1. Now when Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt, Jacob said to his sons, “Why do you look at one another?”
2. And he said, “I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy some for us, so that we may live and not die.”
3. Joseph’s ten brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt.
4. But Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph’s brother, with his brothers for he said, “Perhaps some harm might happen to him.”
5. Thus the sons of Israel came to buy grain among those who came, for the famine was in the land of Canaan.
6. Now Joseph was the governor over the land, and it was he who sold to all the people of the land. So Joseph’s brothers came and bowed themselves down before him with their faces to the ground.
7. Joseph saw his brothers, and he recognized them, but he pretended to be a stranger to them and spoke harshly to them. He said to them, “From where do you come?”And they said, “From the land of Canaan to buy food.”
8. Joseph knew his brothers, but they did not know him.
9. Joseph also remembered the dreams that he had dreamed of them. He said to them, “You are spies! You came to see the nakedness of the land!”
10. They said to him, “No, my lord, your servants have come only to buy food.
11. We are all one man’s sons. We are honest men. Your servants are not spies.”
12. But he said to them, “No, you have come to see the nakedness of the land!”
13. They said, “Your servants are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan. The youngest is with our father today, and one is no longer living.”