Genesis 44–50

Joseph Tests His Brothers

44Then he commanded ^pthe steward of his house, ^q“Fill the men’s sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put each man’s money in the mouth of his sack, ²and put my cup, the silver cup, in the mouth of the sack of the youngest, with his money for the grain.” And he did as Joseph told him.

³As soon as the morning was light, the men were sent away with their donkeys. ⁴They had gone only a short distance from the city. Now Joseph said to his ^rsteward, “Up, follow after the men, and when you overtake them, say to them, ‘Why have you repaid evil for good?^{1 5}Is it not from this that my lord drinks, and ^sby this that he practices divination? You have done evil in doing this.’ ”

⁶When he overtook them, he spoke to them these words. ⁷They said to him, “Why does my lord speak such words as these? Far be it from your servants to do such a thing! ⁸Behold, ^tthe money that we found in the mouths of our sacks we brought back to you from the land of Canaan. How then could we steal silver or gold from your lord’s house? ^9uWhichever of your servants is found with it shall die, and we also will be ^vmy lord’s servants.” ¹⁰He said, “Let it be as you say: he who is found with it shall be my servant, and the rest of you shall be innocent.” ¹¹Then each man quickly lowered his sack to the ground, and each man opened his sack. ¹²And he searched, beginning with the eldest and ending with the youngest. And the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack. ¹³Then they ^wtore their clothes, and every man loaded his donkey, and they returned to the city.

¹⁴When Judah and his brothers came to Joseph’s house, he was still there. They ^xfell before him to the ground. ¹⁵Joseph said to them, “What deed is this that you have done? Do you not know that a man like me ^ycan indeed practice divination?” ¹⁶And Judah said, “What shall we say to my lord? What shall we speak? Or how can we clear ourselves? God has found out ^zthe guilt of your servants; behold, we are ^amy lord’s servants, both we and he also in whose hand the cup has been found.” ¹⁷But he said, “Far be it from me that I should do so! Only the man in whose hand the cup was found shall be my servant. But as for you, go up in peace to your father.”

¹⁸Then Judah went up to him and said, ^b“Oh, my lord, please let your servant speak a word in my lord’s ears, and ^clet not your anger burn against your servant, for ^dyou are like Pharaoh himself. ¹⁹My lord asked his servants, saying, ‘Have you a father, or a brother?’ ²⁰And we said to my lord, ‘We have a father, an old man, ^eand a young brother, ^fthe child of his old age. His brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother’s children, and his father loves him.’ ²¹Then you said to your servants, ^g‘Bring him down to me, that I may set my eyes on him.’ ²²We said to my lord, ‘The boy cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father, ^hhis father would die.’ ²³Then you said to your servants, ⁱ‘Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you shall not see my face again.’

²⁴“When we went back to your servant my father, we told him the words of my lord. ²⁵And when ^jour father said, ‘Go again, buy us a little food,’ ²⁶we said, ‘We cannot go down. If our youngest brother goes with us, then we will go down. For we cannot see the man’s face unless our youngest brother is with us.’ ²⁷Then your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me ^ktwo sons. ²⁸One left me, and I said, ^l“Surely he has been torn to pieces,” and I have never seen him since. ²⁹If you ^mtake this one also from me, ⁿand harm happens to him, you will bring down my gray hairs in evil to Sheol.’

³⁰“Now therefore, as soon as I come to your servant my father, and the boy is not with us, then, as his life is bound up in the boy’s life, ³¹as soon as he sees that the boy is not with us, he will die, and your servants will bring down the gray hairs of your servant our father with sorrow to Sheol. ³²For your servant became a pledge of safety for the boy to my father, saying, ^o‘If I do not bring him back to you, then I shall bear the blame before my father all my life.’ ³³Now therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the boy as a servant to my lord, and let the boy go back with his brothers. ³⁴For how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? I fear to see the evil that would find my father.”

Joseph Provides for His Brothers and Family

45Then Joseph could not ^pcontrol himself before all those who stood by him. He cried, “Make everyone go out from me.” So no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. ²And he wept aloud, so that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it. ³And Joseph said to his brothers, ^q“I am Joseph! Is my father still alive?” But his brothers could not answer him, for they were dismayed at his presence.

