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Genesis 44 :: English Standard Version (ESV)

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Joseph Tests His Brothers

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 44:1 - Then he commanded the steward of his house, “Fill the men’s sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put each man’s money in the mouth of his sack,
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 44:2 - and put my cup, the silver cup, in the mouth of the sack of the youngest, with his money for the grain.” And he did as Joseph told him.
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 44:3 - As soon as the morning was light, the men were sent away with their donkeys.
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 44:4 - They had gone only a short distance from the city. Now Joseph said to his steward, “Up, follow after the men, and when you overtake them, say to them, ‘Why have you repaid evil for good?[fn]
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 44:5 - Is it not from this that my lord drinks, and by this that he practices divination? You have done evil in doing this.’”
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 44:6 - When he overtook them, he spoke to them these words.
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 44:7 - They said to him, “Why does my lord speak such words as these? Far be it from your servants to do such a thing!
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 44:8 - Behold, the money that we found in the mouths of our sacks we brought back to you from the land of Canaan. How then could we steal silver or gold from your lord’s house?
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 44:9 - Whichever of your servants is found with it shall die, and we also will be my lord’s servants.”
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 44:10 - He said, “Let it be as you say: he who is found with it shall be my servant, and the rest of you shall be innocent.”
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 44:11 - Then each man quickly lowered his sack to the ground, and each man opened his sack.
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 44:12 - And he searched, beginning with the eldest and ending with the youngest. And the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack.
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 44:13 - Then they tore their clothes, and every man loaded his donkey, and they returned to the city.
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 44:14 - When Judah and his brothers came to Joseph’s house, he was still there. They fell before him to the ground.
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 44:15 - Joseph said to them, “What deed is this that you have done? Do you not know that a man like me can indeed practice divination?”
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 44:16 - And Judah said, “What shall we say to my lord? What shall we speak? Or how can we clear ourselves? God has found out the guilt of your servants; behold, we are my lord’s servants, both we and he also in whose hand the cup has been found.”
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 44:17 - But he said, “Far be it from me that I should do so! Only the man in whose hand the cup was found shall be my servant. But as for you, go up in peace to your father.”
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 44:18 - Then Judah went up to him and said, “Oh, my lord, please let your servant speak a word in my lord’s ears, and let not your anger burn against your servant, for you are like Pharaoh himself.
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 44:19 - My lord asked his servants, saying, ‘Have you a father, or a brother?’
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 44:20 - And we said to my lord, ‘We have a father, an old man, and a young brother, the child of his old age. His brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother’s children, and his father loves him.’
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 44:21 - Then you said to your servants, ‘Bring him down to me, that I may set my eyes on him.’
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 44:22 - We said to my lord, ‘The boy cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father, his father would die.’
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 44:23 - Then you said to your servants, ‘Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you shall not see my face again.’
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 44:24 - “When we went back to your servant my father, we told him the words of my lord.
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 44:25 - And when our father said, ‘Go again, buy us a little food,’
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 44:26 - we said, ‘We cannot go down. If our youngest brother goes with us, then we will go down. For we cannot see the man’s face unless our youngest brother is with us.’
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 44:27 - Then your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons.
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 44:28 - One left me, and I said, “Surely he has been torn to pieces,” and I have never seen him since.
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 44:29 - If you take this one also from me, and harm happens to him, you will bring down my gray hairs in evil to Sheol.’
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 44:30 - “Now therefore, as soon as I come to your servant my father, and the boy is not with us, then, as his life is bound up in the boy’s life,
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 44:31 - as soon as he sees that the boy is not with us, he will die, and your servants will bring down the gray hairs of your servant our father with sorrow to Sheol.
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 44:32 - For your servant became a pledge of safety for the boy to my father, saying, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, then I shall bear the blame before my father all my life.’
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 44:33 - Now therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the boy as a servant to my lord, and let the boy go back with his brothers.
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 44:34 - For how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? I fear to see the evil that would find my father.”
ESV Footnotes
Septuagint (compare Vulgate) adds Why have you stolen my silver cup?
ESV

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001, 2007, 2011, 2016 by Crossway Books and Bibles, a Publishing Ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

See detailed copyright information.

For more information on this translation, see the ESV Preface.

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