Chapter 44

The Brothers Are Brought Back

1 aThen 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 “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.

3 1As soon as it was light, the men were sent away, they with their donkeys.

4 They had just gone out of athe city, and were not far off, when Joseph said to his house steward, “Up, follow the men; and when you overtake them, 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 for adivination? You have done wrong in doing this.’ ”

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

7 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.”

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

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

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

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

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

15 Joseph said to them, “What is this deed that you have done? Do you not know that such a man as I can indeed practice adivination?”

16 So Judah said, “What can we say to my lord? What can we speak? And how can we justify ourselves? God has found out the iniquity of your servants; behold, we are my lord’s aslaves, both we and the one in whose 1possession the cup has been found.”

17 But he said, “Far be it from me to do this. The man in whose 1possession the cup has been found, he shall be my slave; but as for you, go up in peace to your father.”

18 Then Judah approached him, and said, “Oh my lord, may your servant please speak a word in my lord’s ears, and 1ado not be angry with your servant; for byou are equal to Pharaoh.

19 “aMy lord asked his servants, saying, ‘Have you a father or a brother?’

20 “We said to my lord, ‘We have an old father and aa little child of his old age. Now bhis brother is dead, so he alone is left of his mother, and his father loves him.’

21 “Then you said to your servants, ‘aBring him down to me that I may set my eyes on him.’

22 “But we said to my lord, ‘The lad cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father, 1his father would die.’

23 “You said to your servants, however, ‘aUnless your youngest brother comes down with you, you will not see my face again.’

24 “Thus it came about when we went up to your servant my father, we told him the words of my lord.

25 “aOur father said, ‘Go back, buy us a little food.’

26 “But we said, ‘We cannot go down. If our youngest brother is with us, then we will go down; for we cannot see the man’s face unless our youngest brother is with us.’

27 “Your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that amy wife bore me two sons;

28 and the one went out from me, and aI said, “Surely he is torn in pieces,” and I have not seen him since.

29 ‘If you take this one also from 1me, and harm befalls him, you will abring my gray hair down to Sheol in 2sorrow.’

30 “Now, therefore, when I come to your servant my father, and the lad is not with us, since 1ahis life is bound up in the lad’s life,

31 when he sees that the lad is not with us, he will die. Thus your servants will abring the gray hair of your servant our father down to Sheol in sorrow.

32 “For your servant abecame surety for the lad to my father, saying, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, then 1let me bear the blame before my father forever.’

33 “Now, therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the lad a slave to my lord, and let the lad go up with his brothers.

34 “For how shall I go up to my father if the lad is not with me—for fear that I see the evil that would 1overtake my father?”

Chapter 45

Joseph Deals Kindly with His Brothers

1 Then Joseph could not control himself before all those who stood by him, and he cried, “Have everyone go out from me.” So there 1was no man with him awhen Joseph made himself known to his brothers.

2 aHe 1wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard of it.

3 Then Joseph said to his brothers, “aI am Joseph! bIs my father still alive?” But his brothers could not answer him, for cthey were dismayed at his presence.

4 Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Please come 1closer to me.” And they came 1closer. And he said, “I am your brother Joseph, whom you asold into Egypt.

5 “Now do not be grieved or angry 1with yourselves, because ayou sold me here, for bGod sent me before you to preserve life.

6 “For the famine has been in the land athese two years, and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting.

7 “aGod sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth, and to keep you alive by a great 1deliverance.

8 “Now, therefore, it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a afather to Pharaoh and lord of all his household and ruler over all the land of Egypt.

9 “Hurry and go up to my father, and asay to him, ‘Thus says your son Joseph, “God has made me lord of all Egypt; come down to me, do not delay.

10 “You shall 1live in the land of aGoshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children and your children’s children and your flocks and your herds and all that you have.

11 “There I will also aprovide for you, for there are still five years of famine to come, and you and your household and all that you have would be impoverished.” ’

12 “Behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see, that it is my mouth which is speaking to you.

13 “Now you must tell my father of all my splendor in Egypt, and all that you have seen; and you must hurry and abring my father down here.”

14 Then he fell on his brother Benjamin’s neck and awept, and Benjamin wept on his neck.

15 He kissed all his brothers and wept on them, and afterward his brothers talked with him.

16 Now when athe 1news was heard in Pharaoh’s house 2that Joseph’s brothers had come, it 3pleased Pharaoh and his servants.

17 Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Say to your brothers, ‘Do this: load your beasts and 1go to the land of Canaan,

18 and take your father and your households and come to me, and aI will give you the 1best of the land of Egypt and you will eat the fat of the land.’

19 “Now you are ordered, ‘Do this: 1take awagons from the land of Egypt for your little ones and for your wives, and bring your father and come.

20 ‘Do not 1concern yourselves with your goods, for the 2best of all the land of Egypt is yours.’ ”

21 Then the sons of Israel did so; and Joseph gave them awagons according to the 1command of Pharaoh, and gave them provisions for the journey.

