01 Joseph and the Descent of Israel into Egypt

Joseph, Jacob's favorite son, is disliked by his brothers due to their father's favoritism. Joseph has dreams of his family bowing down to him, which angers his brothers further. They plot to kill him, but Reuben convinces them to throw him into a pit instead. Eventually, they sell him to Ishmaelite traders who take him to Egypt. They deceive Jacob into thinking Joseph is dead. In Egypt, Joseph becomes successful and is put in charge of Potiphar's house. Potiphar's wife tries to seduce Joseph, but he refuses. Joseph's righteousness is contrasted with the immoral actions of his family members. Chapter 1 Joseph and Israel's Descent into Egypt When Joseph was seventeen in the year 1684 BC, when Isaac was one hundred sixty-six and Jacob was one hundred six years old, he was pastoring the family flock with his half-brothers Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher, the sons of his father's concubines Bilhah and Zubah. These older half-brothers were no longer boys. Dan, the oldest of the four, was thirty-three, and Asher, the youngest, was twenty-nine. Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father Israel, also known as Jacob. Jacob loved Joseph more than any other of his sons because he was the son of his old age and of his best-loved spouse, Rachel. So he made Joseph a special robe of many colors. When Joseph's brothers saw their father's favoritism, they hated Joseph and could not speak peacefully to him. Then Joseph had a dream. When he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more. He said, I dreamed that we were all binding sheaves in the field, and my sheaf arose and stood upright, and your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf. His brothers said to him, Are you going to reign over us? Then Joseph dreamed another dream, and told it to his brothers. I dreamed that the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me. When he told this to his father, Jacob rebuked him and said, What is this dream? Shall I, your mother and your brothers, bow ourselves to the ground before you? Of course this is exactly what would happen. Joseph's dreams were from God. His brothers burned with envy, but his father kept what Joseph said in mind. Interestingly, Joseph foresaw his father and mother bowing down to him, but his mother, Rachel, had been dead for fifteen years. She died giving birth to Joseph's younger brother, Benjamin. Moreover, Jacob did not object to Joseph's vision by saying, How could your mother bow down? She's dead. These things suggest that the patriarchs, Jacob and Joseph, did not believe that Rachel had ceased to exist, but that she was alive in the afterlife. Jesus later said, As for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what God said to you? I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. Now Joseph's brothers went to pasture their father's flock near Shechem, which is in the north of Canaan. It is the city of Nablus in Israel today. Jacob sent Joseph to check up on them. So Joseph set out from the valley of Hebron in the south. When he arrived in Shechem, a man found him wandering in the fields. What are you seeking? asked the man. I am seeking my brothers, said Joseph. Tell me, please, where they are pasturing the flock. The man replied, They have gone away, for I heard them say, Let us go to Dothan. Dothan was about twelve miles north of Shechem. Joseph went after his brothers and found them at Dothan. They saw Joseph from afar, and before he came near to them, they said, Here comes this master of dreams. Let us kill him, and throw him into one of the pits. Then we will say that a fierce animal has devoured him, and we will see what will become of his dreams. When Reuben heard it, he rescued Joseph, saying, Let us not take his life, shed no blood. Throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but do not lay a hand on him. Reuben planned to save Joseph and restore him to Jacob. Reuben was now thirty-four, about fifteen years earlier when he was about twenty years old. He had slept with Bilhah, his father's wife, the servant of Rachel, the enemy of Reuben's mother Leah, and the mother of Reuben's half-brothers Dan and Naphtali. Joseph remained angry with Reuben for his act of incest for the rest of his life, as we shall see. Perhaps Reuben thought that by rescuing Joseph, Jacob's favorite, he might heal the rift between his father and himself. When Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe of many colors, Jacob's special gift to his favorite son, and threw him into an empty, waterless pit. Then they sat down to eat. Reuben went away on some errand. Looking up, the other brothers saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing gum, balm, and myrrh, on their way to Egypt. Ishmaelites were the descendants of Ishmael, the son of Abraham, and the half-brother of Isaac. So these caravan traders were uncles or second cousins of Joseph and his eleven brothers. Ishmael, like Jacob, had twelve sons. Their descendants lived in territories from Havilah to Shur. Havilah was one of the regions watered by the Pishon River in Eden, and so was probably in Armenia. Shur was in the Arabian Peninsula, which was also called Midian. Gilead was a territory east of the Jordan River, the modern country of Jordan. The Arabs considered Ishmael their patriarch. Judah, who was now thirty-one years old, said to his brothers, What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? Let's sell him to these Ishmaelites. That way our hand will not be