Genèse (NAB) 36
36 1 These are the descendants of Esau (that is, Edom).2 Esau took his wives from among the Canaanite women: Adah, daughter of Elon the Hittite; Oholibamah, granddaughter through Anah of Zibeon the Hivite; 3 and Basemath, daughter of Ishmael and sister of Nebaioth.4 Adah bore Eliphaz to Esau; Basemath bore Reuel;5 and Oholibamah bore Jeush, Jalam and Korah. These are the sons of Esau who were born to him in the land of Canaan.
6 Esau took his wives, his sons, his daughters, and all the members of his household, as well as his livestock comprising various animals and all the property he had acquired in the land of Canaan, and went to the land of Seir, out of the way of his brother Jacob.7 Their possessions had become too great for them to dwell together, and the land in which they were staying could not support them because of their livestock.8 So Esau settled in the highlands of Seir. (Esau is Edom.)
9 These are the descendants of Esau, ancestor of the Edomites, in the highlands of Seir.10 These are the names of Esau's sons: Eliphaz, son of Esau's wife Adah; and Reuel, son of Esau's wife Basemath.11 The sons of Eliphaz were Teman, Omar, Zepho, Gatam, and Kenaz.12 (Esau's son Eliphaz had a concubine Timna, and she bore Amalek to Eliphaz.) These are the descendants of Esau's wife Adah.13 The sons of Reuel were Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah. These are the descendants of Esau's wife Basemath.14 The descendants of Esau's wife Oholibamah-- granddaughter through Anah of Zibeon-- whom she bore to Esau were Jeush, Jalam, and Korah.
15 The following are the clans of Esau's descendants. The descendants of Eliphaz, Esau's first-born: the clans of Teman, Omar, Zepho, Kenaz,16 Korah, Gatam, and Amalek. These are the clans of Eliphaz in the land of Edom; they are descended from Adah.17 The descendants of Esau's son Reuel: the clans of Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah. These are the clans of Reuel in the land of Edom; they are descended from Esau's wife Basemath.18 The descendants of Esau's wife Oholibamah: the clans of Jeush, Jalam, and Korah. These are the clans of Esau's wife Oholibamah, daughter of Anah.19 Such are the descendants of Esau (that is, Edom) according to their clans.
20 The following are the descendants of Seir the Horite, the original settlers in the land: Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah, 21 Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan; they are the Horite clans descended from Seir, in the land of Edom.22 Lotan's descendants were Hori and Hemam, and Lotan's sister was Timna.23 Shobal's descendants were Alvan, Mahanath, Ebal, Shepho, and Onam.24 Zibeon's descendants were Aiah and Anah. (He is the Anah who found water in the desert while he was pasturing the asses of his father Zibeon.)25 The descendants of Anah were Dishon and Oholibamah, daughter of Anah.26 The descendants of Dishon were Hemdan, Eshban, Ithran, and Cheran.27 The descendants of Ezer were Bilhan, Zaavan, and Akan.28 The descendants of Dishan were Uz and Aran.29 These are the Horite clans: the clans of Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah,30 Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan; they were the clans of the Horites, clan by clan, in the land of Seir.
31 The following are the kings who reigned in the land of Edom before any king reigned over the Israelites. 32 Bela, son of Beor, became king in Edom; the name of his city was Dinhabah.33 When Bela died, Jobab, son of Zerah, from Bozrah, succeeded him as king.34 When Jobab died, Husham, from the land of the Temanites, succeeded him as king. He defeated the Midianites in the country of Moab; the name of his city was Avith.35 When Husham died, Hadad, son of Bedad, succeeded him as king.36 When Hadad died, Samlah, from Masrekah, succeeded him as king.37 When Samlah died, Shaul, from Rehoboth-on-the-River, succeeded him as king.38 When Shaul died, Baal-hanan, son of Achbor, succeeded him as king.39 When Baal-hanan died, Hadar succeeded him as king; the name of his city was Pau. (His wife's name was Mehetabel; she was the daughter of Matred, son of Mezahab.)
40 The following are the names of the clans of Esau individually according to their subdivisions and localities: the clans of Timna, Alvah, Jetheth,41 Oholibamah, Elah, Pinon,42 Kenaz, Teman, Mibzar,43 Magdiel, and Iram. These are the clans of the Edomites, according to their settlements in their territorial holdings. (Esau was the father of the Edomites.)
37 1 Jacob settled in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan.
