(vv. 1-38) When Jacob saw that grain was on sale in Egypt, he said to his sons: Why do you watch? Behold, I hear that there is corn for sale in Egypt; go down and buy us corn, that we may live and not die. So ten of Joseph's brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt, for Benjamin, Joseph's brother, would not let Jacob go with his brothers, saying, "He may meet with an accident. So the children of Israel came to buy grain, along with others who came with them, because there was also trouble in the land of Canaan. But Joseph was the ruler of the land, and sold corn to all the people of the land. When his brothers came to him, they fell to the ground on their faces. And he looked upon them, and knew them, and stood strange against them, and spake hard unto them, and said unto them: Whence come ye? They said: From the land of Canaan, to buy food. But
Though he knew them, yet they knew him not. And Joseph remembered the dreams which he had dreamed of them, and said unto them: Ye are spies, and are come to see where the land is open. They answered him, "No, my lord, your servants have come to buy food. We are all one man's sons, we are honest, and your servants have never been spies. He said to them: Nay, but ye are come to see where the land is open. And they said unto him, We thy servants are twelve brethren, sons of one man, in the land of Canaan, and the youngest is yet with our father: but the one is no more. Joseph said to them: This is it that I have told you, spies ye are; by this will I try you; by the life of Pharaoh, ye shall not come hence, except your youngest brother come hither. Send one of you to fetch your brother; you will be tested.
But you shall be imprisoned. So I will test your speech, whether you deal in truth or not. For if not, then by the life of Pharaoh, ye are spies. And he put them in custody together for three days. On the third day he said to them: If you want to live, do so, for I fear God. If you are honest, let one of your brothers lie bound in your prison, but you go and bring your necessities home, and bring your youngest brother to me, and I will believe your words, so that you will not die. And they did so. And they said one to another, This is the fault of our brother, that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear him: therefore is this affliction come upon us. And Reuben answered them, and said, Did I not tell you, saying, Sin not against the lad, and ye would not hear? now is his blood required. But they knew not that Joseph understood, for he spake unto them through an interpreter. And he turned away from them, and wept. And when he turned again unto them, and spake unto them, he took of them Simeon, and bound him before their eyes, and commanded that their sacks should be filled with corn, and that their money should be restored every man to his sack, and every man's meat for the journey. And they did so. And they loaded their goods on their asses, and departed. But when one of them had opened his sack to feed his ass in the inn, he saw his money lying in the top of the sack, and said to his brothers: My money has been returned to me; behold, it is in my sack.
Then their hearts fell from them, and they were afraid one of another, and said: Why hath God done this unto us? So they came home to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan, and told him all that they had met with, and said: The man who is master of the land spoke harshly to us, and took us for spies of the land. And when we answered him: We are honest, and have never been spies, but twelve brethren, our father's sons; one is no more, and the youngest is yet this day with our father in the land of Canaan, he said, By this I will know that ye are honest: Leave one of your brethren with me, and take the necessities of your house, and go, and bring your youngest brother unto me: and I will know that ye are not spies, but that ye are upright: and I will give you your brother also, and ye shall go to the land to advertise. And when they had heaped up the sacks, they sent every man his bundle of money into his sack. And when they saw that they were bundles of their money, they and their father were afraid. Then Jacob their father said to them: Ye rob me of my children; Joseph is no more, Simeon is no more, Benjamin will ye take away; it is all upon me. Reuben answered his father and said, If I do not bring him back to you, strangle my two sons. Only give him into my hand, and I will bring him again unto thee. And he said, My son shall not go down with you: for his brother is dead, and he is left alone. If an accident were to befall him on the way you are traveling, you would drive my gray hairs down to hell with pain.