Genesis 42:1-37

Heavenly Father
give us grace to face up to what we have done in the past and make amends for it as opportunity presents itself

¹  Now Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt, so said to his sons, ²  “ Go to Egypt, and buy for us from there, so that we may live, and not die.” 
³ Joseph’s ten brothers went down to buy grain from Egypt. 
⁴ But Jacob didn’t send Benjamin, Joseph’s brother, with his brothers; for he said, “Lest perhaps harm happen to him.” 
⁵ The sons of Israel came to buy grain, for the famine was in the land of Canaan. 
⁶ Joseph was the governor who sold the grain. Joseph’s brothers came, and bowed themselves down to him with their faces to the earth. 
⁸ Joseph recognized his brothers, but they didn’t recognize him. ⁹ Joseph said to them, “You are spies!”
¹⁰ They said to him, “No, my lord, but your servants have come to buy food. ¹³ We are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan; and behold, the youngest is today with our father, and one is no more.”
¹⁸ Joseph said to them “Do this, and live, for I fear God. ¹⁹ If you are honest men, then let one of your brothers be bound in your prison; but you go, carry grain for the famine of your houses. ²⁰ Bring your youngest brother to me; so will your words be verified, and you won’t die.”

²¹ They said to one another, “We are certainly guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the distress of his soul, when he begged us, and we wouldn’t listen. Therefore this distress has come upon us.” ²³ They didn’t know that Joseph understood them; for there was an interpreter between them. ²⁴ He turned himself away from them, and wept. Then he returned to them, and took Simeon from among them, and bound him before their eyes. ²⁵ Then Joseph gave a command to fill their bags with grain, and to restore each man’s money into his sack, and to give them food for the way. So it was done to them.

²⁶ They loaded their donkeys with their grain, and departed from there. ²⁹ and came to Jacob their father, to the land of Canaan, and told him all that had happened to them.  

³⁶ Jacob, their father, said to them, “You have bereaved me of my children! Joseph is no more, Simeon is no more, and you want to take Benjamin away. All these things are against me.”
³⁷ Reuben spoke to his father, saying, “Kill my two sons, if I don’t bring him to you. Entrust him to my care, and I will bring him to you again.”