19. If you are honest men, let one of your brothers stay here in prison. The rest of you may go and take grain back to your hungry families.
20. "But you must bring your youngest brother to me. That will prove that your words are true. Then you won't die." So they did what he said.
21. They said to one another, "God is certainly punishing us because of our brother. We saw how troubled he was when he begged us to let him live. But we wouldn't listen. That's why all of this trouble has come to us."
22. Reuben replied, "Didn't I tell you not to sin against the boy? But you wouldn't listen! Now we're being held accountable for killing him."
23. They didn't realize that Joseph could understand what they were saying. He was using someone else to explain their words to him in the Egyptian language.
24. Joseph turned away from them and began to sob. Then he turned around and spoke to them again. He had Simeon taken and tied up right there in front of them.
25. Joseph gave orders to have their bags filled with grain. He had each man's money put back into his sack. He also made sure they were given food for their journey.
26. Then the brothers loaded their grain on their donkeys and left.
27. When night came, they stopped. One of them opened his sack to get feed for his donkey. He saw his money in the top of his sack.
28. "My money has been given back," he said to his brothers. "Here it is in my sack." They had a sinking feeling in their hearts. They began to tremble. They turned to each other and said, "What has God done to us?"
29. They came to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan. They told him everything that had happened to them. They said,
30. "The man who is the governor of the land spoke to us in a mean way. He treated us as if we were spying on the land.
31. But we said to him, 'We're honest men. We aren't spies.