upon him, for he is our brother, our own flesh. His brothers agreed. So they pulled Joseph out of the pit and sold him to the Midianites for twenty silver shekels. And the Midianites took him to Egypt. When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not in it, he tore his clothes and said, The boy is gone, and I, where shall I go? Realizing that they could not tell Jacob that they had sold Joseph into slavery, they took Joseph's many-colored robe, slaughtered a goat, and dipped the robe in its blood. They presented the bloody robe to Jacob, saying, We found this. Please identify whether it is Joseph's. Jacob knew very well it was Joseph's. It had been his special gift to his favorite son. He jumped to the conclusion that a fierce animal had attacked Joseph and had torn him to pieces. Jacob tore his garments, put sackcloth on his loins, and mourned for his son many days. All Jacob's sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him. But he refused to be comforted, and said, No, I shall go down to Sheol, which means the afterlife, to my son mourning. And so poor Jacob wept. This passage says that all Jacob's daughters comforted him, but Jacob had only one daughter, Dinah. As would later become clear in the list of Jacob's family who went down to Egypt, by daughters, the Bible also means daughters-in-law. Jacob's sons were following in the footsteps of their father and their grandmother, Rebekah, lying to their family to promote their selfish interests. They watched their father Jacob mourn for many days and pretended to care for him and comfort him. But they coolly kept their betrayal secret for the next twenty-two years. They knew they could relieve Joseph's grief and misery instantly by confessing their sin and telling him that Joseph was still alive. But their hatred of Joseph and concern for themselves eclipsed any trace of compassion for their grieving father. Meanwhile the Midianites sold Joseph and Egypt to Potiphar, an officer, the captain of the Pharaoh's guard. The name Potiphar is distinctly Egyptian. By contrast, when the ancient Greeks wrote about the Egyptians, they Hellenized Egyptian names, for example they called Pharaoh Khufu, Cheops. The author of Genesis, by contrast, was familiar enough with ancient Egyptian names not to invent a Hebrew equivalent of the Egyptian name Potiphar. Since the author of Genesis was Moses, a man who spent his youth as the adopted son of the Pharaoh's daughter, this makes perfect sense. This is another bit of internal evidence adding to the Bible's immense store of credibility. The Bible says that Potiphar was not merely an officer of Pharaoh, but a eunuch, a saris in Hebrew. This is a significant detail. The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man in the house of his Egyptian master. Potiphar saw this and made him overseer of his house, putting him in charge of all that he had. The Lord blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake, and the blessing of the Lord was on all that he had in the house and the field. Potiphar had no concern about anything but for the food he ate. Joseph was handsome in form and appearance. After a time, his master's wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, Lie with me. Was Potiphar's wife simply lustful? Perhaps. But remember, her husband was a eunuch. Potiphar could not give his wife children. Perhaps he was both attracted to Joseph and driven by the desire to become a mother, which was a status that lots of daughters, as well as other women in the Bible like Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Tamar, also desperately yearned for. Joseph refused and said to his master's wife, Look, because of me, my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has in my charge. He is not greater in this home than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? Still, Potiphar's wife tried to seduce Joseph day after day, but he would not listen to her. Joseph was outstandingly righteous compared to the rest of his family. Consider the comparisons. Sarah forced Hagar, her Egyptian slave, to sleep with Abraham so she could become a foster mother. Abraham gave Sarah as a concubine to an earlier pharaoh, and later to Abimelech, king of the Philistines, to save his skin. Lots of daughters had children by their father. Isaac gave Rebecca as a concubine to king Abimelech to protect his own life. Laban sneaked Leah into Jacob's bed to marry off his older daughter, and then offered him her sister, Rachel, too, in exchange for seven years more labor. Leah persuaded Jacob to sleep with her servant, Zilpah, so that she could humiliate her sister, Rachel. Then Rachel persuaded Jacob to sleep with her servant, Bilhah, who according to Jewish tradition was Zilpah's sister, so that she could humiliate Leah. Reuben slept with Bilhah, his father's concubine, and his half-brother's mother. Judah conceived children with his daughter-in-law, Tamar, because she posed as a cult prostitute in a desperate bid to become a mother. Sleeping with a cult prostitute didn't trouble Judah in the least. If Joseph had followed his family's tradition of disastrous sexual decisions, he might easily have slept with Potiphar's wife. Instead, he displayed outstanding wisdom, morality, and righteousness. One day when Joseph went into the house to do his work, and none of the men were there, Potiphar's wife caught him by his garment, saying, Lie with me. But he left his garment in her hand and fled out of the house. Joseph fled temptation. Most people cannot resist temptation, because