22 To 1each of them he gave achanges of garments, but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver and bfive changes of garments.

23 To his father he sent 1as follows: ten donkeys loaded with the 2best things of Egypt, and ten female donkeys loaded with grain and bread and sustenance for his father 3on the journey.

24 So he sent his brothers away, and 1as they departed, he said to them, “Do not 2quarrel on the journey.”

25 Then they went up from Egypt, and came to the land of Canaan to their father Jacob.

26 They told him, saying, “Joseph is still alive, and indeed he is ruler over all the land of Egypt.” But 1he was stunned, for ahe did not believe them.

27 When they told him all the words of Joseph that he had spoken to them, and when he saw the awagons that Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of their father Jacob revived.

28 Then Israel said, “It is enough; my son Joseph is still alive. I will go and see him before I die.”

Chapter 46

Jacob Moves to Egypt

1 So Israel set out with all that he had, and came to aBeersheba, and offered sacrifices to the bGod of his father Isaac.

2 aGod spoke to Israel 1in visions of the night and said, “bJacob, Jacob.” And he said, “Here I am.”

3 He said, “aI am God, the God of your father; do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will bmake you a great nation there.

4 “aI will go down with you to Egypt, and bI will also surely bring you up again; and cJoseph will 1close your eyes.”

5 Then Jacob arose from Beersheba; and the sons of Israel carried their father Jacob and their little ones and their wives in the awagons which Pharaoh had sent to carry him.

6 They took their livestock and their property, which they had acquired in the land of Canaan, and acame to Egypt, Jacob and all his 1descendants with him:

7 his sons and his grandsons with him, his daughters and his granddaughters, and all his 1descendants he brought with him to Egypt.

Those Who Came to Egypt

8 Now these are the anames of the sons of Israel, Jacob and his sons, who went to Egypt: Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn.

9 The sons of Reuben: Hanoch and Pallu and Hezron and Carmi.

10 The asons of Simeon: 1Jemuel and Jamin and Ohad and 2Jachin and 3Zohar and Shaul the son of a Canaanite woman.

11 The sons of Levi: 1Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

12 The sons of Judah: Er and Onan and Shelah and Perez and Zerah (but Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan). And the asons of Perez were Hezron and Hamul.

13 The sons of Issachar: Tola and 1Puvvah and 2Iob and Shimron.

14 The sons of Zebulun: Sered and Elon and Jahleel.

15 These are the sons of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob in Paddan-aram, with his daughter Dinah; 1all his sons and his daughters numbered thirty-three.

16 The asons of Gad: 1Ziphion and Haggi, Shuni and 2Ezbon, Eri and 3Arodi and Areli.

17 The asons of Asher: Imnah and Ishvah and Ishvi and Beriah and their sister Serah. And the bsons of Beriah: Heber and Malchiel.

18 These are the sons of Zilpah, whom Laban gave to his daughter Leah; and she bore to Jacob these sixteen persons.

19 The sons of Jacob’s wife Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin.

20 aNow to Joseph in the land of Egypt were born Manasseh and Ephraim, whom Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, bore to him.

21 The asons of Benjamin: Bela and Becher and Ashbel, Gera and Naaman, 1Ehi and Rosh, 2Muppim and 3Huppim and Ard.

22 These are the sons of Rachel, who were born to Jacob; there were fourteen persons in all.

23 The sons of Dan: 1Hushim.

24 The sons of Naphtali: 1Jahzeel and Guni and Jezer and 2Shillem.

25 These are the asons of Bilhah, whom bLaban gave to his daughter Rachel, and she bore these to Jacob; there were seven persons in all.

26 aAll the persons belonging to Jacob, who came to Egypt, 1his direct descendants, not including the wives of Jacob’s sons, were sixty-six persons in all,

27 and the sons of Joseph, who were born to him in Egypt were 1two; aall the persons of the house of Jacob, who came to Egypt, were seventy.

28 Now he sent Judah before him to Joseph, to point out the way before him to aGoshen; and they came into the land of Goshen.

29 Joseph 1prepared his chariot and went up to Goshen to meet his father Israel; as soon as he appeared 2before him, he fell on his neck and awept on his neck a long time.

30 Then Israel said to Joseph, “Now let me die, since I have seen your face, that you are still alive.”

31 Joseph said to his brothers and to his father’s household, “aI will go up and tell Pharaoh, and will say to him, ‘My brothers and my father’s household, who were in the land of Canaan, have come to me;

32 and the men are shepherds, for they have been 1keepers of livestock; and they have brought their flocks and their herds and all that they have.’

33 “When Pharaoh calls you and says, ‘aWhat is your occupation?’

34 you shall say, ‘Your servants have been 1akeepers of livestock from our youth even until now, both we and our fathers,’ that you may 2live in the land of bGoshen; for every shepherd is 3cloathsome to the Egyptians.”