Acts 7:12

¹Now Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt, and Jacob said to his sons, “Why do you look at one another?” ²He said, “Behold, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there, and buy for us from there, so that we may live, and not die.” ³Joseph’s ten brothers went down to buy grain from Egypt. ⁴But Jacob didn’t send Benjamin, Joseph’s brother, with his brothers; for he said, “Lest perhaps harm happen to him.” ⁵The sons of Israel came to buy among those who came, for the famine was in the land of Canaan. ⁶Joseph was the governor over the land. It was he who sold to all the people of the land. Joseph’s brothers came, and bowed themselves down to him with their faces to the earth. ⁷Joseph saw his brothers, and he recognized them, but acted like a stranger to them, and spoke roughly with them. He said to them, “Where did you come from?” They said, “From the land of Canaan, to buy food.”

⁸Joseph recognized his brothers, but they didn’t recognize him. ⁹Joseph remembered the dreams which he dreamed about them, and said to them, “You are spies! You have come to see the nakedness of the land.”

¹⁰They said to him, “No, my lord, but your servants have come to buy food. ¹¹We are all one man’s sons; we are honest men. Your servants are not spies.”

¹²He said to them, “No, but you have come to see the nakedness of the land!”

¹³They said, “We, your servants, 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.”

¹⁴Joseph said to them, “It is like I told you, saying, ‘You are spies!’ ¹⁵By this you shall be tested. By the life of Pharaoh, you shall not go out from here, unless your youngest brother comes here. ¹⁶Send one of you, and let him get your brother, and you shall be bound, that your words may be tested, whether there is truth in you, or else by the life of Pharaoh surely you are spies.” ¹⁷He put them all together into custody for three days.

¹⁸Joseph said to them the third day, “Do this, and live, for I fear God. ¹⁹If 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. ²⁰Bring your youngest brother to me; so will your words be verified, and you won’t die.” They did so.

²¹They 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.” ²²Reuben answered them, saying, “Didn’t I tell you, saying, ‘Don’t sin against the child,’ and you wouldn’t listen? Therefore also, behold, his blood is required.” ²³They didn’t know that Joseph understood them; for there was an interpreter between them. ²⁴He turned himself away from them, and wept. Then he returned to them, and spoke to them, and took Simeon from among them, and bound him before their eyes.

²When they had eaten up the grain which they had brought out of Egypt, their father said to them, “Go again, buy us a little more food.”