Genesis 42 :: Amplified Bible (AMP)

Joseph’s Brothers Sent to Egypt

Now when Jacob (Israel) learned that there was grain in Egypt, he said to his sons, “Why are you staring at one another [in bewilderment and not taking action]?”

Gen 42:2

Gen 42:2He said, “I have heard that there is grain in Egypt; go down there and buy [some] grain for us, so that we may live and not die [of starvation].”

Gen 42:3

Gen 42:3So ten of Joseph’s brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt.

Gen 42:4

Gen 42:4But Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph’s [younger] brother, with his brothers, for he said, “I am afraid that some harm or injury may come to him.”

Gen 42:5

Gen 42:5So the sons of Israel came [to Egypt] to buy grain along with the others who were coming, for famine was in the land of Canaan also.

Gen 42:6

Now Joseph was the ruler over the land, and he was the one who sold [grain] to all the people of the land; and Joseph’s [half] brothers came and bowed down before him with their faces to the ground.

Gen 42:7

Gen 42:7When Joseph saw his brothers he recognized them, but [hiding his identity] he treated them as strangers and [fn]spoke harshly to them. He said to them, “Where have you come from?” And they said, “From the land of Canaan, to buy food.”

Gen 42:8

Joseph recognized his brothers, but [fn]they did not recognize him.

Gen 42:9

Gen 42:9Joseph remembered the dreams he had dreamed about them, and said to them, “You are spies; you have come [with a malicious purpose] to observe the [fn]undefended parts of our land.”

Gen 42:10

Gen 42:10But they said to him, “No, my lord, for your servants have [only] come to buy food.

Gen 42:11

Gen 42:11“We are all the sons of one man; we are honest men, your servants are not spies.”

Gen 42:12

Gen 42:12Yet he said to them, “No, you have come to see the undefended parts of our land.”

Gen 42:13

Gen 42:13But they said, “Your servants are twelve brothers [in all], the sons of one man in the land of Canaan; please listen: the youngest is with our father today, and one is no longer alive.”

Gen 42:14

Gen 42:14Joseph said to them, “It is as I said to you, you are spies.

Gen 42:15

Gen 42:15“In this way you shall be tested: by the life of Pharaoh, you shall not leave this place unless your youngest brother comes here!

Gen 42:16

Gen 42:16“Send one of you [back home], and let him bring your brother [here], while [the rest of] you remain confined, so that your words may be tested, [to see] whether there is any truth in you [and your story]; or else, by the life of Pharaoh, certainly you are spies.”

Gen 42:17

Gen 42:17Then Joseph put them all in prison for three days.

Gen 42:18

Now Joseph said to them on the third day, “Do this and [you may] live, for I fear God:

Gen 42:19

Gen 42:19if you are honest men, let one of your brothers be confined in your [place here in] prison; but as for the rest of you, go, carry grain for the famine in your households,

Gen 42:20

Gen 42:20but bring your youngest brother to me, so your words will be verified and you will not die.” And they did so.

Gen 42:21

Gen 42:21And they said to one another, “Truly we are guilty regarding our brother [Joseph], because we saw the distress and anguish of his soul when he pleaded with us [to let him go], yet we would not listen [to his cry]; so this distress and anguish has come on us.”

Gen 42:22

Gen 42:22Reuben answered them, “Did I not tell you, ‘Do not sin against the boy’; and you would not listen? Now the accounting for his blood is required [of us for we are guilty of his death].”

Gen 42:23

Gen 42:23They did not know that Joseph understood [their conversation], because he spoke to them through an interpreter.

Gen 42:24

Gen 42:24He turned away from his brothers and [left the room and] wept; then he returned and talked with them, and took Simeon from them and bound him in front of them [to be kept as a hostage in Egypt].

Gen 42:25

Gen 42:25Then Joseph gave orders [privately] that their bags be filled with grain, and that every man’s money [used to pay for the grain] be put back in his sack, and that provisions be given to them for the journey. And so this was done for them.

Gen 42:26

They loaded their donkeys with grain and left from there.

Gen 42:27

Gen 42:27And at the lodging place, as one of them opened his sack to feed his donkey, he saw his money in the opening of his sack.

Gen 42:28

Gen 42:28And he said to his brothers, “My money has been returned! Here it is in my sack!” And their hearts sank, and they were afraid and turned trembling to one another, saying, “What is this that God has done to us?”

The Return to Canaan

Gen 42:29

When they came to Jacob their father in the land of Canaan, they told him everything that had happened to them, saying,

Gen 42:30

Gen 42:30“The man who is the lord of the land spoke harshly to us, and took us for spies of the land.

Gen 42:31

Gen 42:31“But we told him, ‘We are honest men; we are not spies.

Gen 42:32

Gen 42:32‘We are twelve brothers, sons of our father; one is no longer alive, and the youngest is with our father today in the land of Canaan.’

Gen 42:33

Gen 42:33“And the man, the lord of the country, said to us, ‘By this [test] I will know that you are honest men: leave one of your brothers here with me and take grain for your starving households and go.

Gen 42:34

Gen 42:34‘Bring your youngest brother to me; then I will know that you are not spies, but that you are honest men. Then I will return your [imprisoned] brother [back] to you, and you may trade and do business in the land.’”

Gen 42:35

Now when they emptied their sacks, every man’s bundle of money [paid to buy grain] was in his sack. When they and their father saw the bundles of money, they were afraid.

Gen 42:36

Gen 42:36Jacob their father said to them, “You have bereaved me [by causing the loss] of my children. Joseph is no more, and Simeon is no more, and you would take Benjamin [from me]. All these things are [working] against me.”

Gen 42:37

Gen 42:37Then Reuben spoke to his father, “You may put my two sons to death if I do not bring Benjamin back to you; put him in my care, and I will return him to you.”

Gen 42:38

Gen 42:38But Jacob said, “My son shall not go down [to Egypt] with you; for his brother is dead, and he alone is left [of Rachel’s children]. If any harm or accident should happen to him on the journey you are taking, then you will bring my gray hair down to Sheol (the place of the dead) in sorrow.”

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AMP Footnotes

(42:7)

Joseph was conversing with his brothers through an interpreter (v 23).

(42:8)

Perhaps as many as twenty years had passed since his brothers last saw Joseph. They never would have suspected that the powerful Egyptian ruler standing before them was their brother.

(42:9)

Lit nakedness.

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