2 This is his family history. When Joseph was seventeen years old, he was tending the flocks with his brothers; he was an assistant to the sons of his father's wives Bilhah and Zilpah, and he brought his father bad reports about them.
3 Israel loved Joseph best of all his sons, for he was the child of his old age; and he had made him a long tunic.4 When his brothers saw that their father loved him best of all his sons, they hated him so much that they would not even greet him.
5 Once Joseph had a dream, which he told to his brothers:6 "Listen to this dream I had.7 There we were, binding sheaves in the field, when suddenly my sheaf rose to an upright position, and your sheaves formed a ring around my sheaf and bowed down to it."8 "Are you really going to make yourself king over us?" his brothers asked him. "Or impose your rule on us?" So they hated him all the more because of his talk about his dreams.
9 Then he had another dream, and this one, too, he told to his brothers. "I had another dream," he said; "this time, the sun and the moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me."10 When he also told it to his father, his father reproved him. "What is the meaning of this dream of yours?" he asked. "Can it be that I and your mother and your brothers are to come and bow to the ground before you?"11 So his brothers were wrought up against him but his father pondered the matter.
12 One day, when his brothers had gone to pasture their father's flocks at Shechem,13 Israel said to Joseph, "Your brothers, you know, are tending our flocks at Shechem. Get ready; I will send you to them." "I am ready," Joseph answered.14 "Go then," he replied; "see if all is well with your brothers and the flocks, and bring back word." So he sent him off from the valley of Hebron. When Joseph reached Shechem,
15 a man met him as he was wandering about in the fields. "What are you looking for?" the man asked him.16 "I am looking for my brothers," he answered. "Could you please tell me where they are tending the flocks?"17 The man told him, "They have moved on from here; in fact, I heard them say, 'Let us go on to Dothan.'" So Joseph went after his brothers and caught up with them in Dothan.
18 They noticed him from a distance, and before he came up to them, they plotted to kill him.19 They said to one another: "Here comes that master dreamer!20 Come on, let us kill him and throw him into one of the cisterns here; we could say that a wild beast devoured him. We shall then see what comes of his dreams."
21 When Reuben heard this, he tried to save him from their hands, saying: "We must not take his life. 22 Instead of shedding blood," he continued, "just throw him into that cistern there in the desert; but don't kill him outright." His purpose was to rescue him from their hands and restore him to his father.
23 So when Joseph came up to them, they stripped him of the long tunic he had on;24 then they took him and threw him into the cistern, which was empty and dry.25 They then sat down to their meal. Looking up, they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, their camels laden with gum, balm and resin to be taken down to Egypt.
26 Judah said to his brothers: "What is to be gained by killing our brother and concealing his blood?27 Rather, let us sell him to these Ishmaelites, instead of doing away with him ourselves. After all, he is our brother, our own flesh." His brothers agreed.
28 They sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. Some Midianite traders passed by, and they pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and took him to Egypt. 29 When Reuben went back to the cistern and saw that Joseph was not in it, he tore his clothes,30 and returning to his brothers, he exclaimed: "The boy is gone! And I-- where can I turn?"
31 They took Joseph's tunic, and after slaughtering a goat, dipped the tunic in its blood.32 Then they sent someone to bring the long tunic to their father, with the message: "We found this. See whether it is your son's tunic or not."33 He recognized it and exclaimed: "My son's tunic! A wild beast has devoured him! Joseph has been torn to pieces!"34 Then Jacob rent his clothes, put sackcloth on his loins, and mourned his son many days.35 Though his sons and daughters tried to console him, he refused all consolation, saying, "No, I will go down mourning to my son in the nether world." Thus did his father lament him.
36 The Midianites, meanwhile, sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, a courtier of Pharaoh and his chief steward.
38 1 About that time Judah parted from his brothers and pitched his tent near a certain Adullamite named Hirah. 2 There he met the daughter of a Canaanite named Shua, married her, and had relations with her.3 She conceived and bore a son, whom she named Er.4 Again she conceived and bore a son, whom she named Onan.5 Then she bore still another son, whom she named Shelah. They were in Chezib when he was born.
6 Judah got a wife named Tamar for his first-born, Er.7 But Er, Judah's first-born, greatly offended the LORD; so the LORD took his life.8 Then Judah said to Onan, "Unite with your brother's widow, in fulfillment of your duty as brother-in-law, and thus preserve your brother's line." 9 Onan, however, knew that the descendants would not be counted as his; so whenever he had relations with his brother's widow, he wasted his seed on the ground, to avoid contributing offspring for his brother.10 What he did greatly offended the LORD, and the LORD took his life too.
