The Living Bible (17 page)
Authors: Inc. Tyndale House Publishers
Tags: #BIBLES / Other Translations / Text
But there was no relief from the terrible famine throughout the land.
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When the grain they had brought from Egypt was almost gone, their father said to them, “Go again and buy us a little food.”
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But Judah told him, “The man wasn’t fooling one bit when he said, ‘Don’t ever come back again unless your brother is with you.’ We cannot go unless you let Benjamin go with us.”
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“Why did you ever tell him you had another brother?” Israel moaned. “Why did you have to treat me like that?”
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“But the man specifically asked us about our family,” they told him. “He wanted to know whether our father was still living and he asked us if we had another brother, so we told him. How could we know that he was going to say, ‘Bring me your brother’?”
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Judah said to his father, “Send the lad with me and we will be on our way; otherwise we will all die of starvation—and not only we, but you and all our little ones.
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I guarantee his safety. If I don’t bring him back to you, then let me bear the blame forever.
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For we could have gone and returned by this time if you had let him come.”
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So their father Israel finally said to them, “If it can’t be avoided, then at least do this. Load your donkeys with the best products of the land. Take them to the man as gifts—balm, honey, spices, myrrh, pistachio nuts, and almonds.
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Take double money so that you can pay back what was in the mouths of your sacks, as it was probably someone’s mistake,
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and take your brother and go.
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May God Almighty give you mercy before the man, so that he will release Simeon and return Benjamin. And if I must bear the anguish of their deaths, then so be it.”
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So they took the gifts and double money and went to Egypt, and stood before Joseph.
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When Joseph saw that Benjamin was with them, he said to the manager of his household, “These men will eat with me this noon. Take them home and prepare a big feast.”
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So the man did as he was told and took them to Joseph’s palace.
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They were badly frightened when they saw where they were being taken.
“It’s because of the money returned to us in our sacks,” they said. “He wants to pretend we stole it and seize us as slaves, with our donkeys.”
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As they arrived at the entrance to the palace, they went over to Joseph’s household manager,
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and said to him, “O sir, after our first trip to Egypt to buy food,
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as we were returning home, we stopped for the night and opened our sacks, and the money was there that we had paid for the grain. Here it is; we have brought it back again,
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along with additional money to buy more grain. We have no idea how the money got into our sacks.”
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“Don’t worry about it,” the household manager told them; “your God, even the God of your fathers, must have put it there, for we collected your money all right.”
Then he released Simeon and brought him out to them.
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They were then conducted into the palace and given water to refresh their feet; and their donkeys were fed.
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Then they got their presents ready for Joseph’s arrival at noon, for they were told that they would be eating there.
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When Joseph came home they gave him their presents, bowing low before him.
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He asked how they had been getting along. “And how is your father—the old man you spoke about? Is he still alive?”
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“Yes,” they replied. “He is alive and well.” Then again they bowed before him.
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Looking at his brother Benjamin,
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he asked, “Is this your youngest brother, the one you told me about? How are you, my son? God be gracious to you.”
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Then Joseph made a hasty exit, for he was overcome with love for his brother and had to go out and cry. Going into his bedroom, he wept there.
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Then he washed his face and came out, keeping himself under control. “Let’s eat,” he said.
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Joseph ate by himself, his brothers were served at a separate table, and the Egyptians at still another; for Egyptians despise Hebrews and never eat with them.
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He told each of them where to sit, and seated them in the order of their ages, from the oldest to the youngest, much to their amazement!
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Their food was served to them from his own table. He gave the largest serving to Benjamin—five times as much as to any of the others! They had a wonderful time bantering back and forth, and the wine flowed freely!
When his brothers were ready to leave,
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Joseph ordered his household manager to fill each of their sacks with as much grain as they could carry—and to put into the mouth of each man’s sack the money he had paid!
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He was also told to put Joseph’s own silver cup at the top of Benjamin’s sack, along with the grain money. So the household manager did as he was told.
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The brothers were up at dawn and on their way with their loaded donkeys.
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But when they were barely out of the city, Joseph said to his household manager, “Chase after them and stop them and ask them why they are acting like this when their benefactor has been so kind to them?
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Ask them, ‘What do you mean by stealing my lord’s personal silver drinking cup, which he uses for fortune-telling? What a wicked thing you have done!’”
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So he caught up with them and spoke to them along the lines he had been instructed.
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“What in the world are you talking about?” they demanded. “What kind of people do you think we are, that you accuse us of such a terrible thing as that?
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Didn’t we bring back the money we found in the mouth of our sacks? Why would we steal silver or gold from your master’s house?
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If you find his cup with any one of us, let that one die. And all the rest of us will be slaves forever to your master.”
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“Fair enough,” the man replied, “except that only the one who stole it will be a slave, and the rest of you can go free.”
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They quickly took down their sacks from the backs of their donkeys and opened them.
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He began searching the oldest brother’s sack, going on down the line to the youngest. And the cup was found in Benjamin’s!
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They ripped their clothing in despair, loaded the donkeys again, and returned to the city.
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Joseph was still home when Judah and his brothers arrived, and they fell to the ground before him.
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“What were you trying to do?” Joseph demanded. “Didn’t you know such a man as I would know who stole it?”
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And Judah said, “Oh, what shall we say to my lord? How can we plead? How can we prove our innocence? God is punishing us for our sins. Sir, we have all returned to be your slaves, both we and he in whose sack the cup was found.”
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“No,” Joseph said. “Only the man who stole the cup, he shall be my slave. The rest of you can go on home to your father.”
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Then Judah stepped forward and said, “O sir, let me say just this one word to you. Be patient with me for a moment, for I know you can doom me in an instant, as though you were Pharaoh himself.
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“Sir, you asked us if we had a father or a brother,
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and we said, ‘Yes, we have a father, an old man, and a child of his old age, a little one. And his brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother’s children, and his father loves him very much.’
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And you said to us, ‘Bring him here so that I can see him.’
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But we said to you, ‘Sir, the lad cannot leave his father, for his father would die.’
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But you told us, ‘Don’t come back here unless your youngest brother is with you.’
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So we returned to our father and told him what you had said.
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And when he said, ‘Go back again and buy us a little food,’
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we replied, ‘We can’t, unless you let our youngest brother go with us. Only then may we come.’
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“Then my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife had two sons,
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and that one of them went away and never returned—doubtless torn to pieces by some wild animal; I have never seen him since.
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And if you take away his brother from me also, and any harm befalls him, I shall die with sorrow.’
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And now, sir, if I go back to my father and the lad is not with us—seeing that our father’s life is bound up in the lad’s life—
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when he sees that the boy is not with us, our father will die; and we will be responsible for bringing down his gray hairs with sorrow to the grave.
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Sir, I pledged my father that I would take care of the lad. I told him, ‘If I don’t bring him back to you, I shall bear the blame forever.’
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Please sir, let me stay here as a slave instead of the lad, and let the lad return with his brothers.
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For how shall I return to my father if the lad is not with me? I cannot bear to see what this would do to him.”