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The Blue Letter Bible

Genesis 42 :: English Standard Version (ESV)

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Joseph’s Brothers Go to Egypt

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 42:1

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 42:1 - When Jacob learned that there was grain for sale in Egypt, he said to his sons, “Why do you look at one another?”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 42:2

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 42:2 - And he said, “Behold, I have heard that there is grain for sale in Egypt. Go down and buy grain for us there, that we may live and not die.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 42:3

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 42:3 - So ten of Joseph’s brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 42:4

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 42:4 - But Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph’s brother, with his brothers, for he feared that harm might happen to him.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 42:5

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 42:5 - Thus the sons of Israel came to buy among the others who came, for the famine was in the land of Canaan.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 42:6

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 42:6 - Now Joseph was governor over the land. He was the one who sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph’s brothers came and bowed themselves before him with their faces to the ground.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 42:7

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 42:7 - Joseph saw his brothers and recognized them, but he treated them like strangers and spoke roughly to them. “Where do you come from?” he said. They said, “From the land of Canaan, to buy food.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 42:8

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 42:8 - And Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 42:9

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 42:9 - And Joseph remembered the dreams that he had dreamed of them. And he said to them, “You are spies; you have come to see the nakedness of the land.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 42:10

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 42:10 - They said to him, “No, my lord, your servants have come to buy food.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 42:11

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 42:11 - We are all sons of one man. We are honest men. Your servants have never been spies.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 42:12

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 42:12 - He said to them, “No, it is the nakedness of the land that you have come to see.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 42:13

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 42:13 - And they said, “We, your servants, are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan, and behold, the youngest is this day with our father, and one is no more.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 42:14

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 42:14 - But Joseph said to them, “It is as I said to you. You are spies.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 42:15

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 42:15 - By this you shall be tested: by the life of Pharaoh, you shall not go from this place unless your youngest brother comes here.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 42:16

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 42:16 - Send one of you, and let him bring your brother, while you remain confined, that your words may be tested, whether there is truth in you. Or else, by the life of Pharaoh, surely you are spies.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 42:17

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 42:17 - And he put them all together in custody for three days.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 42:18

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 42:18 - On the third day Joseph said to them, “Do this and you will live, for I fear God:

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 42:19

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 42:19 - if you are honest men, let one of your brothers remain confined where you are in custody, and let the rest go and carry grain for the famine of your households,

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 42:20

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 42:20 - and bring your youngest brother to me. So your words will be verified, and you shall not die.” And they did so.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 42:21

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 42:21 - Then they said to one another, “In truth we are guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the distress of his soul, when he begged us and we did not listen. That is why this distress has come upon us.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 42:22

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 42:22 - And Reuben answered them, “Did I not tell you not to sin against the boy? But you did not listen. So now there comes a reckoning for his blood.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 42:23

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 42:23 - They did not know that Joseph understood them, for there was an interpreter between them.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 42:24

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 42:24 - Then he turned away from them and wept. And he returned to them and spoke to them. And he took Simeon from them and bound him before their eyes.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 42:25

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 42:25 - And Joseph gave orders to fill their bags with grain, and to replace every man’s money in his sack, and to give them provisions for the journey. This was done for them.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 42:26

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 42:26 - Then they loaded their donkeys with their grain and departed.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 42:27

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 42:27 - And as one of them opened his sack to give his donkey fodder at the lodging place, he saw his money in the mouth of his sack.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 42:28

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 42:28 - He said to his brothers, “My money has been put back; here it is in the mouth of my sack!” At this their hearts failed them, and they turned trembling to one another, saying, “What is this that God has done to us?”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 42:29

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 42:29 - When they came to Jacob their father in the land of Canaan, they told him all that had happened to them, saying,

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 42:30

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 42:30 - “The man, the lord of the land, spoke roughly to us and took us to be spies of the land.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 42:31

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 42:31 - But we said to him, ‘We are honest men; we have never been spies.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 42:32

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 42:32 - We are twelve brothers, sons of our father. One is no more, and the youngest is this day with our father in the land of Canaan.’

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 42:33

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 42:33 - Then the man, the lord of the land, said to us, ‘By this I shall know that you are honest men: leave one of your brothers with me, and take grain for the famine of your households, and go your way.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 42:34

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 42:34 - Bring your youngest brother to me. Then I shall know that you are not spies but honest men, and I will deliver your brother to you, and you shall trade in the land.’”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 42:35

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 42:35 - As they emptied their sacks, behold, every man’s bundle of money was in his sack. And when they and their father saw their bundles of money, they were afraid.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 42:36

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 42:36 - And Jacob their father said to them, “You have bereaved me of my children: Joseph is no more, and Simeon is no more, and now you would take Benjamin. All this has come against me.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 42:37

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 42:37 - Then Reuben said to his father, “Kill my two sons if I do not bring him back to you. Put him in my hands, and I will bring him back to you.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 42:38

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 42:38 - But he said, “My son shall not go down with you, for his brother is dead, and he is the only one left. If harm should happen to him on the journey that you are to make, you would bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Sheol.”
See the ESV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).
ESV

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001, 2007, 2011, 2016 by Crossway Books and Bibles, a Publishing Ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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For more information on this translation, see the ESV Preface.

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Genesis Chapter 42 — Additional Translations:

King James Version New King James Version New Living Translation New International Version Christian Standard Bible New American Standard Bible 2020 New American Standard Bible 1995 Legacy Standard Bible Amplified Bible New English Translation Revised Standard Version American Standard Version Young's Literal Translation Darby Translation Webster's Bible Hebrew Names Version Latin Vulgate Westminster Leningrad Codex Septuagint Smith Van Dyck Arabic Bible Open New Arabic Version Brenton's English Septuagint Reina Valera 1909 Reina-Valera 1960 Bible in Basic English Chinese Traditional Union Espanol Moderno Korean Holy Bible Louis Segond German Luther Russian Synodal Translation Sagradas Escrituras