11 Thereupon Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, "Stay as a widow in your father's house until my son Shelah grows up"-- for he feared that Shelah also might die like his brothers. So Tamar went to live in her father's house.
12 Years passed, and Judah's wife, the daughter of Shua, died. After Judah completed the period of mourning, he went up to Timnah for the shearing of his sheep, in company with his friend Hirah the Adullamite.
13 When Tamar was told that her father-in-law was on his way up to Timnah to shear his sheep,14 she took off her widow's garb, veiled her face by covering herself with a shawl, and sat down at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the way to Timnah; for she was aware that, although Shelah was now grown up, she had not been given to him in marriage.
15 When Judah saw her, he mistook her for a harlot, since she had covered her face.16 So he went over to her at the roadside, and not realizing that she was his daughter-in-law, he said, "Come, let me have intercourse with you." She replied, "What will you pay me for letting you have intercourse with me?"17 He answered, "I will send you a kid from the flock." "Very well," she said, "provided you leave a pledge until you send it."18 Judah asked, "What pledge am I to give to you?" She answered, "Your seal and cord, and the staff you carry." So he gave them to her and had intercourse with her, and she conceived by him. 19 When she went away, she took off her shawl and put on her widow's garb again.
20 Judah sent the kid by his friend the Adullamite to recover the pledge from the woman; but he could not find her.21 So he asked the men of the place, "Where is the temple prostitute, the one by the roadside in Enaim?" But they answered, "There has never been a temple prostitute here." 22 He went back to Judah and told him, "I could not find her; and besides, the men of the place said there was no temple prostitute there."23 "Let her keep the things," Judah replied; "otherwise we shall become a laughingstock. After all, I did send her the kid, even though you were unable to find her."
24 About three months later, Judah was told that his daughter-in-law Tamar had played the harlot and was then with child from her harlotry. "Bring her out," cried Judah; "she shall be burned."25 But as they were bringing her out, she sent word to her father-in-law, "It is by the man to whom these things belong that I am with child. Please verify," she added, "whose seal and cord and whose staff these are."26 Judah recognized them and said, "She is more in the right than I am, since I did not give her to my son Shelah." But he had no further relations with her.
27 When the time of her delivery came, she was found to have twins in her womb.28 While she was giving birth, one infant put out his hand; and the midwife, taking a crimson thread, tied it on his hand, to note that this one came out first.29 But as he withdrew his hand, his brother came out; and she said, "What a breach you have made for yourself!" So he was called Perez. 30 Afterward his brother came out; he was called Zerah.
39 1 When Joseph was taken down to Egypt, a certain Egyptian (Potiphar, a courtier of Pharaoh and his chief steward) bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him there. 2 But since the LORD was with him, Joseph got on very well and was assigned to the household of his Egyptian master.3 When his master saw that the LORD was with him and brought him success in whatever he did,4 he took a liking to Joseph and made him his personal attendant; he put him in charge of his household and entrusted to him all his possessions.5 From the moment that he put him in charge of his household and all his possessions, the LORD blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake; in fact, the LORD'S blessing was on everything he owned, both inside the house and out.6 Having left everything he owned in Joseph's charge, he gave no thought, with Joseph there, to anything but the food he ate. Now Joseph was strikingly handsome in countenance and body.
7 After a time, his master's wife began to look fondly at him and said, "Lie with me."8 But he refused. "As long as I am here," he told her, "my master does not concern himself with anything in the house, but has entrusted to me all he owns.9 He wields no more authority in this house than I do, and he has withheld from me nothing but yourself, since you are his wife. How, then, could I commit so great a wrong and thus stand condemned before God?"10 Although she tried to entice him day after day, he would not agree to lie beside her, or even stay near her.11 One such day, when Joseph came into the house to do his work, and none of the household servants were then in the house,12 she laid hold of him by his cloak, saying, "Lie with me!" But leaving the cloak in her hand, he got away from her and ran outside.13 When she saw that he had left his cloak in her hand as he fled outside,14 she screamed for her household servants and told them, "Look! my husband has brought in a Hebrew slave to make sport of us! He came in here to lie with me, but I cried out as loud as I could.15 When he heard me scream for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran away outside."
