Chapter 42

¹And Jacob hearing that food was sold in Egypt, said to his sons: Why are ye careless? ²I have heard that wheat is sold in Egypt: go ye down, and buy us necessaries, that we may live, and not be consumed with want. ³So the ten brethren of Joseph went down, to buy corn in Egypt: ⁴Whilst Benjamin was kept at home by Jacob, who said to his brethren: Lest perhaps he take any harm in the journey. ⁵And they entered into the land of Egypt with others that went to buy. For the famine was in the land of Chanaan. ⁶And Joseph was governor in the land of Egypt, and corn was sold by his direction to the people. And when his brethren had bowed down to him, ⁷And he knew them, he spoke as it were to strangers somewhat roughly, asking them: Whence came you? They answered: From the land of Chanaan, to buy necessaries of life. ⁸And though he knew his brethren, he was not known by them. ⁹And remembering the dreams, which formerly he had dreamed, he said to them: You are spies. You are come to view the weaker parts of the land. ¹⁰But they said: It is not so, my lord, but thy servants are come to buy food. ¹¹We are all the sons of one man: we are come as peaceable men, neither do thy servants go about any evil. ¹²And he answered them: It is otherwise: you are come to consider the unfenced parts of this land. ¹³But they said: We thy servants are twelve brethren, the sons of one man in the land of Chanaan: the youngest is with our father, the other is not living. ¹⁴He saith: This is it that I said: You are spies. ¹⁵I shall now presently try what you are: by the health of Pharao you shall not depart hence, until your youngest brother come. ¹⁶Send one of you to fetch him: and you shall be in prison, till what you have said be proved, whether it be true or false: or else by the health of Pharao you are spies. ¹⁷So he put them in prison three days. ¹⁸And the third day he brought them out of prison, and said: Do as I have said, and you shall live: for I fear God. ¹⁹If you be peaceable men, let one of your brethren be bound in prison: and go ye your ways and carry the corn that you have bought, unto your houses. ²⁰And bring your youngest brother to me, that I may find your words to be true, and you may not die. They did as he had said. ²¹And they talked one to another: We deserve to suffer these things, because we have sinned against our brother, seeing the anguished of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear: therefore is this affliction come upon us. ²²And Ruben one of them, said: Did not I say to you: Do not sin against the boy: and you would not hear me? Behold his blood is required. ²³And they knew not that Joseph understood, because he spoke to them by an interpreter. ²⁴And he turned himself away a little while, and wept: and returning he spoke to them. ²⁵And taking Simeon, and binking him in their presence, he commanded his servants to fill their sacks with wheat, and to put every man's money again in their sacks, and to give them besides provisions for the way: and they did so. ²⁶But they having loaded their asses with the corn, went their way. ²⁷And one of them opening his sack, to give his beast provender in the inn, saw the money in the sack's mouth; ²⁸And said to his brethren: My money is given me again, hehold it is in the sack. And thye were astonished, and troubled, and said to one another: What is this that God hath done unto us? ²⁹And they came to Jacob their father in the land of Chanaan, and they told him all things that had befallen them, saying: ³⁰The lord of the land spoke roughly to us, and took us to be spies of the country. ³¹And we answered him: We are peaceable men, and we mean no plot. ³²We are twelve brethren born of one father: one is not living, the youngest is with our father in the land of Chanaan. ³³And he said to us: Hereby shall I know that you are peaceable men: Leave one of your brethren with me, and take ye necessary provision for your houses, and go your ways. ³⁴And bring your youngest brother to me, that I may know you are not spies: and you may receive this man again, that is kept in prison: and afterwards may have leave to buy what you will. ³⁵When they had told this, they poured out their corn and every man found his money tied in the mouth of his sack: and all being astonished together, ³⁶Their father Jacob said: You have made me to be without children: Joseph is not living, Simeon is kept in bonds, and Benjamin you will take away: all these evils are fallen upon me. ³⁷And Ruben answered him: Kill my two sons if I bring him not again to thee: deliver him unto my hand, and I will restore him to thee. ³⁸But he said: My son shall not go down with you: his brother is dead, and he is left alone: if any mischief befall him in the land to which you go, you will bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to hell.