to settle in the land of Goshen, since all shepherds are abhorrent to Egyptians.”

Then Pharaoh asked his brothers, “What is your occupation?”

And they said to Pharaoh, “Your servants, both we and our fathers, are shepherds.”

Then they said to Pharaoh, “We have come to live in the land for a while because there is no grazing land for your servants’ sheep, since the famine in the land of Canaan has been severe. So now, please let your servants settle in the land of Goshen.”

Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Now that your father and brothers have come to you,

Then Pharaoh said to Jacob, “How many years have you lived?”

Jacob said to Pharaoh, “My pilgrimage has lasted 130 years. My years have been few and hard, and they have not surpassed the years of my fathers during their pilgrimages.”

Joseph collected all the money to be found in the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan in exchange for the grain they were purchasing, and he brought the money to Pharaoh’s palace.

When the money from the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan was gone, all the Egyptians came to Joseph and said, “Give us food. Why should we die here in front of you? The money is gone!”

So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and he gave them food in exchange for the horses, the herds of sheep, the herds of cattle, and the donkeys. That year he provided them with food in exchange for all their livestock.

When that year was over, they came the next year and said to him, “We cannot hide from our lord that the money is gone and that all our livestock belongs to our lord. There is nothing left for our lord except our bodies and our land.

Why should we die here in front of you—both us and our land? Buy us and our land in exchange for food. Then we with our land will become Pharaoh’s slaves. Give us seed so that we can live and not die, and so that the land won’t become desolate.”

and Joseph moved the people to the cities from one end of Egypt to the other.

The only land he didn’t acquire was the priests’ portion, for it was given to them by Pharaoh. They lived off the rations Pharaoh had given them; therefore they did not sell their land.

Then Joseph said to the people, “Understand today that I have acquired you and your land for Pharaoh. Here is seed for you. Sow it in the land.

At harvest, you are to give a fifth of it to Pharaoh, and four-fifths will be yours as seed for the field and as food for yourselves, your households, and your dependents.”

So Joseph made it a law, still in effect today in the land of Egypt, that a fifth of the produce belongs to Pharaoh. Only the priests’ land does not belong to Pharaoh.

When the time drew near for him to die, he called his son Joseph and said to him, “If I have found favor in your eyes, put your hand under my thigh and promise me that you will deal with me in kindness and faithfulness. Do not bury me in Egypt.

When I rest with my fathers, carry me away from Egypt and bury me in their burial place.”

Joseph answered, “I will do what you have asked.”

And Jacob said, “Swear to me.” So Joseph swore to him. Then Israel bowed in thanks at the head of his bed.

Some time after this, Joseph was told, “Your father is weaker.” So he set out with his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.

When Jacob was told, “Your son Joseph has come to you,” Israel summoned his strength and sat up in bed.

Jacob said to Joseph, “God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me.