Genesis 42:14–24

¹⁴Joseph said to them, “It is as I said ¹to you, you are spies;

¹⁵by this you will be tested: ^aby the life of Pharaoh, you shall not go from this place unless your youngest brother comes here!

¹⁶“Send one of you that he may get your brother, while you remain confined, that your words may be tested, whether there is ^atruth in you. But if not, by the life of Pharaoh, surely you are spies.”

¹⁷So he put them all together in ^aprison for three days.

¹⁸Now Joseph said to them on the third day, “Do this and live, for ^aI fear God:

¹⁹if you are honest men, let one of your brothers be confined in ¹your prison; but as for the rest of you, go, carry grain for the famine of your households,

²⁰and ^abring your youngest brother to me, so your words may be verified, and you will not die.” And they did so.

²¹Then they said to one another, “^aTruly we are guilty concerning our brother, because we saw the distress of his soul when he pleaded with us, yet we would not listen; therefore this distress has come upon us.”

²²Reuben answered them, saying, “^aDid I not tell ¹you, ‘Do not sin against the boy’; and you would not listen? ^2bNow comes the reckoning for his blood.”

²³They did not know, however, that Joseph understood, for there was an interpreter between them.

²⁴He turned away from them and ^awept. But when he returned to them and spoke to them, he ^btook Simeon from them and bound him before their eyes.