they are unwilling to reject it completely. As soon as she saw that Joseph had left his garment in her hand and had fled, she called to the men of her household and said to them, My husband has brought among us a Hebrew to laugh at us. He came to me to lie with me, and I cried out with a loud voice. And as soon as he heard me cry out, he left his garment beside me and got out of the house. The word Hebrew might mean a descendant of Heber, which Joseph indeed was, but it also curiously means outsider. When Potiphar came home, his wife told him her lie. Potiphar was furious. He took Joseph and threw him into the royal prison. The relationship between Potiphar and his wife invites speculation. From the wife's behavior, it is obvious that the magic had long gone out of their marriage. But was Potiphar neglectful of his wife? Had she been given to him in marriage as a beard to cover the shame of his being a eunuch? Perhaps Potiphar could have cared less if his wife had sex with another man, for if he had conceived a son in that way, he might have taken credit for the heir. Such a marriage of neglect or convenience might have been why Potiphar's wife felt so free to pursue Joseph. Maybe Potiphar cared nothing for what his wife did in secret, but felt that Joseph's insolence becoming publicly known affronted his official reputation. Or perhaps Potiphar's wife was just morally loose. Or perhaps Potiphar sincerely loved his wife and felt seriously angry at Joseph's alleged advances. Any of these perspectives might be possible. The year was 1681 B.C. Joseph was twenty years old. He would spend the next ten years in jail. But the Lord was with Joseph, showing him steadfast love and giving him favor in the sight of the warden who put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners. Princess Potiphar had put him in charge of his entire household. Whatever was done in prison, Joseph was the one who did it. The warden paid no attention to anything that was in Joseph's charge because the Lord was with him, and whatever he did, the Lord made it succeed. About eight years later, in 1673 B.C., when Joseph was twenty-eight, the cupbearer, the King of Egypt and the King's baker, committed an offense against Pharaoh who put them in the prison where Joseph was. The captain of the guard appointed Joseph to attend to them. One night, the cupbearer and the baker both dreamed each his own dream. When Joseph came to them in the morning, he saw that they were troubled, so he asked them, Why are your faces downcast today? They replied, We have had dreams, and there is no one to interpret them. Joseph said, Do not interpretations belong to God? Please tell them to me. That other great dream interpreter of the Bible, Daniel, would say something similar to Nebuchadnezzar over ten centuries later, when that king asked him to interpret his dream. Daniel said, No wise men, enchanters, magicians, or astrologers can show to the king the mystery that the king has asked, but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and he has made known to king Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days. So the chief cupbearer told his dream to Joseph. In my dream there was a vine before me, and on the vine there were three branches. As soon as it budded, its blossoms shot forth and the clusters ripened into grapes. Pharaoh's cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup and placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand. Joseph said, This is its interpretation. The three branches are three days. In three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your office, and you shall place Pharaoh's cup in his hand as formerly when you were his cupbearer. Only remember me when it is well with you, and please do me the kindness to mention me to Pharaoh, and so get me out of this house. For I was indeed stolen out of the land of the Hebrews, and here also I have done nothing that they should put me into the pit. When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was favorable, he told Joseph his dream. There were three cake baskets on my head, and in the uppermost basket there were all sorts of baked food for Pharaoh, but the birds were eating it out of the basket on my head. Joseph said, This is its interpretation. The three baskets are three days. In three days Pharaoh will lift up your head from you and hang you on a tree, and the birds will eat the flesh from you. On the third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday, he made a feast for all his servants and lifted up the head of the chief cupbearer and the head of the chief baker among his servants. He restored the chief cupbearer to his position, and he placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand. But he hanged the chief baker, as Joseph had foretold. Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him. After two years, Pharaoh dreamed that he was standing by the Nile, and seven attractive and plump cows came up out of the Nile, feeding on the reed grass. Some other cows, ugly and thin, came up out of the Nile after them and stood by the other cows on the bank of the Nile. The ugly, thin cows ate up the seven attractive, plump cows. Pharaoh awoke, and he fell asleep and dreamed a second time. In this dream, seven plump and good ears of grain grew on one stalk. After them sprouted seven thin ears blighted by the east wind. The thin ears swallowed up the seven plump, full ears. When Pharaoh awoke, his spirit was troubled, so he sent and called for all the magicians and wise men of Egypt. Pharaoh told them his dreams, but none could interpret them. Then the chief cupbearer remembered how Joseph had interpreted his dream and that of the baker, and told the Pharaoh about Joseph. Egyptians placed great importance on dream interpretation, and even had a book of dream interpretations giving guidelines for interpreting them. For example, if a man saw himself in a dream with a dwarf, it was an omen that half his life was gone, unless, presumably, the dreamer already was a dwarf. If one saw his enemies in a dream making offerings to the gods, it was an omen of conspiracy. The reason why, in Genesis, Pharaoh's wise men could not interpret Pharaoh's dream was, presumably, that Pharaoh's bizarre dream was not a standard one found in the book. Pharaoh sent for Joseph, and they quickly brought him out of the prison. When he had shaved and changed his clothes, he came in before Pharaoh, who said, I have had a dream, and no one can interpret it. I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream, you can interpret it. Joseph answered, It is not in me, it is God who will give Pharaoh a favorable answer. Then Pharaoh told Joseph his two dreams. Joseph said, The dreams of Pharaoh are one. God has revealed to Pharaoh what he is about to do. The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good ears are the same seven years. The dreams are one. The seven lean and ugly cows that came up after them are seven years, and the seven empty ears blighted by the east wind are the same seven years. There will come seven years of great plenty throughout the land of Egypt, but after them there will arise seven years of famine, and all the plenty will be forgotten in the land of Egypt. The famine will consume the land, and plenty will be unknown in the land because of the famine that will follow, for it will be very severe. The doubling of Pharaoh's dream means that the thing is fixed by God, and God will shortly bring it about. Now therefore, let Pharaoh select a discerning and wise man, and set him over the land of Egypt. Let Pharaoh proceed to appoint overseers over the land, and take one-fifth of the produce of the land of Egypt during the seven plentiful years. Let them gather all the food of these good ears that are coming, and store up grain under the authority of Pharaoh for food in the cities, and let them keep it. That food shall be a reserve for the land against the seven years of famine that are to occur in the land of Egypt, so that the land may not perish through the famine. This proposal pleased Pharaoh and all his servants. Pharaoh said, Can we fight a man like this, in whom is the Spirit of God? Since God has shown you all of this, there is none so discerning and wise as you are. You shall be over my house, and all my people shall order themselves as you command, only as regards the throne will I be greater than you. See, I have set you over all the land of Egypt. Ten centuries later, Nebuchadnezzar would likewise make the prophet Daniel, the ruler of Babylon, second only to the king himself. Pharaoh took his signet ring from his hand, and put it on Joseph's hand. He then clothed Joseph in garments of fine linen, and put a gold chain around his neck. Wearing a golden ring was indeed the practice of pharaohs when appointing chief ministers. To entrust them with the royal signet ring was an indisputable sign of authority. This historically accurate detail is another bit of evidence that the Bible is reliable. Then Pharaoh made Joseph ride in his second chariot, and they called out before him, Bow down, Abrak. When Joseph rose to power, the Bible says the people of Egypt cried out to him wherever he went, Abrak. This word is not of Hebrew origin. English Bibles translate it as Mekwe or Neel, but no one really knows its ancient meaning. The word may be a combination of three ancient Egyptian words, Ab, heart, er, to, and ke, you. It might be a phrase meaning our hearts go out to you, or may your heart be with you, or don't lose heart. This makes sense because the Egyptians were relying on Joseph to preserve them in the prophesied famine, and they wanted him to succeed. This otherwise inexplicable detail in Genesis has a very authentic ring of ancient Egypt. If the Genesis account were fiction, the author would be very unlikely to insert an untranslatable word from ancient Egyptian. He would far more probably insert something easily understandable, which is what most English translations, somewhat irresponsibly, do. Pharaoh said to Joseph, I am Pharaoh, and without your consent no one shall lift up hand or foot in all the land of Egypt. Pharaoh gave Joseph a wife named Asenath, daughter of Potiphar, a priest of Am, which is modern Heliopolis. Potiphar was probably not Potiphar, Joseph's first master in Egypt, because the two men had different titles, lived in different places, and Potiphar was a eunuch and thus probably had no daughter. But even if he had a daughter, it is unlikely that Joseph would have married the daughter of Potiphar, whose unchaste wife had tried to seduce him, and had landed him in jail for ten years. Note that Judah married a Canaanite woman, Joseph married an Egyptian, Moses married a Midianite, and David's great-grandmother Ruth was a Moabite. Thus the chosen people were not only the genetic descendants of Abraham, they were the community of God spiritually, not only physically. Did Asenath reject the religion of her priestly father, and embrace that of her husband, Joseph? That would seem probable, because Joseph was now superior even to the