Hands-On Bible Sampler - Flipbook - Page 77
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whether or not your story is true. By the life of
Pharaoh, if it turns out that you don’t have a
younger brother, then I’ll know you are spies.”
17So Joseph put them all in prison for three
days. 18On the third day Joseph said to them, “I
am a God-fearing man. If you do as I say, you will
live. 19If you really are honest men, choose one of
your brothers to remain in prison. The rest of
you may go home with grain for your starving
families. 20But you must bring your youngest
brother back to me. This will prove that you are
telling the truth, and you will not die.” To this
they agreed.
21 Speaking among themselves, they said,
“Clearly we are being punished because of what
we did to Joseph long ago. We saw his anguish
when he pleaded for his life, but we wouldn’t listen. That’s why we’re in this trouble.”
22 “Didn’t I tell you not to sin against the boy?”
Reuben asked. “But you wouldn’t listen. And now
we have to answer for his blood!”
23Of course, they didn’t know that Joseph
understood them, for he had been speaking to
them through an interpreter. 24Now he turned
away from them and began to weep. When he regained his composure, he spoke to them again.
Then he chose Simeon from among them and
had him tied up right before their eyes.
25Joseph then ordered his servants to fill the
men’s sacks with grain, but he also gave secret instructions to return each brother’s payment at
the top of his sack. He also gave them supplies
for their journey home. 26So the brothers loaded
their donkeys with the grain and headed for
home.
27 But when they stopped for the night and
one of them opened his sack to get grain for his
donkey, he found his money in the top of his
sack. 28 “Look!” he exclaimed to his brothers.
“My money has been returned; it’s here in my
sack!” Then their hearts sank. Trembling, they
said to each other, “What has God done to us?”
29 When the brothers came to their father,
Jacob, in the land of Canaan, they told him everything that had happened to them. 30 “The man
who is governor of the land spoke very harshly to
us,” they told him. “He accused us of being spies
scouting the land. 31But we said, ‘We are honest
men, not spies. 32 We are twelve brothers, sons of
one father. One brother is no longer with us, and
the youngest is at home with our father in the
land of Canaan.’
33 “Then the man who is governor of the land
told us, ‘This is how I will find out if you are honest men. Leave one of your brothers here with
... Genesis 43
me, and take grain for your starving families and
go on home. 34But you must bring your youngest
brother back to me. Then I will know you are
honest men and not spies. Then I will give you
back your brother, and you may trade freely in
the land.’”
35As they emptied out their sacks, there in
each man’s sack was the bag of money he had
paid for the grain! The brothers and their father
were terrified when they saw the bags of money.
36Jacob exclaimed, “You are robbing me of my
children! Joseph is gone! Simeon is gone! And
now you want to take Benjamin, too. Everything
is going against me!”
37 Then Reuben said to his father, “You may
kill my two sons if I don’t bring Benjamin back to
you. I’ll be responsible for him, and I promise to
bring him back.”
38But Jacob replied, “My son will not go down
with you. His brother Joseph is dead, and he is all
I have left. If anything should happen to him on
your journey, you would send this grieving,
white-haired man to his grave.”
CHAPTER
43
The Brothers Return to Egypt
But the famine continued to ravage the land of
Canaan. 2 When the grain they had brought from
Egypt was almost gone, Jacob said to his sons, “Go
back and buy us a little more food.”
3But Judah said, “The man was serious when
he warned us, ‘You won’t see my face again unless your brother is with you.’ 4If you send Benjamin with us, we will go down and buy more food.
5 But if you don’t let Benjamin go, we won’t go
either. Remember, the man said, ‘You won’t see
my face again unless your brother is with you.’”
6 “ Why were you so cruel to me?” Jacob
moaned. “Why did you tell him you had another
brother?”
7 “The man kept asking us questions about
our family,” they replied. “He asked, ‘Is your father still alive? Do you have another brother?’ So
we answered his questions. How could we know
he would say, ‘Bring your brother down here’?”
8Judah said to his father, “Send the boy with
me, and we will be on our way. Otherwise we will
all die of starvation—and not only we, but you
and our little ones. 9 I personally guarantee his
safety. You may hold me responsible if I don’t
bring him back to you. Then let me bear the
blame forever. 10If we hadn’t wasted all this
time, we could have gone and returned twice by
now.”
11 So their father, Jacob, finally said to them,
