13 That same day Jesus went out of the house and was sitting beside the sea.

² But such great crowds gathered about Him that He got into a boat and remained sitting there, while all the throng stood on the shore.

³ And He told them many things in parables (stories by way of illustration and comparison), saying, A sower went out to sow.

⁴ And as he sowed, some seeds fell by the roadside, and the birds came and ate them up.

⁵ Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they had not much soil; and at once they sprang up, because they had no depth of soil.

⁶ But when the sun rose, they were scorched, and because they had no root, they dried up and withered away.

⁷ Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them out.

⁸ Other seeds fell on good soil, and yielded grain—some a hundred times as much as was sown, some sixty times as much, and some thirty.

⁹ He who has ears [to hear], let him be listening and let him ^[a]consider and ^[b]perceive and comprehend by hearing.

¹⁰ Then the disciples came to Him and said, Why do You speak to them in parables?

¹¹ And He replied to them, To you it has been given to know the secrets and mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.

¹² For whoever has [spiritual knowledge], to him will more be given and he will ^[c]be furnished richly so that he will have abundance; but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away.

¹³ This is the reason that I speak to them in parables: because ^[d]having the power of seeing, they do not see; and ^[e]having the power of hearing, they do not hear, nor do they grasp and understand.

¹⁴ In them indeed is ^[f]the process of fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah, which says: You shall indeed hear and hear but never grasp and understand; and you shall indeed look and look but never see and perceive.

¹⁵ For this nation’s heart has grown gross (fat and dull), and their ears heavy and difficult of hearing, and their eyes they have tightly closed, lest they see and perceive with their eyes, and hear and comprehend the sense with their ears, and grasp and understand with their heart, and turn and I should heal them.^(A)

¹⁶ But blessed (happy, fortunate, and ^[g]to be envied) are your eyes because they do see, and your ears because they do hear.

¹⁷ Truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous men [men who were upright and in right standing with God] yearned to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.

¹⁸ Listen then to the [meaning of the] parable of the sower:

^19 [h]While anyone is hearing the Word of the kingdom and does not grasp and comprehend it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the roadside.

²⁰ As for what was sown on thin (rocky) soil, this is he who hears the Word and at once welcomes and accepts it with joy;

²¹ Yet it has no real root in him, but is temporary (inconstant, ^[i]lasts but a little while); and when affliction or trouble or persecution comes on account of the Word, at once he is caused to stumble [he is repelled and ^[j]begins to distrust and desert Him Whom he ought to trust and obey] and he falls away.

²² As for what was sown among thorns, this is he who hears the Word, but the cares of the world and the pleasure and delight and glamour and deceitfulness of riches choke and suffocate the Word, and it yields no fruit.

²³ As for what was sown on good soil, this is he who hears the Word and grasps and comprehends it; he indeed bears fruit and yields in one case a hundred times as much as was sown, in another sixty times as much, and in another thirty.

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42 Now when Jacob learned that there was grain in Egypt, he said to his sons, Why do you look at one another?

² For, he said, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt; get down there and buy [grain] for us, that we may live and not die.

³ So ten of Joseph’s brethren went to buy grain in Egypt.

⁴ But Benjamin, Joseph’s [full] brother, Jacob did not send with his brothers; for he said, Lest perhaps some harm or injury should befall him.

⁵ So the sons of Israel came to buy grain among those who came, for there was hunger and general lack of food in the land of Canaan.

⁶ Now Joseph was the governor over the land, and he it was who sold to all the people of the land; and Joseph’s [half] brothers came and bowed themselves down before him with their faces to the ground.

⁷ Joseph saw his brethren and he recognized them, but he treated them as if he were a stranger to them and spoke roughly to them. He said, Where do you come from? And they replied, From the land of Canaan to buy food.

⁸ Joseph knew his brethren, but they did not know him.

⁹ And Joseph remembered the dreams he had dreamed about them and said to them, You are spies and with unfriendly purpose you have come to observe [secretly] the nakedness of the land.

