2. I have heard that there is grain for sale in Egypt. Go there and buy grain for us so that we will live and not die!”
3. So ten of Joseph’s brothers went to Egypt to buy grain.
4. Jacob did not send Benjamin. (Benjamin was Joseph’s only full brother.) Jacob was afraid that something bad might happen to Benjamin.
5. The famine was very bad in Canaan, so there were many people from Canaan who went to Egypt to buy grain. Among them were the sons of Israel.
6. Joseph was the governor of Egypt at the time. He was the one who checked the sale of grain to people who came to Egypt to buy it. Joseph’s brothers came to him and bowed before him.
7. Joseph saw his brothers and recognized them, but he acted like he didn’t know them. He was rude when he spoke to them. He said, “Where do you come from?” The brothers answered, “We have come from the land of Canaan to buy food.”
8. Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not know who he was.
9. Then Joseph remembered the dreams that he had dreamed about his brothers. Joseph said to his brothers, “You have not come to buy food! You are spies. You came to learn where we are weak.”
10. But the brothers said to him, “No, sir, we come as your servants. We have come only to buy food.
11. We are all brothers—we all have the same father. We are honest men. We have come only to buy food.”
12. Then Joseph said to them, “No, you have come to spy on us!”