The Silver Cup and the Revelation

¹He commanded the steward of his house, saying, “Fill the men’s sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put each man’s money in his sack’s mouth.

²Put my cup, the silver cup, in the sack’s mouth of the youngest, with his grain money.” He did according to the word that Joseph had spoken.

³As soon as the morning was light, the men were sent away, they and their donkeys.

⁴When they had gone out of the city, and were not yet far off, Joseph said to his steward, “Up, follow after the men. When you overtake them, ask them, ‘Why have you rewarded evil for good?

⁵Isn’t this that from which my lord drinks, and by which he indeed divines? You have done evil in so doing.’”

⁶He overtook them, and he spoke these words to them.

⁷They said to him, “Why does my lord speak such words as these? Far be it from your servants that they should do such a thing!

⁸Behold, the money, which we found in our sacks’ mouths, we brought again to you out of the land of Canaan. How then should we steal silver or gold out of your lord’s house?

⁹With whomever of your servants it is found, let him die, and we also will be my lord’s slaves.”

¹⁰He said, “Now also let it be according to your words. He with whom it is found will be my slave; and you will be blameless.”

¹¹Then they hurried, and each man took his sack down to the ground, and each man opened his sack.

¹²He searched, beginning with the oldest, and ending at the youngest. The cup was found in Benjamin’s sack.

¹³Then they tore their clothes, and each man loaded his donkey, and returned to the city.

¹⁴Judah and his brothers came to Joseph’s house, and he was still there. They fell on the ground before him.

¹⁵Joseph said to them, “What deed is this that you have done? Don’t you know that such a man as I can indeed do divination?”

¹⁶Judah said, “What will we tell my lord? What will we speak? How will we clear ourselves? God has found out the iniquity of your servants. Behold, we are my lord’s slaves, both we and he also in whose hand the cup is found.”

¹⁷He said, “Far be it from me that I should do so. The man in whose hand the cup is found, he will be my slave; but as for you, go up in peace to your father.”

¹⁸Then Judah came near to him, and said, “Oh, my lord, please let your servant speak a word in my lord’s ears, and don’t let your anger burn against your servant; for you are even as Pharaoh.

¹⁹My lord asked his servants, saying, ‘Have you a father, or a brother?’

²⁰We said to my lord, ‘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; and his father loves him.’

²¹You said to your servants, ‘Bring him down to me, that I may set my eyes on him.’

²²We said to my lord, ‘The boy can’t leave his father, for if he should leave his father, his father would die.’

²³You said to your servants, ‘Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you will see my face no more.’

²⁴When we came up to your servant my father, we told him the words of my lord.

²⁵Our father said, ‘Go again and buy us a little food.’

²⁶We said, ‘We can’t go down. If our youngest brother is with us, then we will go down: for we may not see the man’s face, unless our youngest brother is with us.’

²⁷Your servant, my father, said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons.

²⁸One went out from me, and I said, “Surely he is torn in pieces;” and I haven’t seen him since.

²⁹If you take this one also from me, and harm happens to him, you will bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Sheol.’

³⁰Now therefore when I come to your servant my father, and the boy is not with us; since his life is bound up in the boy’s life;

³¹it will happen, when he sees that the boy is no more, that he will die. Your servants will bring down the gray hairs of your servant, our father, with sorrow to Sheol.

³²For your servant became collateral for the boy to my father, saying, ‘If I don’t bring him to you, then I will bear the blame to my father forever.’

³³Now therefore, please let your servant stay instead of the boy, my lord’s slave; and let the boy go up with his brothers.

³⁴For how will I go up to my father, if the boy isn’t with me?—lest I see the evil that will come on my father.”

¹Then Joseph couldn’t control himself before all those who stood before him, and he called out, “Cause everyone to go out from me!” No one else stood with him, while Joseph made himself known to his brothers.

²He wept aloud. The Egyptians heard, and the house of Pharaoh heard.

³Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! Does my father still live?” His brothers couldn’t answer him; for they were terrified at his presence.

⁴Joseph said to his brothers, “Come near to me, please.” They came near. He said, “I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into Egypt.

⁵Now don’t be grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life.

⁶For these two years the famine has been in the land, and there are yet five years, in which there will be no plowing and no harvest.

⁷God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on the earth, and to save you alive by a great deliverance.

⁸So now it wasn’t you who sent me here, but God, and he has made me a father to Pharaoh, lord of all his house, and ruler over all the land of Egypt.

⁹Hurry, and go up to my father, and tell him, ‘This is what your son Joseph says, “God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me. Don’t wait.

¹⁰You shall dwell in the land of Goshen, and you will be near to me, you, your children, your children’s children, your flocks, your herds, and all that you have.

¹¹There I will provide for you; for there are yet five years of famine; lest you come to poverty, you, and your household, and all that you have.”’

¹²Behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that it is my mouth that speaks to you.

¹³You shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt, and of all that you have seen. You shall hurry and bring my father down here.”

¹⁴He fell on his brother Benjamin’s neck and wept, and Benjamin wept on his neck.

¹⁵He kissed all his brothers, and wept on them. After that his brothers talked with him.

¹⁶The report of it was heard in Pharaoh’s house, saying, “Joseph’s brothers have come.” It pleased Pharaoh well, and his servants.

¹⁷Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Tell your brothers, ‘Do this: Load your animals, and go, travel to the land of Canaan.

¹⁸Take your father and your households, and come to me, and I will give you the good of the land of Egypt, and you will eat the fat of the land.’

¹⁹Now you are commanded to do this: Take wagons out of the land of Egypt for your little ones, and for your wives, and bring your father, and come.

²⁰Also, don’t concern yourselves about your belongings, for the good of all the land of Egypt is yours.”

²¹The sons of Israel did so. Joseph gave them wagons, according to the commandment of Pharaoh, and gave them provision for the way.

²²He gave each one of them changes of clothing, but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver and five changes of clothing.

²³He sent the following to his father: ten donkeys loaded with the good things of Egypt, and ten female donkeys loaded with grain and bread and provision for his father by the way.

²⁴So he sent his brothers away, and they departed. He said to them, “See that you don’t quarrel on the way.”

²⁵They went up out of Egypt, and came into the land of Canaan, to Jacob their father.

²⁶They told him, saying, “Joseph is still alive, and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt.” His heart fainted, for he didn’t believe them.

²⁷They told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said to them. When he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob, their father, revived.

²⁸Israel said, “It is enough. Joseph my son is still alive. I will go and see him before I die.”