16 She kept the cloak with her until his master came home.17 Then she told him the same story: "The Hebrew slave whom you brought here broke in on me, to make sport of me.18 But when I screamed for help, he left his cloak beside me and fled outside."19 As soon as the master heard his wife's story about how his slave had treated her, he became enraged.20 He seized Joseph and threw him into the jail where the royal prisoners were confined. But even while he was in prison,
21 the LORD remained with Joseph; he showed him kindness by making the chief jailer well-disposed toward him.22 The chief jailer put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners in the jail, and everything that had to be done there was done under his management.23 The chief jailer did not concern himself with anything at all that was in Joseph's charge, since the LORD was with him and brought success to all he did.
40 1 Some time afterward, the royal cupbearer and baker gave offense to their lord, the king of Egypt.2 Pharaoh was angry with his two courtiers, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker,3 and he put them in custody in the house of the chief steward (the same jail where Joseph was confined).4 The chief steward assigned Joseph to them, and he became their attendant. After they had been in custody for some time,
5 the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt who were confined in the jail both had dreams on the same night, each dream with its own meaning.6 When Joseph came to them in the morning, he noticed that they looked disturbed.7 So he asked Pharaoh's courtiers who were with him in custody in his master's house, "Why do you look so sad today?"8 They answered him, "We have had dreams, but there is no one to interpret them for us." Joseph said to them, "Surely, interpretations come from God. Please tell the dreams to me."
9 Then the chief cupbearer told Joseph his dream. "In my dream," he said, "I saw a vine in front of me,10 and on the vine were three branches. It had barely budded when its blossoms came out, and its clusters ripened into grapes.11 Pharaoh's cup was in my hand; so I took the grapes, pressed them out into his cup, and put it in Pharaoh's hand."12 Joseph said to him: "This is what it means. The three branches are three days;13 within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your post. You will be handing Pharaoh his cup as you formerly used to do when you were his cupbearer. 14 So if you will still remember, when all is well with you, that I was here with you, please do me the favor of mentioning me to Pharaoh, to get me out of this place.15 The truth is that I was kidnaped from the land of the Hebrews, and here I have not done anything for which I should have been put into a dungeon."
16 When the chief baker saw that Joseph had given this favorable interpretation, he said to him: "I too had a dream. In it I had three wicker baskets on my head;17 in the top one were all kinds of bakery products for Pharaoh, but the birds were pecking at them out of the basket on my head."18 Joseph said to him in reply: "This is what it means. The three baskets are three days;19 within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and have you impaled on a stake, and the birds will be pecking the flesh from your body."
20 And in fact, on the third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday, when he gave a banquet to all his staff, with his courtiers around him, he lifted up the heads of the chief cupbearer and chief baker.21 He restored the chief cupbearer to his office, so that he again handed the cup to Pharaoh;22 but the chief baker he impaled-just as Joseph had told them in his interpretation.23 Yet the chief cupbearer gave no thought to Joseph; he had forgotten him.
41 1 After a lapse of two years, Pharaoh had a dream. He saw himself standing by the Nile,2 when up out of the Nile came seven cows, handsome and fat; they grazed in the reed grass.3 Behind them seven other cows, ugly and gaunt, came up out of the Nile; and standing on the bank of the Nile beside the others,4 the ugly, gaunt cows ate up the seven handsome, fat cows. Then Pharaoh woke up.
5 He fell asleep again and had another dream. He saw seven ears of grain, fat and healthy, growing on a single stalk.6 Behind them sprouted seven ears of grain, thin and blasted by the east wind;7 and the seven thin ears swallowed up the seven fat, healthy ears. Then Pharaoh woke up, to find it was only a dream.
8 Next morning his spirit was agitated. So he summoned all the magicians and sages of Egypt and recounted his dreams to them; but no one could interpret his dreams for him.9 Then the chief cupbearer spoke up and said to Pharaoh: "On this occasion I am reminded of my negligence.10 Once, when Pharaoh was angry, he put me and the chief baker in custody in the house of the chief steward.11 Later, we both had dreams on the same night, and each of our dreams had its own meaning.12 There with us was a Hebrew youth, a slave of the chief steward; and when we told him our dreams, he interpreted them for us and explained for each of us the meaning of his dream.13 And it turned out just as he had told us: I was restored to my post, but the other man was impaled."
14 Pharaoh therefore had Joseph summoned, and they hurriedly brought him from the dungeon. After he shaved and changed his clothes, he came into Pharaoh's presence.15 Pharaoh then said to him: "I had certain dreams that no one can interpret. But I hear it said of you that the moment you are told a dream you can interpret it."16 "It is not I," Joseph replied to Pharaoh, "but God who will give Pharaoh the right answer."
