¹⁸ Then Joseph said to them the third day, “Do this and live, ^(A)for I fear God: ¹⁹ If you are honest men, let one of your brothers be confined to your prison house; but you, go and carry grain for the famine of your houses. ²⁰ And ^(B)bring your youngest brother to me; so your words will be verified, and you shall not die.”

And they did so. ²¹ Then they said to one another, ^(C)“We are truly guilty concerning our brother, for we saw the anguish of his soul when he pleaded with us, and we would not hear; ^(D)therefore this distress has come upon us.”

²² And Reuben answered them, saying, ^(E)“Did I not speak to you, saying, ‘Do not sin against the boy’; and you would not listen? Therefore behold, his blood is now ^(F)required of us.” ²³ But they did not know that Joseph understood them, for he spoke to them through an interpreter. ²⁴ And he turned himself away from them and ^(G)wept. Then he returned to them again, and talked with them. And he took ^(H)Simeon from them and bound him before their eyes.

The Brothers Return to Canaan

²⁵ Then Joseph ^(I)gave a command to fill their sacks with grain, to ^(J)restore every man’s money to his sack, and to give them provisions for the journey. ^(K)Thus he did for them. ²⁶ So they loaded their donkeys with the grain and departed from there. ²⁷ But as ^(L)one of them opened his sack to give his donkey feed at the encampment, he saw his money; and there it was, in the mouth of his sack. ²⁸ So he said to his brothers, “My money has been restored, and there it is, in my sack!” Then their hearts ^[a]failed them and they were afraid, saying to one another, “What is this that God has done to us?”

²⁹ Then they went to Jacob their father in the land of Canaan and told him all that had happened to them, saying: ³⁰ “The man who is lord of the land ^(M)spoke ^[b]roughly to us, and took us for spies of the country. ³¹ But we said to him, ‘We are honest men; we are not spies. ³² We are twelve brothers, sons of our father; one is no more, and the youngest is with our father this day in the land of Canaan.’ ³³ Then the man, the lord of the country, said to us, ^(N)‘By this I will know that you are honest men: Leave one of your brothers here with me, take food for the famine of your households, and be gone. ³⁴ And bring your ^(O)youngest brother to me; so I shall know that you are not spies, but that you are honest men. I will grant your brother to you, and you may ^(P)trade in the land.’ ”

³⁵ Then it happened as they emptied their sacks, that surprisingly ^(Q)each man’s bundle of money was in his sack; and when they and their father saw the bundles of money, they were afraid.