The Koine Bible

Now Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt, and he said to his sons, Why do you delay?

Behold, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt; go down there and buy food for us in small quantity, so that we may live and not die.

Then the ten brothers of Joseph went down to buy grain from Egypt

But he did not send Benjamin, Joseph’s brother, with his brothers, for he said, Lest perhaps misfortune happen to him.

And the sons of Israel came to buy with those coming, for the famine was in the land of Canaan.

And Joseph was ruler of the land; he sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph’s brothers came and bowed down to him with their face to the ground.

And Joseph, seeing his brothers, recognized them and was estranged from them and spoke harshly to them and said to them, From where have you come? And they said, From the land of Canaan, to buy food.

And Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him.

And Joseph remembered the dreams that he had seen, and he said to them, You are spies; you have come to observe the tracks of the land.

But they said, No, lord, your servants have come to buy food.

All of us are sons of one man; we are peaceable men, your servants are not spies.

And he said to them, No, but you have come to see the tracks of the land.

And they said, We are twelve your servants, brothers in the land of Canaan, and behold, the younger is with our father today, but the other is no longer existing.

Then Joseph said to them, This is what I spoke to you, saying, that you are spies.

By this you will be shown, by the health of Pharaoh, you shall surely not go out from here unless your younger brother comes here

Send one from among you, and take your brother; but you yourselves be taken away until your words become plain, whether you speak truth or not. But if not, by the health of Pharaoh, surely you are spies.

And he put them in prison for three days.

And he said to them on the third day, Do this and you shall live, for I fear God.

If you are peaceable, let one of your brothers be held in the prison, and you yourselves go and carry back the purchase of your grain supply.

And bring your younger brother to me, and your words shall be trusted; but if not, you shall die. And they did so.

And each one said to his brother, Yes, for indeed we are in sin concerning our brother, because we disregarded the affliction of his soul when he was begging us, and we did not listen to him; because of this this affliction has come upon us.

And Reuben answered and said to them, Did I not speak to you, saying, Do not wrong the boy? and you did not listen to me; and behold, his blood is being required.

But they did not know that Joseph understood, for the interpreter was between them.

And turning away from them Joseph wept, and he came again to them and said to them, and he took Simeon from them and bound him before them

And Joseph gave orders to fill their vessels with grain and to return the silver of each one into his sack and to give them provisions for the way, and it happened to them thus

And they put the grain on their donkeys and went away from there

But one, having untied his sack to give fodder to his donkeys at the place where they lodged, saw his bundle of silver, and it was on the mouth of the sack

And he said to his brothers, The money has been returned to me, and behold, this is in my bag; and their heart was astonished, and they were troubled with one another, saying, What is this that God has done to us?

And they came to Jacob their father in the land of Canaan and reported to him all the things that had happened to them, saying:

The man, the lord of the land, spoke harshly to us and put us in prison as spying out the land.

But we said to him, We are peaceable men; we are not 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 Canaan.

And the man, the lord of the land, said to us, By this I shall know that you are peaceable: leave one brother here with me, and, taking the purchase for the food supply of your house, go away.

And bring to me your younger brother, and I will know that you are not spies but that you are peaceful men, and I will give back your brother to you, and you may trade in the land.

And it came to pass, while they were emptying their sacks, and behold, each man’s bundle of silver was in his sack; and they saw their bundles of silver, they and their father, and they feared.

And Jacob their father said to them, You have bereaved me; Joseph is no more, Simeon is no more, and Benjamin you will take. All these things have come upon me.

And Reuben said to his father, saying, Kill my two sons if I do not bring him back to you; give him into my hand, and I will bring him back to you.

But he said, My son shall not go down with you, because his brother has died, and he alone has been left, and if anything should happen to him to be weak on the way on which you may go, then you will bring down my old age with grief to Hades.