Chronological Plan

¹Now the famine in the land was severe.

²When they had used up the grain they had brought back from Egypt, their father said to them, “Go back and buy us a little food.”

³But Judah said to him, “The man specifically warned us: ‘You will not see me again unless your brother is with you.’

⁴If you will send our brother with us, we will go down and buy food for you.

⁵But if you will not send him, we will not go, for the man said to us, ‘You will not see me again unless your brother is with you.’”

⁶“Why have you caused me so much trouble?” Israel asked. “Why did you tell the man that you had another brother?”

⁷They answered, “The man kept asking about us and our family: ‘Is your father still alive? Do you have another brother?’ And we answered him accordingly. How could we know that he would say, ‘Bring your brother here’?”

⁸Then Judah said to his father Israel, “Send the boy with me. We will be on our way so that we may live and not die — neither we, nor you, nor our dependents.

⁹I will be responsible for him. You can hold me personally accountable! If I do not bring him back to you and set him before you, I will be guilty before you forever.

¹⁰If we had not delayed, we could have come back twice by now.”

¹¹Then their father Israel said to them, “If it must be so, then do this: Put some of the best products of the land in your packs and take them down to the man as a gift — a little balsam and a little honey, aromatic gum and resin, pistachios and almonds.

¹²Take twice as much silver with you. Return the silver that was returned to you in the top of your bags. Perhaps it was a mistake.

¹³Take your brother also, and go back at once to the man.

¹⁴May God Almighty cause the man to be merciful to you so that he will release your other brother and Benjamin to you. As for me, if I am deprived of my sons, then I am deprived.”

¹⁵The men took this gift, double the amount of silver, and Benjamin. They immediately went down to Egypt and stood before Joseph.

¹⁶When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to his steward, “Take the men to my house. Slaughter an animal and prepare it, for they will eat with me at noon.”

¹⁷The man did as Joseph had said and brought them to Joseph’s house.

¹⁸But the men were afraid because they were taken to Joseph’s house. They said, “We have been brought here because of the silver that was returned in our bags the first time. They intend to overpower us, seize us, make us slaves, and take our donkeys.”

¹⁹So they approached Joseph’s steward and spoke to him at the doorway of the house.

²⁰They said, “My lord, we really did come down here the first time only to buy food.

²¹When we came to the place where we lodged for the night and opened our bags of grain, each one’s silver was at the top of his bag! It was the full amount of our silver, and we have brought it back with us.

²²We have brought additional silver with us to buy food. We don’t know who put our silver in the bags.”

²³Then the steward said, “May you be well. Don’t be afraid. Your God and the God of your father must have put treasure in your bags. I received your silver.” Then he brought Simeon out to them.

²⁴The steward brought the men into Joseph’s house, gave them water to wash their feet, and got feed for their donkeys.

²⁵Since the men had heard that they were going to eat a meal there, they prepared their gift for Joseph’s arrival at noon.

²⁶When Joseph came home, they brought him the gift they had carried into the house, and they bowed to the ground before him.

²⁷He asked if they were well, and he said, “How is your elderly father that you told me about? Is he still alive?”

²⁸They answered, “Your servant our father is well. He is still alive.” And they knelt low and paid homage to him.

²⁹When he looked up and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother’s son, he asked, “Is this your youngest brother that you told me about?” Then he said, “May God be gracious to you, my son.”

³⁰Joseph hurried out because he was overcome with emotion for his brother, and he was about to weep. He went into an inner room and wept there.

³¹Then he washed his face and came out. Regaining his composure, he said, “Serve the meal.”

³²They served him by himself, his brothers by themselves, and the Egyptians who were eating with him by themselves, because Egyptians could not eat with Hebrews, since that is detestable to them.

³³They were seated before him in order by age, from the firstborn to the youngest. The men looked at each other in astonishment.

³⁴Portions were served to them from Joseph’s table, and Benjamin’s portion was five times larger than any of theirs. They drank and became drunk with Joseph.

¹Joseph commanded his steward, “Fill the men’s bags with as much food as they can carry, and put each one’s silver at the top of his bag.

²Put my cup, the silver one, at the top of the youngest one’s bag, along with the silver for his grain.” So he did as Joseph told him.

³At morning light, the men were sent off with their donkeys.

⁴They had not gone very far from the city when Joseph said to his steward, “Get up. Pursue the men, and when you overtake them, say to them, ‘Why have you repaid evil for good?

⁵Isn’t this the cup that my master drinks from and uses for divination? What you have done is wrong! ’”

⁶When he overtook them, he said these words to them.

⁷They said to him, “Why does my lord say these things? Your servants could not possibly do such a thing.

⁸We even brought back to you from the land of Canaan the silver we found at the top of our bags. How could we steal silver or gold from your master’s house?

⁹If it is found with one of us, your servants, he must die, and the rest of us will become my lord’s slaves.”

¹⁰The steward replied, “What you have said is right, but only the one who is found to have it will be my slave, and the rest of you will be blameless.”

¹¹So each one quickly lowered his sack to the ground and opened it.

¹²The steward searched, beginning with the oldest and ending with the youngest, and the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack.

¹³Then they tore their clothes, and each one loaded his donkey and returned to the city.