priests, and subordinate only to Pharaoh. If by this marriage Pharaoh intended to convert Joseph to the Egyptian religion, he did not succeed. Presumably, after marrying Joseph, Asenath converted from the religion of her pagan priestly father to the worship of Yahweh, since the Bible does not imply that Joseph committed the sin of Solomon, allowing a pagan wife to lead him astray. Joseph was thirty years old when he entered the service of the king of Egypt in 1671 B.C. Back in the land of Canaan, his grandfather Isaac was still alive at 179 years old, and his father Jacob was 119. A reader might think that Isaac had already died by this time, because the Bible records Isaac's death in Genesis chapter 35, at the same time that it records the death of Rachel, who died 28 years before, in Bethlehem, giving birth to Jacob's youngest child, Benjamin. This is an example of how the Bible often records information in topical, not chronological, order. The Bible gives a very detailed chronology of the lives of the patriarchs, from Adam to Moses, indicating with absolute mathematical precision which of their lives overlapped and when they were born and died in relationship to each other. The biblical information dictates that Isaac died at 180 years old in 1670 B.C., a year after his grandson Joseph took charge in Egypt. Isaac's sons, Jacob and Esau, buried him. This means that when Jacob took his family to Egypt, Esau and his family remained in Canaan. Esau died at the age of 146 in 1644 B.C., one year before his twin, Jacob, who died in 1643 B.C., at 147 years old. The thirteenth dynasty of ancient Egypt, known as part of the Middle Kingdom, lasted approximately 153 years. Probably one of the later pharaohs in this dynasty is the one whose dreams Joseph interpreted. The chronology of this dynasty is uncertain, so pinpointing the exact pharaoh is really impossible. The thirteenth dynasty pharaohs ruled from the city of Itchawi, whose name means Caesar of the Two Lands, near the city of Memphis. And they ruled over all the land to the city of Eldest, just south of the Nile Delta's apex. Before the first year of the famine, which started in 1663 B.C., Asenath, the daughter of Potiphar, priest of On, bore Joseph two sons. He called the firstborn Manasseh, which means making to forget, because he said, God has made me forget all my hardship and all my father's house. The name of the second he called Ephraim, meaning to be fruitful, for God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction. Joseph as the father named his children. Adam had left this privilege to Eve, and Jacob had left it to Leah and Rachel. Joseph, unlike his mother Rachel, gave his children names that honored them and signified their blessing to him, rather than giving them names that focused only on the egotistical wishes of the parent. So Joseph was, in every way, leading the family upon a new and righteous path. During the seven plentiful years, the earth produced abundantly, and Joseph gathered up all the food of these seven years and stored up grain in great abundance, like the sand of the sea, until he ceased to measure it, for it could not be measured. In the first year of plenty, 1670 B.C., Isaac breathed his last at the age of 180. The twins, Esau and Jacob, at 120 years old, buried their father, probably at Mamre, near Kiriath Arba, which is Hebron. This means that Esau must have sent a message to his twin brother Jacob in Egypt, telling Jacob of Isaac's death. Jacob must have traveled from Egypt to Canaan, and met Esau there, where the twin brothers together performed this solemn duty. Then the seven years of plenty in Egypt came to an end, and seven years of famine began, as Joseph had foretold. There was a famine in all the adjoining lands, but in Egypt, thanks to Joseph, there was bread. When the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for food. Pharaoh said to them, Go to Joseph, what he says to you, do. Joseph opened all the storehouses, and sold grain to the Egyptians, for their famine was severe. Moreover, all the earth came to Egypt, to Joseph, to buy grain, because the famine was severe throughout all the earth. Now all the earth, of course, means the whole surrounding region, in Hebrew it is literally all the land, it does not obviously mean Guatemala or New Zealand. On Sahel Island, in the middle of the Nile near Aswan, is a great collection of boulders with hieroglyphs, recording notable events in Egypt's history. One such inscription records a seven year famine due to the Nile's failure to rise high enough to produce sufficient crops. The record states that the Pharaoh was wise enough to make the right offerings to the gods, and the times of plenty returned. Near the pyramid of Pharaoh Unas of the fifth dynasty, in Saqqara, is a stone engraving of starving people reduced to skin and bones, as if by enduring famine. This stone is not necessarily contemporary to Unas. The Bible account has the Pharaoh honoring not the gods, but the one God Yahweh, by placing his faith in God's prophet, Joseph. When Jacob learned that there was grain for sale in Egypt, he said to his sons, Why do you look at one another? I have heard that there is grain for sale in Egypt. Go down and buy grain for us there, that we may live and not die. So ten of Joseph's brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt, but Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph's younger brother, with his brothers, for he feared that harm might befall him. Benjamin was then thirty-six years old, no boy any more. So