Genesis 44:1–14

The Brothers Fall Before Joseph

^1aThen he commanded his house steward, saying, “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.

²“Now put my cup, the silver cup, in the mouth of the sack of the youngest, and his money for the grain.” And he did ¹as Joseph had told him.

³¹As the morning light broke, the men were sent away, they with their donkeys.

⁴Now they had just gone out of ^athe city and were not far off when Joseph said to his house steward, “Arise, pursue the men; you shall overtake them and say to them, ‘Why have you repaid evil for good?

⁵‘Is not this the one from which my lord drinks and which he indeed uses to interpret ^aomens? You have done evil in doing this.’”

⁶So he overtook them and spoke these words to them.

⁷And they said to him, “Why does my lord speak such words as these? Far be it from your servants to do such a thing.

⁸“Behold, ^athe money which we found in the mouth of our sacks we have brought back to you from the land of Canaan. How then could we steal silver or gold from your lord’s house?

⁹“^aWith whomever of your servants it is found, let him die, and we also will be my lord’s ^bslaves.”

¹⁰So he said, “Now let it also be according to your words; he with whom it is found shall be my slave, but the rest of you shall be innocent.”

¹¹Then they hurried, each man brought his sack down to the ground, and each man opened his sack.

¹²So he searched, beginning with the oldest and ending with the youngest, and ^athe cup was found in Benjamin’s sack.

¹³Then they ^atore their clothes, and each man loaded his donkey and returned to ^bthe city.

¹⁴Then Judah and his brothers came to Joseph’s house, and he was still there. So ^athey fell to the ground before him.