17 Then Pharaoh said to Joseph: "In my dream, I was standing on the bank of the Nile,18 when up from the Nile came seven cows, fat and well-formed; they grazed in the reed grass.19 Behind them came seven other cows, scrawny, most ill-formed and gaunt. Never have I seen such ugly specimens as these in all the land of Egypt!20 The gaunt, ugly cows ate up the first seven fat cows.21 But when they had consumed them, no one could tell that they had done so, because they looked as ugly as before. Then I woke up.22 In another dream I saw seven ears of grain, fat and healthy, growing on a single stalk.23 Behind them sprouted seven ears of grain, shriveled and thin and blasted by the east wind;24 and the seven thin ears swallowed up the seven healthy ears. I have spoken to the magicians, but none of them can give me an explanation."
25 Joseph said to Pharaoh: "Both of Pharaoh's dreams have the same meaning. God has thus foretold to Pharaoh what he is about to do.26 The seven healthy cows are seven years, and the seven healthy ears are seven years-- the same in each dream.27 So also, the seven thin, ugly cows that came up after them are seven years, as are the seven thin, wind-blasted ears; they are seven years of famine.28 It is just as I told Pharaoh: God has revealed to Pharaoh what he is about to do.29 Seven years of great abundance are now coming throughout the land of Egypt;30 but these will be followed by seven years of famine, when all the abundance in the land of Egypt will be forgotten. When the famine has ravaged the land,31 no trace of the abundance will be found in the land because of the famine that follows it-- so utterly severe will that famine be.32 That Pharaoh had the same dream twice means that the matter has been reaffirmed by God and that God will soon bring it about.
33 "Therefore, let Pharaoh seek out a wise and discerning man and put him in charge of the land of Egypt.34 Pharaoh should also take action to appoint overseers, so as to regiment the land during the seven years of abundance.35 They should husband all the food of the coming good years, collecting the grain under Pharaoh's authority, to be stored in the towns for food.36 This food will serve as a reserve for the country against the seven years of famine that are to follow in the land of Egypt, so that the land may not perish in the famine."
37 This advice pleased Pharaoh and all his officials.38 "Could we find another like him," Pharaoh asked his officials, "a man so endowed with the spirit of God?"39 So Pharaoh said to Joseph: "Since God has made all this known to you, no one can be as wise and discerning as you are.40 You shall be in charge of my palace, and all my people shall dart at your command. Only in respect to the throne shall I outrank you.41 Herewith," Pharaoh told Joseph, "I place you in charge of the whole land of Egypt."42 With that, Pharaoh took off his signet ring and put it on Joseph's finger. He had him dressed in robes of fine linen and put a gold chain about his neck. 43 He then had him ride in the chariot of his vizier, and they shouted "Abrek!" before him. Thus was Joseph installed over the whole land of Egypt.
44 "I, Pharaoh, proclaim," he told Joseph, "that without your approval no one shall move hand or foot in all the land of Egypt."45 Pharaoh also bestowed the name of Zaphnath-paneah on Joseph, and he gave him in marriage Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera, priest of Heliopolis. 46 Joseph was thirty years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. After Joseph left Pharaoh's presence, he traveled throughout the land of Egypt.
47 During the seven years of plenty, when the land produced abundant crops,48 he husbanded all the food of these years of plenty that the land of Egypt was enjoying and stored it in the towns, placing in each town the crops of the fields around it.49 Joseph garnered grain in quantities like the sands of the sea, so vast that at last he stopped measuring it, for it was beyond measure.50 Before the famine years set in, Joseph became the father of two sons, borne to him by Asenath, daughter of Potiphera, priest of Heliopolis.51 He named his first-born Manasseh, meaning, "God has made me forget entirely the sufferings I endured at the hands of my family"; 52 and the second he named Ephraim, meaning, "God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction." 53 When the seven years of abundance enjoyed by the land of Egypt came to an end,54 the seven years of famine set in, just as Joseph had predicted. Although there was famine in all the other countries, food was available throughout the land of Egypt.55 When hunger came to be felt throughout the land of Egypt and the people cried to Pharaoh for bread, Pharaoh directed all the Egyptians to go to Joseph and do whatever he told them.56 When the famine had spread throughout the land, Joseph opened all the cities that had grain and rationed it to the Egyptians, since the famine had gripped the land of Egypt.57 In fact, all the world came to Joseph to obtain rations of grain, for famine had gripped the whole world.
