Study Desk

This advice made sense to Pharaoh and all his officials.

So Pharaoh asked his officials, "Can we find a man like Joseph, one in whom the Spirit of God is present?"

Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his own hand and put it on Joseph's. He clothed him with fine linen clothes and put a gold chain around his neck.

Pharaoh had him ride in the chariot used by his second-in-command, and they cried out before him, "Kneel down!" So he placed him over all the land of Egypt.

Pharaoh also said to Joseph, "I am Pharaoh, but without your permission no one will move his hand or his foot in all the land of Egypt."

Pharaoh gave Joseph the name Zaphenath-Paneah. He also gave him Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, to be his wife. So Joseph took charge of all the land of Egypt.

When Jacob heard there was grain in Egypt, he said to his sons, "Why are you looking at each other?"

But Jacob did not send Joseph's brother Benjamin with his brothers, for he said, "What if some accident happens to him?"

When Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them, but he pretended to be a stranger to them and spoke to them harshly. He asked, "Where do you come from?" They answered, "From the land of Canaan, to buy grain for food."

Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him.

Reuben said to them, "Didn't I say to you, ‘Don't sin against the boy,' but you wouldn't listen? So now we must pay for shedding his blood!"

Then Joseph gave orders to fill their bags with grain, to return each man's money to his sack, and to give them provisions for the journey. His orders were carried out.

When one of them opened his sack to get feed for his donkey at their resting place, he saw his money in the mouth of his sack.

He said to his brothers, "My money was returned! Here it is in my sack!" They were dismayed; they turned trembling to one another and said, "What in the world has God done to us?"

When they were emptying their sacks, there was each man's bag of money in his sack! When they and their father saw the bags of money, they were afraid.

Then Reuben said to his father, "You may put my two sons to death if I do not bring him back to you. Put him in my care and I will bring him back to you."

But Jacob replied, "My son will not go down there with you, for his brother is dead and he alone is left. If an accident happens to him on the journey you have to make, then you will bring down my gray hair in sorrow to the grave."

Then Judah said to his father Israel, "Send the boy with me and we will go immediately. Then we will live and not die—we and you and our little ones.

When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the servant who was over his household, "Bring the men to the house. Slaughter an animal and prepare it, for the men will eat with me at noon."

But when we came to the place where we spent the night, we opened our sacks and each of us found his money—the full amount—in the mouth of his sack. So we have returned it.