Historical
Chapter 43
The Second Journey to Egypt.[a] 1 Now the famine in the land grew severe. 2 So when they had used up all the grain they had brought from Egypt, their father said to them, “Go back and buy us a little more food.” 3 But Judah replied: “The man strictly warned us, ‘You shall not see me unless your brother is with you.’(A) 4 If you are willing to let our brother go with us, we will go down to buy food for you. 5 But if you are not willing, we will not go down, because the man told us, ‘You shall not see me unless your brother is with you.’”(B) 6 Israel demanded, “Why did you bring this trouble on me by telling the man that you had another brother?” 7 They answered: “The man kept asking about us and our family: ‘Is your father still living? Do you have another brother?’ We answered him accordingly. How could we know that he would say, ‘Bring your brother down here’?”
8 Then Judah urged his father Israel: “Let the boy go with me, that we may be off and on our way if you and we and our children are to keep from starving to death.(C) 9 I myself will serve as a guarantee for him. You can hold me responsible for him. If I fail to bring him back and set him before you, I will bear the blame before you forever.(D) 10 Had we not delayed, we could have been there and back twice by now!”
11 Israel their father then told them: “If it must be so, then do this: Put some of the land’s best products in your baggage and take them down to the man as gifts: some balm and honey, gum and resin, and pistachios and almonds.(E) 12 Also take double the money along, for you must return the amount that was put back in the mouths of your bags; it may have been a mistake. 13 Take your brother, too, and be off on your way back to the man. 14 May God Almighty grant you mercy in the presence of the man, so that he may let your other brother go, as well as Benjamin. As for me, if I am to suffer bereavement, I shall suffer it.”
15 So the men took those gifts and double the money and Benjamin. They made their way down to Egypt and presented themselves before Joseph. 16 When Joseph saw them and Benjamin, he told his steward, “Take the men into the house, and have an animal slaughtered and prepared, for they are to dine with me at noon.” 17 Doing as Joseph had ordered, the steward conducted the men to Joseph’s house. 18 But they became apprehensive when they were led to his house. “It must be,” they thought, “on account of the money put back in our bags the first time, that we are taken inside—in order to attack us and take our donkeys and seize us as slaves.” 19 So they went up to Joseph’s steward and talked to him at the entrance of the house. 20 “If you please, sir,” they said, “we came down here once before to buy food.(F) 21 But when we arrived at a night’s encampment and opened our bags, there was each man’s money in the mouth of his bag—our money in the full amount! We have now brought it back.(G) 22 We have brought other money to buy food. We do not know who put our money in our bags.” 23 He replied, “Calm down! Do not fear! Your God and the God of your father must have put treasure in your bags for you. As for your money, I received it.” With that, he led Simeon out to them.
24 The steward then brought the men inside Joseph’s house. He gave them water to wash their feet, and gave fodder to their donkeys. 25 Then they set out their gifts to await Joseph’s arrival at noon, for they had heard that they were to dine there. 26 When Joseph came home, they presented him with the gifts they had brought inside, while they bowed down before him to the ground. 27 After inquiring how they were, he asked them, “And how is your aged father, of whom you spoke? Is he still alive?”(H) 28 “Your servant our father is still alive and doing well,” they said, as they knelt and bowed down. 29 Then Joseph looked up and saw Benjamin, his brother, the son of his mother. He asked, “Is this your youngest brother, of whom you told me?” Then he said to him, “May God be gracious to you, my son!”(I) 30 With that, Joseph hurried out, for he was so overcome with affection for his brother that he was on the verge of tears. So he went into a private room and wept there.
31 After washing his face, he reappeared and, now having collected himself, gave the order, “Serve the meal.” 32 It was served separately to him,[b] to the brothers, and to the Egyptians who partook of his board. Egyptians may not eat with Hebrews; that is abhorrent to them. 33 When they were seated before him according to their age, from the oldest to the youngest, they looked at one another in amazement; 34 and as portions were brought to them from Joseph’s table, Benjamin’s portion was five times as large as[c] anyone else’s. So they drank freely and made merry with him.
Chapter 44
Final Test.[d] 1 Then Joseph commanded his steward: “Fill the men’s bags with as much food as they can carry, and put each man’s money in the mouth of his bag. 2 In the mouth of the youngest one’s bag put also my silver goblet, together with the money for his grain.” The steward did as Joseph said. 3 At daybreak the men and their donkeys were sent off. 4 They had not gone far out of the city when Joseph said to his steward: “Go at once after the men! When you overtake them, say to them, ‘Why did you repay good with evil? Why did you steal my silver goblet? 5 Is it not the very one from which my master drinks and which he uses for divination?[e] What you have done is wrong.’”
6 When the steward overtook them and repeated these words to them, 7 they said to him: “Why does my lord say such things? Far be it from your servants to do such a thing! 8 We even brought back to you from the land of Canaan the money that we found in the mouths of our bags. How could we steal silver or gold from your master’s house? 9 If any of your servants is found to have the goblet, he shall die, and as for the rest of us, we shall become my lord’s slaves.” 10 But he replied, “Now what you propose is fair enough, but only the one who is found to have it shall become my slave, and the rest of you can go free.” 11 Then each of them quickly lowered his bag to the ground and opened it; 12 and when a search was made, starting with the oldest and ending with the youngest, the goblet turned up in Benjamin’s bag. 13 At this, they tore their garments. Then, when each man had loaded his donkey again, they returned to the city.
