19. If you are honest men, let one of your brothers stay here in prison. The rest of you go and carry grain back to feed your hungry families.
20. Then bring your youngest brother back here to me. If you do this, I will know you are telling the truth. Then you will not die.”The brothers agreed to this.
21. They said to each other, “We are being punished for what we did to our brother. We saw his trouble. He begged us to save him, but we refused to listen. That is why we are in this trouble now.”
22. Then Reuben said to them, “I told you not to harm the boy. But you refused to listen to me. So now we are being punished for what we did to him.”
23. When Joseph talked to his brothers, he used an interpreter. So they did not know that Joseph understood what they were saying.
24. Then Joseph left them and cried. After a short time he went back and spoke to them. He took Simeon and tied him up while the other brothers watched.
25. Joseph told his servants to fill his brothers’ bags with grain. They were to put the money the brothers had paid for the grain back in their bags. They were to give them things they would need for their trip back home. And the servants did this.
26. So the brothers put the grain on their donkeys and left.
27. When they stopped for the night, one of the brothers opened his sack. He was going to get food for his donkey. Then he saw his money in the top of the sack.
28. He said to the other brothers, “The money I paid for the grain has been put back. Here it is in my sack!”The brothers were very frightened. They said to each other, “What has God done to us?”
29. The brothers went to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan. They told him everything that had happened.
30. They said, “The master of that land spoke unkindly to us. He accused us of spying on his country.
31. But we told him that we were honest men, not spies.
32. We told him that we were 10 of 12 brothers—sons of one father. We said that 1 of our brothers was gone. And we said that our youngest brother was with our father in Canaan.
33. “Then the master of the land said to us, ‘Here is a way I can know you are honest men: Leave 1 of your brothers with me. Take back grain to feed your hungry families, and go.
34. And bring your youngest brother to me. Then I will know that you are not spies but honest men. And I will give you back your brother whom you leave with me. And you can move about freely in our land.’”
35. Then the brothers emptied their sacks. And each of them found his money in his sack. When they and their father saw it, they were afraid.