the sons of Israel went to buy among the others who came to Egypt. As governor, Joseph was the one who sold all the people of the land. Joseph's brothers came and bowed before him with their faces to the ground. Joseph's dream had come true. Joseph saw his brothers and recognized them, but he treated them like strangers and spoke roughly to them. Where do you come from? he asked. From the land of Canaan, to buy food, they replied. They did not recognize Joseph. They had last seen him when he was twenty years old. Now he was forty-two. But Joseph remembered his dreams of them. He said, You are spies. You have come to see the nakedness of the land. They protested, No, my lord, your servants have come to buy food. We are all sons of one man. We are honest men. Your servants have never been spies. They were, in fact, far from honest men. They had sold their brother into slavery and kept the lie alive with their grieving father for twenty-two years. They had long ago spent the twenty shekels of silver they had earned from the crime. Joseph insisted, No, it is the nakedness of the land that you have come to see. They said, We, your servants, are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan. And behold, the youngest is this day with our father, and one is no more. But Joseph said, It is as I said to you, you are spies. By this you shall be tested, by the life of Pharaoh. You shall not go from this place unless your youngest brother comes here. Find one of you, and let him bring your brother while you remain confined, that your words may be tested whether there is truth in you. Or else, by the life of Pharaoh, surely you are spies. Joseph put them in custody for three days. On the third day Joseph said, Do this, and you will live, for I fear God. If you are honest men, let one of your brothers remain in custody, and let the rest go and carry grain for the famine of your households, and bring your youngest brother to me. So your words will be verified, and you shall not die. Then they said to one another, In truth we are guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the distress of his soul when he begged us, and we did not listen. That is why this distress has come upon us. Simeon said, Did I not tell you not to sin against the boy? But you did not listen. So now there comes a reckoning for his blood. They did not know that Joseph understood them, for there was an interpreter between them. Joseph turned away from them, and wept. Then he returned and spoke to them, and he took Simeon from them, and bound him before their eyes. Simeon, Jacob's second son, was fifty-four years old. Joseph gave orders to fill their bags with grain, to replace every man's money in his sack, and to give them provisions for the journey. This was done for them. They loaded their donkeys with their grain and departed. But as one of them opened his sack to give his donkey fodder at the lodging place, he saw his money in the mouth of his sack. He said to his brothers, My money has been put back, and here it is in the mouth of my sack. At this their hearts failed them, and they turned trembling to one another, saying, What is this that God has done to us? When they came to Jacob, their father, in the land of Canaan, they told him all that had happened. As they emptied their sacks, every man's bundle of money was in his sack. When they and their father saw their bundles of money, they were afraid. Jacob said to them, You have bereaved me of my children. Joseph is no more, and Simeon is no more, and now you would take Benjamin? All this has come against me. Reuben said to his father, Kill my two sons, if I do not bring him back to you. Put him in my hands, and I will bring him back to you. Benjamin had four sons at this time, in this order of birth, Hanak, Palu, Hezron, and Carmi, which two he was offering to kill he did not specify. Jacob replied, My son shall not go down with you, for his brother is dead, and he is the only one left. If harm should happen to him on the journey that you are to make, you would bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Sheol. But the famine was severe in the land. When they had eaten the grain that they had bought from Egypt, their father said to them, Go again, buy us a little food. Judah said to him, The man solemnly warned us, saying, You shall not see my face, unless your brother is with you. If you will send our brother with us, we will go down and buy you food. But if you will not send him, we will not go down, for the man said to us, You shall not see my face, unless your brother is with you. Jacob said, Why did you treat me so badly as to tell the man that you had another brother? They replied, The man questioned us carefully about ourselves and our kindred, saying, Is your father still alive? Do you have another brother? What we told him was an answer to his questions. Did we in any way know that he would say, Bring your brother down? Judah said to his father, Jacob, Send the boy with me, and we will arise and go, that we may live, not die, both we and you, and also our little ones. I will be a pledge of his safety. From my hand you shall require him. If I do not bring him back to you and set him before you, then let me bear the blame forever. If we had not delayed, we would now have returned twice. Judah was the one who originally had suggested selling Joseph to the Ishmaelites instead of killing him. He was now promising to protect Benjamin. Jacob said to them, If it must be so, then do this. Take some of the choice fruits of the land in your