Ya'aqov saw that there was grain in Mitsrayim. Ya'aqov said to his sons, "Why are you looking at each other?"

He said, "Look, I have heard there is grain in Mitsrayim. Go down there and buy some for us from there, so we live and do not die."

Yosef's ten brothers went down to buy grain from Mitsrayim.

Ya'aqov did not send Binyamin, Yosef's brother, with his brothers, for he said, "Lest disaster befall him."

Bnei Yisra'el came to buy among those who came, for there was famine in the land of Kena'an.

Yosef was the ruler over the land; he was the one selling to all the people of the land. Yosef's brothers came and bowed to him with faces to the ground.

Yosef saw his brothers and recognized them, but he made himself a stranger to them and spoke harshly with them. He said to them, "Where have you come from?" They said, "From the land of Kena'an to buy food."

Yosef recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him.

Yosef remembered the dreams that he had dreamed about them and said to them, "You are spies; you came to see the nakedness of the land."

They said to him, "No, my Adonai. Your servants came to buy food."

"We are all sons of one man; we are honest men. Your servants are not spies."

He said to them, "No, but you came to see the nakedness of the land."

They said, "Your servants are twelve brothers, sons of one man in the land of Kena'an. Look, the youngest is with our father today, and one is no more."

Yosef said to them, "It is as I spoke to you, saying, 'You are spies.'"

"By this you will be tested: By the life of Par'oh, if you go out from here unless your youngest brother comes here."

"Send one of you to get your brother, while you are bound. Your words will then be tested to see if there is truth with you. If not, by the life of Par'oh, you are spies."

He gathered them into prison for three days.

Yosef said to them on the third day, "Do this and live, for I fear Elohim.

"If you are honest men, let one of your brothers be bound in your prison house, and you go carry grain for the famine of your houses."

"Bring your youngest brother to me; then your words will be verified, and you will not die." They did so.

They said to one another, "We are truly guilty concerning our brother, for we saw the distress of his soul when he pleaded with us, but we did not listen. That is why this distress has come upon us."

Re'uven answered them, "Did I not say to you, 'Do not sin against the boy,' but you did not listen? Now his blood is required."

They did not know that Yosef understood them, for there was an interpreter between them.

He turned away from them and wept. Then he returned to them and spoke with them. He took Shim'on from them and bound him before their eyes.

Yosef commanded them to fill their containers with grain, return each man's money to his sack, and give them provisions for the way. He did so for them.

They loaded their grain on their donkeys and went from there.

One of them opened his sack to give fodder to his donkey at the inn, and he saw his money—there it was in the mouth of his saddlebag.

He said to his brothers, "My money has been returned, and look, it is even in my saddlebag." Their hearts sank, and trembling, they said to one another, "What is this that Elohim has done to us?"

They came to their father Ya'aqov in the land of Kena'an and told him all that had happened to them, saying,

"The man, the Adonai of the land, spoke harshly to us and treated us as spies of the land."

We said to him, 'We are honest men; we have never been spies.'

'We are twelve brothers, sons of our father. One is no more, and the youngest is today with our father in the land of Kena'an.'

The man, Adonai of the land, said to us, 'By this I will know you are honest men: leave one brother with me, take grain for the famine of your houses, and go.'

'Bring your youngest brother to me, and I will know you are not spies but honest. Then I will give back your brother, and you can trade in the land.'

As they emptied their sacks, each one's bundle of money was in his sack. They and their father saw the bundles of their money, and they were afraid.

Ya'aqov their father said to them, "You have bereaved me. Yosef is no more, Shim'on is no more, and you would take Binyamin. All this has come upon me."

Re'uven said to his father, "Kill my two sons if I do not bring him back to you. Put him in my charge, and I will return him to you."

He said, "My son will not go down with you, for his brother is dead, and he alone is left. If disaster meets him on the way you go, you will bring my gray hairs down with sorrow to She'ol."