42 1 When Jacob learned that grain rations were available in Egypt, he said to his sons: "Why do you keep gaping at one another?2 I hear," he went on, "that rations of grain are available in Egypt. Go down there and buy some for us, that we may stay alive rather than die of hunger."3 So ten of Joseph's brothers went down to buy an emergency supply of grain from Egypt.4 It was only Joseph's full brother Benjamin that Jacob did not send with the rest, for he thought some disaster might befall him.
5 Thus, since there was famine in the land of Canaan also, the sons of Israel were among those who came to procure rations.6 It was Joseph, as governor of the country, who dispensed the rations to all the people. When Joseph's brothers came and knelt down before him with their faces to the ground,7 he recognized them as soon as he saw them. But he concealed his own identity from them and spoke sternly to them. "Where do you come from?" he asked them. They answered, "From the land of Canaan, to procure food."8 When Joseph recognized his brothers, although they did not recognize him,
9 he was reminded of the dreams he had about them. He said to them: "You are spies. You have come to see the nakedness of the land." 10 "No, my lord," they replied. "On the contrary, your servants have come to procure food.11 All of us are sons of the same man. We are honest men; your servants have never been spies."12 But he answered them: "Not so! You have come to see the nakedness of the land."13 "We your servants," they said, "were twelve brothers, sons of a certain man in Canaan; but the youngest one is at present with our father, and the other one is gone."14 "It is just as I said," Joseph persisted; "you are spies.15 This is how you shall be tested: unless your youngest brother comes here, I swear by the life of Pharaoh that you shall not leave here.16 So send one of your number to get your brother, while the rest of you stay here under arrest. Thus shall your words be tested for their truth; if they are untrue, as Pharaoh lives, you are spies!"17 With that, he locked them up in the guardhouse for three days.
18 On the third day Joseph said to them: "Do this, and you shall live; for I am a God-fearing man.19 If you have been honest, only one of your brothers need be confined in this prison, while the rest of you may go and take home provisions for your starving families.20 But you must come back to me with your youngest brother. Your words will thus be verified, and you will not die." To this they agreed.21 To one another, however, they said: "Alas, we are being punished because of our brother. We saw the anguish of his heart when he pleaded with us, yet we paid no heed; that is why this anguish has now come upon us."22 "Didn't I tell you," broke in Reuben, "not to do wrong to the boy? But you wouldn't listen! Now comes the reckoning for his blood."23 They did not know, of course, that Joseph understood what they said, since he spoke with them through an interpreter.24 But turning away from them, he wept. When he was able to speak to them again, he had Simeon taken from them and bound before their eyes.
25 Then Joseph gave orders to have their containers filled with grain, their money replaced in each one's sack, and provisions given them for their journey. After this had been done for them,
26 they loaded their donkeys with the rations and departed.27 At the night encampment, when one of them opened his bag to give his donkey some fodder, he was surprised to see his money in the mouth of his bag. 28 "My money has been returned!" he cried out to his brothers. "Here it is in my bag!" At that their hearts sank. Trembling, they asked one another, "What is this that God has done to us?"
29 When they got back to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan, they told him all that had happened to them.30 "The man who is lord of the country," they said, "spoke to us sternly and put us in custody as if we were spying on the land.31 But we said to him: 'We are honest men; we have never been spies.32 There were twelve of us brothers, sons of the same father; but one is gone, and the youngest one is at present with our father in the land of Canaan.'33 Then the man who is lord of the country said to us: 'This is how I shall know if you are honest men: leave one of your brothers with me, while the rest of you go home with rations for your starving families.34 When you come back to me with your youngest brother, and I know that you are honest men and not spies, I will restore your brother to you, and you may move about freely in the land.'"
35 When they were emptying their sacks, there in each one's sack was his moneybag! At the sight of their moneybags, they and their father were dismayed.36 Their father Jacob said to them: "Must you make me childless? Joseph is gone, and Simeon is gone, and now you would take away Benjamin! Why must such things always happen to me?"37 Then Reuben told his father: "Put him in my care, and I will bring him back to you. You may kill my own two sons if I do not return him to you."38 But Jacob replied: "My son shall not go down with you. Now that his full brother is dead, he is the only one left. If some disaster should befall him on the journey you must make, you would send my white head down to the nether world in grief."
Genèse (NAB) 36