bags, and carry a present down to the man, a little balm, and a little honey, gum, myrrh, pistachio nuts, and almonds. Take double the money with you. Carry back with you the money that was returned in the mouth of your sacks. Perhaps it was an oversight. Take also your brother, and arise. Go again to the man. May God Almighty grant you mercy before the man, and may he send back your other brother and Benjamin. And as for me, if I am bereaved of my children, I am bereaved. So they took this present, and double the money, and Benjamin. They arose and went down to Egypt, and stood before Joseph. This was 1662 B.C., the second year of the famine. When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the steward of his house, Bring the men into the house, and slaughter an animal, and make ready, for the men are to dine with me at noon. The man did as Joseph told him, and brought the men to Joseph's house. The brothers were afraid, and said, It is because of the money which was replaced in our sacks the first time that we are brought in, so that he may assault us, and fall upon us, to make us servants, and seize our donkeys. They went up to the steward of Joseph's house, and spoke with him at the door of the house, and said, O my Lord, we came down the first time to buy food. And when we came to the lodging place, we opened our sacks, and there was each man's money in the mouth of his sack, our money in full weight. So we have brought it again with us, and we have brought other money down with us to buy food. We do not know who put our money in our sacks. The steward replied, Peace to you, do not be afraid. The God and the God of your father has put treasure in your sacks for you. I received your money. The steward brought Simeon out to them. When he had brought the men into Joseph's house, and given them water, and they washed their feet, and when he had given their donkeys fodder, they prepared the present for Joseph's coming at noon, for they had heard that they should eat bread there. When Joseph came home, they brought the present that they had with them into the house, and bowed down to him on the ground. There was Joseph's dream fulfilled again. Joseph inquired about their welfare, and said, Is your father well, the old man of whom you spoke? Is he still alive? They said, Your servant, our father, is well. He is still alive. They bowed their heads and prostrated themselves. Joseph lifted up his eyes and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother Rachel's son, and said, Was this your youngest brother, of whom you spoke to me? God be gracious to you, my son. Benjamin was now thirty-six years old. Joseph had last seen him when he was fourteen. Joseph hurried out and sought a place to weep. Then he washed his face and came out. Controlling himself, he said, Serve the food. They served Joseph by himself, and his brothers by themselves, and the Egyptians, who ate with him by themselves, because the Egyptians could not eat with the Hebrews, for that is an abomination to the Egyptians. They sat before him, the firstborn according to his birthright, and the youngest according to his youth. The men looked at one another in amazement. Portions were taken to them from Joseph's table, but Benjamin's portion was five times as much as any of theirs. They drank and were merry with him. Joseph commanded the steward of his house, Fill the men's sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put each man's money in the mouth of his sack, and put my cup, the silver cup, in the mouth of the sack of the youngest with his money for the grain. And he did as Joseph told him. As soon as the morning was light, the men were sent away with their donkeys. They had gone only a short distance from the city, when Joseph said to his steward, Up, follow after the men, and when you overtake them, say to them, Why have you repaid evil for good? Is it not from this silver cup that my lord drinks, and by this he practices divination? You have done evil in doing this. When the steward overtook them, he spoke to the brothers these words. They said to him, Why does my lord speak such words as these? Far be it from your servants to do such a thing. See the money that we found in the mouth of our sacks we brought back to you from the land of Canaan. How then could we steal silver or gold from your lord's house? Whichever of your servants is found with it shall die, and we also will be my lord's servants. The steward said, Let it be as you say. He who is found with it shall be my servant, and the rest of you shall be innocent. The steward did not exactly accept the brothers' proposal to kill the man found with the cup. Rather he proposed that the guilty one should become his slave. The steward knew that Benjamin had the cup, and also that Benjamin was important to Joseph his master. Agreeing to kill Benjamin, even if pretending, would be unwise. Each man quickly lowered his sack to the ground, and each opened his sack. The steward searched, beginning with the eldest and ending with the youngest. The cup was in Benjamin's sack. The brothers tore their clothes, and every man loaded his donkey, and they returned to the city. When Judah and his brothers came to Joseph's house, he was still there. Notice that the Bible marks Judah as the leader from this point, not his three elder brothers, Reuben, Simeon, and Levi. When the dying Jacob blessed his sons eighteen years later, he demoted Reuben, Simeon, and Levi from their birth rank, and declared Judah the leader of his brothers. The brothers fell before Joseph