such words as these? Far be it from your servants that they should do such a thing! Remember that we brought back to you from the land of Canaan the money which we found in our sacks. Why then should we steal silver or gold from your master's house? Let that one of your servants with whom it is found die, and we will be my lord's slaves.' He said, 'Let it now be as you have said: he with whom it is found shall be my slave; but you shall be innocent.' Then each one hastily took down his sack to the ground and opened it; and the steward searched, beginning with the oldest and ending with the youngest; and the cup was found in Benjamin's sack. Then they tore their clothes, and every man loaded his ass and returned to the city.

28. JUDAH'S APPEAL FOR CLEMENCY

When Judah and his brothers came back to Joseph's house, he was still there; and they threw themselves before him on the ground. Joseph said to them, 'What deed is this that you have done? Do you not know that a man like me can divine with certainty?' Judah replied, 'What shall we say to my lord? What shall we speak or how shall we clear ourselves? God has found out the iniquity of your servants. See, both we and he also in whose possession the cup was found are my lord's slaves.' But he said, 'Far be it from me that I should do so! The man in whose possession the cup was found shall be my slave; but you yourselves go up in peace to your father.'

Then Judah came close to him and said, 'Oh, my lord, let your servant, I beg of you, speak a word in my lord's ears, and let not your anger be kindled against your servant; for you are even as Pharaoh. My lord asked his servants, saying, "Have you a

father or a brother?" And we said to my lord, “We have a father, an old man, and a child of his old age, a little one; and as his brother is dead, he is the only son of his mother who is left; and his father loves him." You said to your servants, "Bring him down to me, that I may see him." But we said to my lord, "The boy cannot leave his father; for if he should leave his father, his father would die." Then you said to your servants, "Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you shall not see me again.

'When we went up to your servant, my father, we told him the words of my lord; and our father said, "Go again, buy us a little food." But we said, “We cannot go down. If our youngest brother is with us, then we will go; for we cannot see the man unless our youngest brother is with us." And your servant, my father, said to us, "You know that my wife bore me two sons; and one went from me, and I said, 'Surely he is torn in pieces; and I have not seen him since. If you take this one also from me, and harm befall him, you will bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave." Now if I return to your servant, my father, and the boy with whose life his heart is bound up is not with us, then when he sees that there is no boy, he will die, and your servants will bring down the gray hairs of your servant our father with sorrow to the grave. For your servant became surety for the boy to my father, when I said, "If I do not bring him to you, then I will bear the blame before my father forever." Now therefore let your servant, I beg of you, remain instead of the boy as a slave to my lord, but let the boy go up with his brothers. For how can I go up to my father, if the boy is not with me, lest I should see the misfortune that would come upon my father.'

29. JOSEPH'S MAGNANIMITY

Then Joseph could not control himself before all those who were standing by him; so he cried out, ‘Let every man leave me.' So no man stood with him while Joseph made himself known to his brothers. But he wept so loudly that the Egyptians and Pharaoh's court heard.

Then Joseph said to his brothers, 'I am Joseph. Is my father yet alive?' But his brothers could not answer him, for they were embarrassed in his presence. Then Joseph said to his brothers, 'Come near to me, I beg of you.' So they came near. And he said, 'I am Joseph your brother whom you sold into Egypt. Do not be troubled nor angry with yourselves that you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has already been two years in the land, and there are still five years in which there shall be neither ploughing nor harvest. God sent me before you to save you alive through a great deliverance and thus give you descendants on the earth. So now it is not you who sent me here, but God. And he has made me like a father to Pharaoh and master of all his household and ruler over all the land of Egypt.

'Go up quickly to my father and say to him, "Your son Joseph says: God has made me master of all Egypt, come down to me without delay. You shall live in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me with your children and children's children, with your flocks and your herds and all that you have, for fear that you, together with your household and all that you have, will suffer want; and there I will provide for you, for there will be five more years of famine. Now. you and my brother Benjamin see that it is I who am speaking to you. Tell my father all about my

honor in Egypt and what you have seen, and you must quickly bring him down here.'

Then he fell upon his brother Benjamin's neck and wept, and Benjamin wept upon his neck. He also kissed all his brothers and wept upon them; and after that his brothers talked with him.

The report that Joseph's brothers had arrived spread in Pharaoh's palace, and it pleased Pharaoh and his servants greatly. Pharaoh said to Joseph, 'Say to your brothers, "Do this: load your beasts, go to the land of Canaan, and take your father and your households and come to me, and I will give you the best of the land of Egypt, and you shall eat the best that the land affords. Now 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. Also pay no attention to your household goods, for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours." And the sons of Jacob did as commanded.

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So Joseph gave them wagons according to Pharaoh's orders and provisions for the journey. To each of them he gave a change of clothing, but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver and five changes of clothing. And to his father he sent the following gifts: ten asses loaded with the best products of Egypt and ten asses loaded with grain and bread and provisions for his father on the journey.

So he sent his brothers away, and as they departed, he said to them, 'See that you do not quarrel on the journey!' So they went up out of Egypt and came into the land of Canaan to Jacob their father. And they told him, 'Joseph is yet alive, and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt!' Then Jacob's heart stood still, for he could not believe them. But when they told him all that Joseph had said to them and when

he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father revived, and he said, 'It is enough; Joseph my son is still alive. I will go and see him before I die.'

30. JOSEPH'S LOYALTY TO HIS FAMILY

Then Jacob set out on his journey with all that he had. And he went to Beersheba and offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. God spoke to him in a vision by night and said, ‘Jacob, Jacob.' He answered, 'Here am I.' Then he said, 'I am God, the God of your father. Do not fear to go down into Egypt, for there I will make of you a great nation. I myself will go down with you into Egypt; and I will surely bring you up again; and Joseph shall close your dying eyes.'

When Jacob left Beersheba, his sons carried him and their little ones and their wives in the wagons that Pharaoh had sent to carry him. Jacob also sent Judah before him to Joseph, that he might show him the way to Goshen.

When they came into the land of Goshen, Joseph made ready his chariot, and went up to Goshen to meet Jacob his father, and when he presented himself to him Jacob fell on his neck and wept there a long time.

Then Jacob said to Joseph, 'Now let me die, since I have seen your face and know that you are still alive.' But Joseph said to his brothers and to his father's household, "I will go up and tell Pharaoh and will say to him, "My brothers and my father's household who were in the land of Canaan have come to me. Now the men are shepherds, for they have been keepers of cattle; and they have brought their flocks and cattle and all that they have." When Pharaoh calls you,