¹⁰ But they said to him, No, my lord, but your servants have come [only] to buy food.

¹¹ We are all one man’s sons; we are true men; your servants are not spies.

¹² And he said to them, No, but you have come to see the nakedness of the land.

¹³ But they said, Your servants are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan; the youngest is today with our father, and one is not.

¹⁴ And Joseph said to them, It is as I said to you, You are spies.

¹⁵ You shall be proved by this test: by the life of Pharaoh, you shall not go away from here unless your youngest brother comes here.

¹⁶ Send one of you and let him bring your brother, and you will be kept in prison, that your words may be proved whether there is any truth in you; or else by the life of Pharaoh you certainly are spies.

¹⁷ Then he put them all in custody for three days.

¹⁸ And Joseph said to them on the third day, Do this and live! I reverence and fear God.

¹⁹ If you are true men, let one of your brothers be bound in your prison, but [the rest of] you go and carry grain for those weakened with hunger in your households.

²⁰ But bring your youngest brother to me, so your words will be verified and you shall live. And they did so.

²¹ And they said one to another, We are truly guilty about our brother, for we saw the distress and anguish of his soul when he begged us [to let him go], and we would not hear. So this distress and difficulty has come upon us.

²² Reuben answered them, Did I not tell you, Do not sin against the boy, and you would not hear? Therefore, behold, his blood is required [of us].

²³ But they did not know that Joseph understood them, for he spoke to them through an interpreter.

²⁴ And he turned away from them and wept; then he returned to them and talked with them, and took from them Simeon and bound him before their eyes.

²⁵ Then [privately] Joseph commanded that their sacks be filled with grain, every man’s money be restored to his sack, and provisions be given to them for the journey. And this was done for them.

²⁶ They loaded their donkeys with grain and left.

²⁷ And as one of them opened his sack to give his donkey fodder at the lodging place, he caught sight of his money; for behold, it was in his sack’s mouth.

²⁸ And he said to his brothers, My money is restored! Here it is in my sack! And their hearts failed them and they were afraid and turned trembling one to another, saying, What is this that God has done to us?

²⁹ When they came to Jacob their father in Canaan, they told him all that had befallen them, saying,

³⁰ The man who is the lord of the land spoke roughly to us and took us for spies of the country.

³¹ And we said to him, We are true men, not spies.

³² We are twelve brothers with the same father; one is no more, and the youngest is today with our father in the land of Canaan.

³³ And the man, the lord of the country, said to us, By this test I will know whether or not you are honest men: leave one of your brothers here with me and take grain for your famishing households and be gone.

³⁴ Bring your youngest brother to me; then I will know that you are not spies, but that you are honest men. And I will deliver to you your brother [whom I have kept bound in prison], and you may do business in the land.

³⁵ When they emptied their sacks, behold, every man’s parcel of money was in his sack! When both they and their father saw the bundles of money, they were afraid.

³⁶ And Jacob their father said to them, You have bereaved me! Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and you would take Benjamin from me. All these things are against me!

³⁷ And Reuben said to his father, Slay my two sons if I do not bring [Benjamin] back to you. Deliver him into my keeping, and I will bring him back to you.

³⁸ But [Jacob] said, My son shall not go down with you, for his brother is dead and he alone is left [of his mother’s children]; if harm or accident should befall him on the journey you are to take, you would bring my hoary head down to Sheol (the place of the dead) with grief.

43 But the hunger and destitution and starvation were very severe and extremely distressing in the land [Canaan].

² And when [the families of Jacob’s sons] had eaten up the grain which the men had brought from Egypt, their father said to them, Go again; buy us a little food.

³ But Judah said to him, The man solemnly and sternly warned us, saying, You shall not see my face again unless your brother is with you.

⁴ If you will send our brother with us, we will go down [to Egypt] and buy you food;

⁵ But if you will not send him, we will not go down; for the man said to us, You shall not see my face unless your brother is with you.

