Genesis 42

Joseph's Position and Recognition Genesis 42:6–8

⁶Verse 6. Joseph 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. ⁷Verse 7. Joseph 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.” ⁸Verse 8. Joseph recognized his brothers, but they didn’t recognize him.

Accusation and Imprisonment Genesis 42:9–17

⁹Verse 9. Joseph 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.” ¹⁰Verse 10. They said to him, “No, my lord, but your servants have come to buy food. ¹¹Verse 11. We are all one man’s sons; we are honest men. Your servants are not spies.” ¹²Verse 12. He said to them, “No, but you have come to see the nakedness of the land!” ¹³Verse 13. They 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.”

¹⁴Verse 14. Joseph said to them, “It is like I told you, saying, ‘You are spies!’ ¹⁵Verse 15. By this you shall be tested. By the life of Pharaoh, you shall not go out from here, unless your youngest brother comes here. ¹⁶Verse 16. Send one of you, and let him get your brother, and you shall be bound, that your words may be tested, whether there is truth in you, or else by the life of Pharaoh surely you are spies.” ¹⁷Verse 17. He put them all together into custody for three days.

Testing Their Integrity Genesis 42:18–24

¹⁸Verse 18. Joseph said to them the third day, “Do this, and live, for I fear God. ¹⁹Verse 19. If you are honest men, then let one of your brothers be bound in your prison; but you go, carry grain for the famine of your houses. ²⁰Verse 20. Bring your youngest brother to me; so will your words be verified, and you won’t die.” They did so. ²¹Verse 21. They said to one another, “We are certainly guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the distress of his soul, when he begged us, and we wouldn’t listen. Therefore this distress has come upon us.” ²²Verse 22. Reuben answered them, saying, “Didn’t I tell you, saying, ‘Don’t sin against the child,’ and you wouldn’t listen? Therefore also, behold, his blood is required.”

²³Verse 23. They didn’t know that Joseph understood them; for there was an interpreter between them. ²⁴Verse 24. He turned himself away from them, and wept. Then he returned to them, and spoke to them, and took Simeon from among them, and bound him before their eyes.

Restoration and Fear Genesis 42:25–28

²⁵Verse 25. Then Joseph gave a command to fill their bags with grain, and to restore each man’s money into his sack, and to give them food for the way. So it was done to them. ²⁶Verse 26. They loaded their donkeys with their grain, and departed from there. ²⁷Verse 27. As one of them opened his sack to give his donkey food in the lodging place, he saw his money. Behold, it was in the mouth of his sack. ²⁸Verse 28. He said to his brothers, “My money is restored! Behold, it is in my sack!” Their hearts failed them, and they turned trembling to one another, saying, “What is this that God has done to us?”

Return to Jacob Genesis 42:29–38

²⁹Verse 29. They came to Jacob their father, to the land of Canaan, and told him all that had happened to them, saying, ³⁰Verse 30. “The man, the lord of the land, spoke roughly with us, and took us for spies of the country. ³¹Verse 31. We said to him, ‘We are honest men. We are no spies. ³²Verse 32. We are twelve brothers, sons of our father; one is no more, and the youngest is today with our father in the land of Canaan.’ ³³Verse 33. The man, the lord of the land, said to us, ‘By this I will know that you are honest men: leave one of your brothers with me, and take grain for the famine of your houses, and go your way.

³⁴Verse 34. Bring your youngest brother to me. Then I will know that you are not spies, but that you are honest men. So I will deliver your brother to you, and you shall trade in the land.’” ³⁵Verse 35. As they emptied their sacks, behold, each man’s bundle of money was in his sack. When they and their father saw their bundles of money, they were afraid. ³⁶Verse 36. Jacob, their father, said to them, “You have bereaved me of my children! Joseph is no more, Simeon is no more, and you want to take Benjamin away. All these things are against me.” ³⁷Verse 37. Reuben spoke to his father, saying, “Kill my two sons, if I don’t bring him to you. Entrust him to my care, and I will bring him to you again.”

³⁸Verse 38. He said, “My son shall not go down with you; for his brother is dead, and he only is left. If harm happens to him along the way in which you go, then you will bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Sheol.”