to the ground. He said to them, What have you done? Do you not know that a man like me can indeed practice divination? What he meant by this is that they should not think that Joseph, who could interpret dreams, could be deceived regarding their theft of the cup. Judah said, What shall we say to my Lord? What shall we speak? Or how can we clear ourselves? God has found out the guilt of your servants. Behold, we are your Lord's servants, both we and he also in whose hand the cup has been found. Joseph said, Far be it from me that I should do so. To the man in whose hand the cup was found shall be my servant. But as for you, go up in peace to your father. Judah went up to him and said, O my Lord, please let your servant speak a word in my Lord's ears, and let not your anger burn against your servant, for you are like Pharaoh himself. Judah reminded Joseph of how he had inquired about their family, and then joined them to come back to Egypt, only if they brought their youngest brother along. He reminded Joseph that Jacob was so attached to Benjamin that if he lost him he would die. But pressed by the need for food and the terrible famine, Jacob had agreed that the brothers should go back with Benjamin to Egypt. But he said, You know that my wife bore me two sons, one left me, and I said, Surely he has been torn to pieces, as I have never seen him since. If you take this one also from me, and harm happens to him, you will bring down my gray hairs in evil to Sheol. Judah begged Joseph to take himself as a hostage, not Benjamin, in order to spare his father's life. Joseph could not control himself. He cried, Make everyone go up from me. He wept aloud, so that the Egyptians and Pharaoh's household heard it. Joseph said to his brothers, I am Joseph. Is my father still alive? But his brothers could not answer him, for they were dismayed at his presence. So Joseph said to his brothers, Come near me, please. When they came near, he said, I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here. For God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and ruler over the land of Egypt. Hurry, and go up to my father, and say to him, Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me, do not tarry. You shall dwell in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, and you and your children and your children's children, and your flocks, your herds, and all that you have. There I will provide for you, for there are yet five years of famine to come, so that you and your household and all that you have do not come to poverty. Joseph fell upon his brother Benjamin's neck and wept. And Benjamin wept upon Joseph's neck. He kissed all his brothers and wept upon them. After that his brothers talked with him. When the report was heard in Pharaoh's house, Joseph's brothers have come. It pleased Pharaoh and his servants. Pharaoh said to Joseph, Say to your brothers, Do this, and load your beasts, and go back to the land of Canaan, and take your father and your households, and come to me, and I will give you the best of the land of Egypt, and you shall eat the fat of the land. And you, Joseph, are commanded to say, Do this, take wagons from the land of Egypt for your little ones and for your wives, and bring your father and come. Have no concern for your goods, for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours. The sons of Israel did so. Joseph gave them wagons, according to Pharaoh's command, and provisions for the journey. He gave each one a change of clothes, but to Benjamin he gave three hundred shekels of silver and five changes of clothes. To his father he sent ten donkeys loaded with the good things of Egypt, and ten female donkeys loaded with grain, bread, and provisions for his father on the journey. Then he sent his brothers away, and as they departed he said to them, Do not quarrel on the way. Considering the history of his brothers, Joseph's warning was very apt. They went up out of Egypt, and came to the land of Canaan to their father Jacob. They told him, Joseph is still alive, and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt. Jacob's heart became numb, for he did not believe them. But when they told him all the words of Joseph which he had said to them, and when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of their father Jacob revived. Israel said, It is enough, Joseph, my son, is still alive. I will go and see him before I die. Jacob, also called Israel, went with all he had, and came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices to the God of his father, Isaac. Joseph spoke to Israel in visions of the night, saying, Jacob, Jacob. He answered, Here I am. God said, I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you into a great nation. I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again. And Joseph's hand shall close your eyes. When God made his first promise to Isaac, he told him not to go to Egypt, as his father Abraham had done, but to remain in Canaan. Now God told Isaac's son Jacob that the time to go to Egypt had come. This was God's fifth promise to Jacob. So Jacob set out from Beersheba. The sons of Israel carried Jacob, their father, their little ones, and their wives in the wagons that Pharaoh had sent to carry him. They also took their livestock and their goods, which they had gained in the land of Canaan, and came into Egypt, Jacob and all his offspring with him, his sons and his sonsons with him, his daughters and his sons' daughters. All his offspring that he brought with him into Egypt were seventy people in all.