⁶ And Israel said, Why did you do me such a wrong and suffer this evil to come upon me by telling the man that you had another brother?

⁷ And they said, The man asked us straightforward questions about ourselves and our relatives. He said, Is your father still alive? Have you another brother? And we answered him accordingly. How could we know that he would say, Bring your brother down here?

⁸ And Judah said to Israel his father, Send the lad with me and we will arise and go, that we may live and not die, both we and you and also our little ones.

⁹ I will be security for him; you shall require him of me [personally]; if I do not bring him back to you and put him before you, then let me bear the blame forever.

¹⁰ For if we had not lingered like this, surely by now we would have returned the second time.

¹¹ And their father Israel said to them, If it must be so, now do this; take of the choicest products in the land in your sacks and carry down a present to the man, a little balm (balsam) and a little honey, aromatic spices and gum (of rock rose) or ladanum, pistachio nuts, and almonds.

¹² And take double the [grain] money with you; and the money that was put back in the mouth of your sacks, carry it again with you; there is a possibility that [its being in your sacks] was an oversight.

¹³ Take your brother and arise and return to the man;

¹⁴ May God Almighty give you mercy and favor before the man, that he may release to you your other brother and Benjamin. If I am bereaved [of my sons], I am bereaved.

¹⁵ Then the men took the present, and they took double the [grain] money with them, and Benjamin; and they arose and went down to Egypt and stood before Joseph.

¹⁶ And when Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the steward of his house, Bring the men into the house and kill an animal and make ready, for the men will dine with me at noon.

¹⁷ And the man did as Joseph ordered and brought the men to Joseph’s house.

¹⁸ The men were afraid because they were brought to Joseph’s house; and they said, We are brought in because of the money that was returned in our sacks the first time we came, so that he may find occasion to accuse and assail us, take us for slaves, and seize our donkeys.

¹⁹ So they came near to the steward of Joseph’s house and talked with him at the door of the house,

²⁰ And said, O sir, we came down truly the first time to buy food;

²¹ And when we came to the inn, we opened our sacks and there was each man’s money, full weight, returned in the mouth of his sack. Now we have brought it back again.

²² And we have brought down with us other money to buy food; we do not know who put our money in our sacks.

²³ But [the steward] said, Peace be to you, fear not; your God and the God of your father has given you treasure in your sacks. I received your money. And he brought Simeon out to them.

²⁴ And the man brought the men into Joseph’s house and gave them water, and they washed their feet; and he gave their donkeys provender.

²⁵ And they made ready the present they had brought for Joseph before his coming at noon, for they heard that they were to dine there.

²⁶ And when Joseph came home, they brought into the house to him the present which they had with them, and bowed themselves to him to the ground.

²⁷ He asked them of their welfare and said, Is your old father well, of whom you spoke? Is he still alive?

²⁸ And they answered, Your servant our father is in good health; he is still alive. And they bowed down their heads and made obeisance.

²⁹ And he looked up and saw his [full] brother Benjamin, his mother’s [only other] son, and said, Is this your youngest brother, of whom you spoke to me? And he said, God be gracious to you, my son!

³⁰ And Joseph hurried from the room, for his heart yearned for his brother, and he sought privacy to weep; so he entered his chamber and wept there.

³¹ And he washed his face and went out, and, restraining himself, said, Let dinner be served.

³² And [the servants] set out [the food] for [Joseph] by himself, and for [his brothers] by themselves, and for those Egyptians who ate with him by themselves, according to the Egyptian custom not to eat food with the Hebrews; for that is an abomination to the Egyptians.

³³ And [Joseph’s brothers] were given seats before him—the eldest according to his birthright and the youngest according to his youth; and the men looked at one another amazed [that so much was known about them].

³⁴ [Joseph] took and sent helpings to them from before him, but Benjamin’s portion was five times as much as any of theirs. And they drank freely and were merry with him.