14 When Judah and his brothers entered Joseph’s house, he was still there; so they flung themselves on the ground before him. 15 “How could you do such a thing?” Joseph asked them. “Did you not know that such a man as I could discern by divination what happened?” 16 Judah replied: “What can we say to my lord? How can we plead or how try to prove our innocence? God has uncovered your servants’ guilt.[f] Here we are, then, the slaves of my lord—the rest of us no less than the one in whose possession the goblet was found.” 17 Joseph said, “Far be it from me to act thus! Only the one in whose possession the goblet was found shall become my slave; the rest of you may go back unharmed to your father.”
18 Judah then stepped up to him and said: “I beg you, my lord, let your servant appeal to my lord, and do not become angry with your servant, for you are the equal of Pharaoh. 19 My lord asked his servants,[g] ‘Have you a father, or another brother?’ 20 So we said to my lord, ‘We have an aged father, and a younger brother, the child of his old age. This one’s full brother is dead, and since he is the only one by his mother who is left, his father is devoted to him.’(J) 21 Then you told your servants, ‘Bring him down to me that I might see him.’ 22 We replied to my lord, ‘The boy cannot leave his father; his father would die if he left him.’ 23 But you told your servants, ‘Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you shall not see me again.’(K) 24 When we returned to your servant my father, we reported to him the words of my lord.
25 “Later, our father said, ‘Go back and buy some food for us.’ 26 So we reminded him, ‘We cannot go down there; only if our youngest brother is with us can we go, for we may not see the man if our youngest brother is not with us.’ 27 Then your servant my father said to us, ‘As you know, my wife bore me two sons. 28 One of them, however, has gone away from me, and I said, “He must have been torn to pieces by wild beasts!” I have not seen him since.(L) 29 If you take this one away from me too, and a disaster befalls him, you will send my white head down to Sheol in grief.’
30 “So now, if the boy is not with us when I go back to your servant my father, whose very life is bound up with his, he will die as soon as he sees that the boy is missing; 31 and your servants will thus send the white head of your servant our father down to Sheol in grief. 32 Besides, I, your servant, have guaranteed the boy’s safety for my father by saying, ‘If I fail to bring him back to you, father, I will bear the blame before you forever.’(M) 33 So now let me, your servant, remain in place of the boy as the slave of my lord, and let the boy go back with his brothers. 34 How could I go back to my father if the boy were not with me? I could not bear to see the anguish that would overcome my father.”
Chapter 45
The Truth Revealed.[h] 1 Joseph could no longer restrain himself in the presence of all his attendants, so he cried out, “Have everyone withdraw from me!” So no one attended him when he made himself known to his brothers. 2 But his sobs were so loud that the Egyptians heard him, and so the news reached Pharaoh’s house. 3 (N)“I am Joseph,” he said to his brothers. “Is my father still alive?” But his brothers could give him no answer, so dumbfounded were they at him.
4 “Come closer to me,” Joseph told his brothers. When they had done so, he said: “I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. 5 But now do not be distressed, and do not be angry with yourselves for having sold me here. It was really for the sake of saving lives that God sent me here ahead of you.(O) 6 The famine has been in the land for two years now, and for five more years cultivation will yield no harvest. 7 God, therefore, sent me on ahead of you to ensure for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives in an extraordinary deliverance. 8 So it was not really you but God who had me come here; and he has made me a father to Pharaoh,[i] lord of all his household, and ruler over the whole land of Egypt.
9 [j]“Hurry back, then, to my father and tell him: ‘Thus says your son Joseph: God has made me lord of all Egypt; come down to me without delay.(P) 10 You can settle in the region of Goshen,[k] where you will be near me—you and your children and children’s children, your flocks and herds, and everything that you own. 11 I will provide for you there in the five years of famine that lie ahead, so that you and your household and all that are yours will not suffer want.’ 12 Surely, you can see for yourselves, and Benjamin can see for himself, that it is I who am speaking to you. 13 Tell my father all about my high position in Egypt and all that you have seen. But hurry and bring my father down here.” 14 Then he threw his arms around his brother Benjamin and wept on his shoulder. 15 Joseph then kissed all his brothers and wept over them; and only then were his brothers able to talk with him.
16 The news reached Pharaoh’s house: “Joseph’s brothers have come.” Pharaoh and his officials were pleased. 17 So Pharaoh told Joseph: “Say to your brothers: ‘This is what you shall do: Load up your animals and go without delay to the land of Canaan. 18 There get your father and your households, and then come to me; I will assign you the best land in Egypt, where you will live off the fat of the land.’(Q) 19 Instruct them further: ‘Do this. Take wagons from the land of Egypt for your children and your wives and bring your father back here. 20 Do not be concerned about your belongings, for the best in the whole land of Egypt shall be yours.’”
21 The sons of Israel acted accordingly. Joseph gave them the wagons, as Pharaoh had ordered, and he supplied them with provisions for the journey. 22 He also gave to each of them a set of clothes, but to Benjamin he gave three hundred shekels of silver and five sets of clothes. 23 Moreover, what he sent to his father was ten donkeys loaded with the finest products of Egypt and another ten loaded with grain and bread and provisions for his father’s journey. 24 As he sent his brothers on their way, he told them, “Do not quarrel on the way.”
25 So they went up from Egypt and came to the land of Canaan, to their father Jacob. 26 When they told him, “Joseph is still alive—in fact, it is he who is governing all the land of Egypt,” he was unmoved, for he did not believe them. 27 But when they recounted to him all that Joseph had told them, and when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to transport him, the spirit of their father Jacob came to life. 28 “Enough,” said Israel. “My son Joseph is still alive! I must go and see him before I die.”
Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.