Thematic Bible




Thematic Bible



When Jacob realized that there was grain in Egypt, Jacob said to his sons, "Why do you look at one another?" Then he said, "Look, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy grain for us there that we may live and not die."

Now the famine in the land [was] severe. And it happened [that] as they finished eating the grain which they had brought from Egypt their father said to them, "Return and buy a little food for us." Then Judah said to him, "The man solemnly admonished us, saying, 'You shall not see my face unless your brother [is] with you.' read more.
{If you will send} our brother with us, we will go down and buy food for you, but {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.'" Then Israel said, "Why did you bring trouble to me by telling the man you still had a brother?" And they said, "The man asked explicitly about us and about our family, saying, 'Is your father still alive? Do you have a brother?' And we answered him according to these words. How could we know that he would say, 'Bring down your brother'?" Then Judah said to his father Israel, "Send the boy with me, and let us arise and go, so that we will live and not die--you, we, and our children. I myself will be surety for him. You may seek him from my hand. If I do not bring him back to you and present him before you, then I will stand guilty before you forever. Surely if we had not hesitated by this [time] we would have returned twice." Then their father Israel said to them, "If [it must be] so then do this. Take some of the best products of the land in your bags and take them down to the man as a gift--a little balm and honey, aromatic gum and myrrh, and pistachios and almonds. And take double [the] money in your hands. Take back the money that was returned in the mouth of your sacks. Perhaps it [was] a mistake. And take your brother. Now arise and return to the man. And may El-Shaddai grant you compassion before the man that he may release your other brother to you and Benjamin. As for me, if I am bereaved, I am bereaved."


He had sent Judah ahead of him to Joseph to appear before him in Goshen. And they came to the land of Goshen.

Now the famine in the land [was] severe. And it happened [that] as they finished eating the grain which they had brought from Egypt their father said to them, "Return and buy a little food for us." Then Judah said to him, "The man solemnly admonished us, saying, 'You shall not see my face unless your brother [is] with you.' read more.
{If you will send} our brother with us, we will go down and buy food for you, but {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.'" Then Israel said, "Why did you bring trouble to me by telling the man you still had a brother?" And they said, "The man asked explicitly about us and about our family, saying, 'Is your father still alive? Do you have a brother?' And we answered him according to these words. How could we know that he would say, 'Bring down your brother'?" Then Judah said to his father Israel, "Send the boy with me, and let us arise and go, so that we will live and not die--you, we, and our children. I myself will be surety for him. You may seek him from my hand. If I do not bring him back to you and present him before you, then I will stand guilty before you forever. Surely if we had not hesitated by this [time] we would have returned twice."

And Judah and his brothers came to the house of Joseph--now he [was] still there--they fell before him to the ground. Then Joseph said to them, "What is this deed that you have done? Did you not know that a man who [is] like me surely practices divination?" And Judah said, "What can we say to my lord? What can we speak? Now how can we show ourselves innocent? God has found the guilt of your servants! Behold, we [are] slaves to my lord, both we and also he in whose hand the cup was found." read more.
But he said, "Far be it from me to do this! The man in whose hand the cup was found, he will become my slave. But as for you, go up in peace to your father." But Judah drew near to him and said, "Please my lord, let your servant speak a word in the ears of my lord, and {let not your anger burn} against your servant, for {you are like Pharaoh himself}. My lord had asked his servants, saying, 'Do you have a father or a brother?' And we said to my lord, 'We have an aged father, and a younger [brother], the child of his old age, and his brother died, and he alone remains from his mother, and his father loves him.' Then you said to your servants, 'Bring him down to me that I may set my eyes upon him.' Then we said to my lord, 'The boy cannot leave his father; if he should leave his father, then he would die.' Then you said to your servants, 'Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you shall not again see my face.' And it happened [that] we went up to your servant, my father, and told him the words of my lord. And when our father said, 'Buy a little food for us,' then we said, 'We cannot go down. If our youngest brother [is] with us, then we shall go down. For we will not be able to see the face of the man unless our youngest brother [is] with us.' Then your servant, my father, said to us, 'You yourselves know that my wife bore two sons to me. One went out from me, and I said, "Surely he must have been torn to pieces," and I have never seen him since. And if you take this one also from me, and he encounters harm, you will bring down my gray head in sorrow to Sheol.' So now, when I come to your servant, my father, and the boy is not with us--now his life is bound up with his life-- it shall happen [that] when he sees that the boy is gone, he will die. And your servants will bring down the gray head of your servant, our father, to Sheol with sorrow. For your servant is pledged as surety for the boy by my father, saying, If I do not bring him to you, then I shall be culpable to my father forever. So then, please let your servant remain in place of the boy as a slave to my lord, and let the boy go up with his brothers. For how can I go up to my father if the boy is not with me? {I do not want to see} the misery which will find my father."