⁴So Joseph said to his brothers, “Come near to me, please.” And they came near. And he said, “I am your brother, Joseph, ^rwhom you sold into Egypt. ⁵And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, ^sfor God sent me before you to preserve life. ⁶For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are ^tyet five years in which there will be neither ^uplowing nor harvest. ⁷And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. ⁸So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ^vruler over all the land of Egypt. ⁹Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, ‘Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me; do not tarry. ^10wYou shall dwell in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children and your children’s children, and your flocks, your herds, and all that you have. ^11xThere I will provide for you, for there are yet five years of famine to come, so that you and your household, and all that you have, do not come to poverty.’ ¹²And now your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see, that it is ^ymy mouth that speaks to you. ¹³You must tell my father of all my honor in Egypt, and of all that you have seen. Hurry and ^zbring my father down here.” ¹⁴Then he fell upon his brother Benjamin’s neck and wept, and Benjamin wept upon his neck. ¹⁵And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them. After that his brothers talked with him.

¹⁶When the report was heard in Pharaoh’s house, “Joseph’s brothers have come,” it pleased Pharaoh and his servants. ¹⁷And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Say to your brothers, ‘Do this: load your beasts and go back to the land of Canaan, ¹⁸and take your father and your households, and come to me, and ^aI will give you the best of the land of Egypt, and you shall eat the fat of the land.’ ¹⁹And you, Joseph, are commanded to say, ‘Do this: take ^bwagons from the land of Egypt for your little ones and for your wives, and bring your father, and come. ²⁰Have no concern for¹ your goods, for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours.’ ”

²¹The sons of Israel did so: and Joseph gave them ^bwagons, according to the command of Pharaoh, and gave them provisions for the journey. ²²To each and all of them he gave ^ca change of clothes, but to Benjamin he gave three hundred shekels² of silver and ^dfive changes of clothes. ²³To his father he sent as follows: ten donkeys loaded with the good things of Egypt, and ten female donkeys loaded with grain, bread, and provision for his father on the journey. ²⁴Then he sent his brothers away, and as they departed, he said to them, ^e“Do not quarrel on the way.”

²⁵So they went up out of Egypt and came to the land of Canaan to their father Jacob. ²⁶And they told him, “Joseph is still alive, and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt.” And his heart became numb, for he did not believe them. ²⁷But when they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said to them, and when he saw ^fthe wagons that Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of their father Jacob revived. ²⁸And Israel said, “It is enough; Joseph my son is still alive. I will go and see him before I die.”

Joseph Brings His Family to Egypt

46So Israel took his journey with all that he had and came to ^gBeersheba, and offered sacrifices ^hto the God of his father Isaac. ²And God spoke to Israel ⁱin visions of the night and said, “Jacob, Jacob.” And he said, “Here I am.” ³Then he said, “I am God, ^jthe God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will ^kmake you into a great nation. ⁴I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also ^lbring you up again, and ^mJoseph’s hand shall close your eyes.”

⁵Then Jacob set out from Beersheba. The sons of Israel carried Jacob their father, their little ones, and their wives, in the wagons ⁿthat Pharaoh had sent to carry him. ⁶They also took their livestock and their goods, which they had gained in the land of Canaan, and ^ocame into Egypt, Jacob and all his offspring with him, ⁷his sons, and his sons’ sons with him, his daughters, and his sons’ daughters. All his offspring he brought with him into Egypt.

^8pNow ^qthese are the names of the descendants of Israel, who came into Egypt, Jacob and his sons. ^rReuben, Jacob’s firstborn, ⁹and the sons of Reuben: Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi. ¹⁰The sons of Simeon: Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul, the son of a Canaanite woman. ¹¹The sons of ^sLevi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. ¹²The sons of ^tJudah: Er, Onan, Shelah, Perez, and Zerah (but ^uEr and Onan died in the land of Canaan); and the sons of ^vPerez were Hezron and Hamul. ^13wThe sons of Issachar: Tola, Puvah, Yob, and Shimron. ¹⁴The sons of Zebulun: Sered, Elon, and Jahleel. ¹⁵These are the sons of Leah, ^xwhom she bore to Jacob in Paddan-aram, together with his daughter Dinah; altogether his sons and his daughters numbered thirty-three.

¹⁶The sons of Gad: Ziphion, Haggi, Shuni, Ezbon, Eri, Arodi, and Areli. ^17yThe sons of Asher:…