16. One of you must go back to get your youngest brother while the rest of you stay here in prison. Then we can prove whether you are telling the truth or not. If you are not telling the truth, then by Pharaoh, I swear that you are spies!”
17. Then Joseph put them all in prison for three days.
18. After three days Joseph said to them, “I am a God-fearing man. Do this, and I will let you live.
19. If you are honest men, one of your brothers can stay here in prison, and the others can go and carry grain back to your people.
20. But then you must bring your youngest brother back here to me. Then I will know that you are telling the truth, and you will not have to die.” The brothers agreed to this.
21. They said to each other, “We are being punished for the bad thing we did to our younger brother Joseph. We saw the trouble he was in. He begged us to save him, but we refused to listen. So now we are in trouble.”
22. Then Reuben said to them, “I told you not to do anything bad to that boy, but you refused to listen to me. Now we are being punished for his death.”
23-24. Joseph was using an interpreter to talk to his brothers, so the brothers did not know that he understood their language. He heard and understood everything they said, and that made him want to cry. So he turned away and left the room. When he came back, he took one of the brothers, Simeon, and tied him up while the others watched.
25. Joseph told the servants to fill the bags with grain. The brothers had given Joseph the money for the grain, but he didn’t keep the money. He put the money in their bags of grain. Then he gave them what they would need for their trip back home.
26. So the brothers put the grain on their donkeys and left.
27. That night the brothers stopped at a place to spend the night. One of the brothers opened his sack to get some grain for his donkey. And there in the sack, he saw his money!
28. He said to the other brothers, “Look! Here is the money I paid for the grain. Someone put the money back in my sack.” The brothers were very afraid. They said to one another, “What is God doing to us?”
29. The brothers went back to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan. They told him about everything that had happened.
30. They said, “The governor of that country spoke rudely to us. He thought that we were spies!
31. We told him, ‘We are honest men, not spies.
32. There are twelve of us brothers, all from the same father. But one of our brothers is no longer living, and the youngest is still at home with our father in Canaan.’
33. “Then the governor of that country said to us, ‘Here is a way to prove that you are honest men: Leave one of your brothers here with me. Take your grain back to your families.