Benjamin goes to Egypt
1There was no food in Canaan. 2When they had eaten all the wheat that Jacob's sons had bought in Egypt, there was nothing left. Their father told them: ‘You have to go back to Egypt and buy food for us.’
3Judah said to him: ‘The man has warned us and said: “Do not come here if you do not bring your brother with you.”
4Father, if you let Benjamin go with us, we will go to Egypt and buy food for you. 5But if you do not let him go, then we will not go because the man told us not to come back if our brother is not with us.’
6Then Jacob asked him: ‘Why have you given me this problem? Why did you tell the man that you have another brother?’
7They said: ‘The man asked us about ourselves and our family. He asked if our father was still_alive and if we had another brother. We told him only what he asked us. We did not know that he would say we must bring our brother to him.’
8Judah said to his father Jacob: ‘Father, let Benjamin go with me and let us go so that we can get food and our family can live and not die from hunger. 9I will make sure that he is safe. I promise that I will look after Benjamin. If I do not bring him back and let him stand here in front of you, then I will always be guilty to you. 10If we had not waited so long, we could already have gone there and come back twice.’
11Their father Jacob said to them: ‘If this is the only thing that we can do, then you must do it. Take gifts to the man. Put the best gifts from our land into your bags and give them to him. Give him some balm, honey, spices, myrrh, nuts and almonds. 12Take twice as much money and take back the money that was in your bags. Maybe they made a mistake. 13Take your brother Benjamin and go back to that man. 14I pray that God Almighty will help so that the man will be friendly to you. I pray that he will let your brothers, Simeon and Benjamin, come back with you. I am afraid that I will lose all my sons.’
15The brothers took the gifts and more money than they had the first time, and they took Benjamin with them. They went to Egypt and they stood before Joseph. 16When Joseph saw that Benjamin was with them, he told the manager of his house: ‘Bring these men to my house. Kill a cow and prepare food. They will eat with me this afternoon.’
17The man did what Joseph said and he took Joseph's brothers to Joseph's house. 18The brothers were afraid when he took them to Joseph's house. They said: ‘It is because of the money that was in our bags the first time we came. They are bringing us here to catch us and put us in prison. We will be their slaves and they will take our donkeys.’
19They went to talk to the man who was the manager of Joseph's house. They told him: 20‘Please, sir, we came here before to buy food. 21When we came to the place where we wanted to sleep, we opened our bags and then we saw that each man's money was still in his bag. It was the money that we had paid for the wheat. We have brought the money back. 22We have also brought more money to buy food. We do not know who put our money back into our bags.’
23The manager of the house said: ‘You must not be worried or afraid. Your God, and your father's God gave you the money in your bags. I have the money that you paid.’ Then he took Simeon to them.
24The manager took the brothers to Joseph's house. He gave them water to wash their feet and he gave their donkeys food. 25He told them that they would eat there. Then the brothers took out their gifts and put them ready for Joseph when he would come that afternoon. 26When Joseph came home, they brought their gifts and they bowed down before him. 27Joseph asked them how they were and he also asked: ‘How is your father who is so old? You told me about him when you were here the first time. Is he still_alive?’
28They answered: ‘Our father is well. He is still_alive.’ And again they bowed down before Joseph.
29When Joseph looked, he saw his brother Benjamin. He and Benjamin had the same mother. Then he asked: ‘Is this your youngest brother, the one you told me about?’ Joseph said to Benjamin: ‘I pray that God will be good to you.’ 30Joseph went out of the room quickly because he wanted to cry because his brother had come. He went into another room to cry. 31He washed his face and he came back. He was calm again and said: ‘Put the food on the table.’
32Joseph's slaves always served his food at his own table. Joseph's brothers sat at their own table. The Egyptians who ate with Joseph were served at their own table because Egyptians did not eat with Hebrews. They never did this because they thought it was wrong. 33Joseph's brothers sat before him next to each other. The slaves gave the brothers places to sit from the oldest to the youngest. The brothers looked at each other and they were amazed. 34Joseph gave his brothers food from his table, but Benjamin's food was 5 times more than the other brothers' food. They drank wine with Joseph and they became very happy.
