1. When Jacob learned that there was grain in Egypt, he said to his sons, “Why do you keep looking at each other?
2. Listen,” he went on, “I have heard there is grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy some for us so that we will live and not die.”
3. So 10 of Joseph’s brothers went down to buy grain from Egypt.
4. But Jacob did not send Joseph’s brother Benjamin with his brothers, for he thought, “Something might happen to him.”
5. The sons of Israel were among those who came to buy grain, for the famine was in the land of Canaan.
6. Joseph was in charge of the country; he sold grain to all its people. His brothers came and bowed down before him with their faces to the ground.
7. When Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them, but he treated them like strangers and spoke harshly to them.“Where do you come from? ” he asked.“From the land of Canaan to buy food,” they replied.