¹The famine was heavy in the land.

²It happened, when they had finished eating the grain they had brought from Egypt, that their father said to them, Go back, buy us a little food.

³Judah said to him, The man gave us a solemn warning, saying, You will not see my face unless your brother is with you.

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

⁵But if you do not send him, we will not go down, for the man said to us, You will not see my face unless your brother is with you.

⁶Israel said, Why did you hurt me by telling the man that you still had a brother?

⁷They said, The man asked closely about us and our kindred, saying, Is your father still alive? Do you have a brother? And we told him according to these words. Could we really have known that he would say, Bring your brother down?

⁸Judah said to Israel his father, Send the boy with me, and let us rise and go, that we may live and not die—both we and you and also our little ones.

⁹I myself will stand surety for him; from my hand you may require him. If I do not bring him to you and set him before you, I will have incurred guilt toward you all my days.

¹⁰For if we had not lingered, by now we would have returned twice.

¹¹Israel their father said to them, If it must be so, then do this: take some of the best products of the land in your vessels, and bring down to the man a gift: a little balm, a little honey, spice and myrrh, pistachios and almonds.

¹²Take silver, double the amount in your hand, and the silver that was returned in the mouth of your sacks take back in your hand; perhaps it was a mistake.

¹³And take your brother, rise, and go back to the man.

¹⁴May God Almighty give you compassion before the man, and may he send you your other brother and Benjamin. And as for me, if I am bereaved, I am bereaved.

¹⁵The men took this gift, and they took double silver in their hand, and Benjamin; and they rose and went down to Egypt and stood before Joseph.

¹⁶Joseph saw Benjamin with them and said to the one who was over his household, Bring the men into the house, and slaughter a beast and make it ready, for the men will eat with me at noon.

¹⁷The man did as Joseph had said, and the man brought the men to the house of Joseph.

¹⁸The men were afraid because they were brought to the house of Joseph, and they said, It is because of the word about the silver that returned in our sacks the first time that we are being brought in, so that he can roll himself upon us and throw himself upon us, and take us as slaves, along with our donkeys.

¹⁹They drew near to the man who was over the household of Joseph and spoke to him at the entrance of the house.

²⁰They said, Excuse me, my lord, we did come down the first time to buy food.

²¹It happened when we came to the lodging place and opened our sacks, and look: the silver of each man was in the mouth of his sack, our silver by its weight. And we have brought it back in our hand.

²²And we have brought down other silver in our hand to buy food; we did not know who put our silver in our sacks.

²³He said, Wholeness be to you; do not be afraid. Your God and the God of your father gave you hidden treasure in your sacks; your silver came to me. Then he brought out Simeon to them.

²⁴The man brought the men into the house of Joseph, and gave water, and they washed their feet; and he gave fodder to their donkeys.

²⁵They prepared the gift until Joseph came at noon, for they had heard that they would eat food there.

²⁶Joseph came to the house, and they brought him the gift that was in their hand into the house, and bowed down to him to the land.

²⁷He asked them about wholeness and said, Is there wholeness with your father, the old man of whom you spoke? Is he still alive?

²⁸They said, Wholeness is with your servant, our father; he is still alive. And they bowed their heads and bowed down.

²⁹He lifted up his eyes and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother's son, and said, Is this your younger brother of whom you spoke to me? Then he said, May God show you favor, my son.

³⁰Joseph hurried, for his compassion grew warm toward his brother, and he sought a place to weep; he went into the inner chamber and wept there.

³¹He washed his face and went out; he restrained himself and said, Set out the food.

³²And they set it out for him alone, for them alone, and for the Egyptians who ate with him, alone; for the Egyptians cannot eat food with the Hebrews, because it is an abomination to Egypt.

³³And they sat before him, the firstborn according to his birthright and the youngest according to his youth; and the men were astounded, each man at his fellow.

³⁴And he lifted portions from before him to them, and the portion of Benjamin was greater than the portions of all of them, five times over; and they drank and became drunk with him.