3. So ten of Joseph’s brothers went to Egypt to buy grain.
4. Jacob did not send Benjamin. (Benjamin was Joseph’s only full brother.) Jacob was afraid that something bad might happen to Benjamin.
5. The famine was very bad in Canaan, so there were many people from Canaan who went to Egypt to buy grain. Among them were the sons of Israel.
6. Joseph was the governor of Egypt at the time. He was the one who checked the sale of grain to people who came to Egypt to buy it. Joseph’s brothers came to him and bowed before him.
7. Joseph saw his brothers and recognized them, but he acted like he didn’t know them. He was rude when he spoke to them. He said, “Where do you come from?” The brothers answered, “We have come from the land of Canaan to buy food.”
8. Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not know who he was.
9. Then Joseph remembered the dreams that he had dreamed about his brothers. Joseph said to his brothers, “You have not come to buy food! You are spies. You came to learn where we are weak.”
23-24. Joseph was using an interpreter to talk to his brothers, so the brothers did not know that he understood their language. He heard and understood everything they said, and that made him want to cry. So he turned away and left the room. When he came back, he took one of the brothers, Simeon, and tied him up while the others watched.
25. Joseph told the servants to fill the bags with grain. The brothers had given Joseph the money for the grain, but he didn’t keep the money. He put the money in their bags of grain. Then he gave them what they would need for their trip back home.
26. So the brothers put the grain on their donkeys and left.
27. That night the brothers stopped at a place to spend the night. One of the brothers opened his sack to get some grain for his donkey. And there in the sack, he saw his money!
28. He said to the other brothers, “Look! Here is the money I paid for the grain. Someone put the money back in my sack.” The brothers were very afraid. They said to one another, “What is God doing to us?”
29. The brothers went back to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan. They told him about everything that had happened.
30. They said, “The governor of that country spoke rudely to us. He thought that we were spies!
31. We told him, ‘We are honest men, not spies.
32. There are twelve of us brothers, all from the same father. But one of our brothers is no longer living, and the youngest is still at home with our father in Canaan.’
33. “Then the governor of that country said to us, ‘Here is a way to prove that you are honest men: Leave one of your brothers here with me. Take your grain back to your families.
34. Bring your youngest brother to me. Then I will know if you are honest men or if you were sent from an army to destroy us. If you are telling the truth, I will give your brother back to you. I will give him to you, and you will be free to buy grain in our country.’”