Genesis 42

¹Now Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt, and Jacob said to his sons, “Why do you look at one another?”

²He said, “Behold, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there, and buy for us from there, so that we may live, and not die.”

³Joseph’s ten brothers went down to buy grain from Egypt.

⁴But Jacob didn’t send Benjamin, Joseph’s brother, with his brothers; for he said, “Lest perhaps harm happen to him.”

⁵The sons of Israel came to buy among those who came, for the famine was in the land of Canaan.

⁶Joseph was the governor over the land. It was he who sold to all the people of the land. Joseph’s brothers came, and bowed themselves down to him with their faces to the earth.

⁷Joseph saw his brothers, and he recognized them, but acted like a stranger to them, and spoke roughly with them. He said to them, “Where did you come from?” They said, “From the land of Canaan, to buy food.”

⁸Joseph recognized his brothers, but they didn’t recognize him.

⁹Joseph remembered the dreams which he dreamed about them, and said to them, “You are spies! You have come to see the nakedness of the land.”

¹⁰They said to him, “No, my lord, but your servants have come to buy food.

¹¹We are all one man’s sons; we are honest men. Your servants are not spies.”

¹²He said to them, “No, but you have come to see the nakedness of the land!”

¹³They said, “We, your servants, are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan; and behold, the youngest is today with our father, and one is no more.”