¹⁴When Judah and his brothers reached Joseph’s house, he was still there. They fell to the ground before him.

¹⁵“What is this you have done?” Joseph said to them. “Didn’t you know that a man like me could uncover the truth by divination?”

¹⁶“What can we say to my lord?” Judah replied. “How can we plead? How can we justify ourselves? God has exposed your servants’ iniquity. We are now my lord’s slaves — both we and the one in whose possession the cup was found.”

¹⁷Then Joseph said, “I swear that I will not do this. The man in whose possession the cup was found will be my slave. The rest of you can go in peace to your father.”

¹⁸But Judah approached him and said, “My lord, please let your servant speak personally to my lord. Do not be angry with your servant, for you are like Pharaoh.

¹⁹My lord asked his servants, ‘Do you have a father or a brother?’

²⁰and we answered my lord, ‘We have an elderly father and a younger brother, the child of his old age. The boy’s brother is dead. He is the only one of his mother’s sons left, and his father loves him.’

²¹Then you said to your servants, ‘Bring him to me so that I can see him.’

²²But we said to my lord, ‘The boy cannot leave his father. If he were to leave, his father would die.’

²³Then you said to your servants, ‘If your younger brother does not come down with you, you will not see me again.’

²⁴“This is what happened when we went back to your servant my father: We reported to him the words of my lord.

²⁵But our father said, ‘Go again, and buy us a little food.’

²⁶We told him, ‘We cannot go down unless our younger brother goes with us. If our younger brother isn’t with us, we cannot see the man.’

²⁷Your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons.

²⁸One is gone from me — I said he must have been torn to pieces — and I have never seen him again.

²⁹If you also take this one from me and anything happens to him, you will bring my gray hairs down to Sheol in sorrow.’

³⁰“So if I come to your servant my father and the boy is not with us — his life is wrapped up with the boy’s life —

³¹when he sees that the boy is not with us, he will die. Then your servants will have brought the gray hairs of your servant our father down to Sheol in sorrow.

³²Your servant became accountable to my father for the boy, saying, ‘If I do not return him to you, I will always bear the guilt for sinning against you, my father.’

³³Now please let your servant remain here as my lord’s slave, in place of the boy. Let him go back with his brothers.

³⁴For how can I go back to my father without the boy? I could not bear to see the grief that would overwhelm my father.”

¹Joseph could no longer keep his composure in front of all his attendants, so he called out, “Send everyone away from me!” No one was with him when he revealed his identity to his brothers.

²But he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it, and also Pharaoh’s household heard it.

³Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! Is my father still living?” But they could not answer him because they were terrified in his presence.

⁴Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Please, come near me,” and they came near. “I am Joseph, your brother,” he said, “the one you sold into Egypt.

⁵And now don’t be grieved or angry with yourselves for selling me here, because God sent me ahead of you to preserve life.

⁶For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there will be five more years without plowing or harvesting.

⁷God sent me ahead of you to establish you as a remnant within the land and to keep you alive by a great deliverance.

⁸Therefore it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household, and ruler over all the land of Egypt.

⁹“Return quickly to my father and say to him, ‘This is what your son Joseph says: “God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me without delay.

¹⁰You can settle in the land of Goshen and be near me — you, your children, and your grandchildren, your flocks, your herds, and all you have.

¹¹There I will sustain you, for there will be five more years of famine. Otherwise, you, your household, and everything you have will become destitute.”’

¹²Look! Your eyes and the eyes of my brother Benjamin can see that I’m the one speaking to you.

¹³Tell my father about all my glory in Egypt and about all you have seen. And bring my father here quickly.”

¹⁴Then Joseph threw his arms around his brother Benjamin and wept, and Benjamin wept on his shoulder.

¹⁵Joseph kissed each of his brothers as he wept, and afterward his brothers talked with him.

¹⁶When the news reached Pharaoh’s palace, “Joseph’s brothers have come,” Pharaoh and his servants were pleased.

¹⁷Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Tell your brothers, ‘Do this: Load your animals and go on back to the land of Canaan.

¹⁸Get your father and your families, and come back to me. I will give you the best of the land of Egypt, and you can eat from the richness of the land.’

¹⁹You are also commanded to tell them, ‘Do this: Take wagons from the land of Egypt for your dependents and your wives and bring your father here.

²⁰Do not be concerned about your belongings, for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours.’”

²¹The sons of Israel did this. Joseph gave them wagons as Pharaoh had commanded, and he gave them provisions for the journey.

²²He gave each of the brothers changes of clothes, but he gave Benjamin three hundred pieces of silver and five changes of clothes.

²³He sent his father the following: ten donkeys carrying the best products of Egypt and ten female donkeys carrying grain, food, and provisions for his father on the journey.

²⁴So Joseph sent his brothers on their way, and as they were leaving, he said to them, “Don’t argue on the way.”

²⁵So they went up from Egypt and came to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan.

²⁶They said, “Joseph is still alive, and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt!” Jacob was stunned, for he did not believe them.

²⁷But when they told Jacob all that Joseph had said to them, and when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to transport him, the spirit of their father Jacob revived.

²⁸Then Israel said, “Enough! My son Joseph is still alive. I will go to see him before I die.”