Study Desk

Right away his hand went back in, and the other child was born first. The woman then said, "What an opening you've made for yourself!" So they named the baby Perez.

They spent a long time in prison, and Potiphar, the official in charge of the palace guard, made Joseph their servant.

"We each had a dream last night," they answered, "and there is no one to tell us what they mean." Joseph replied, "Doesn't God know the meaning of dreams? Now tell me what you dreamed."

Later, seven other heads of grain appeared, but they were thin and scorched by the east wind.

I saw seven fat, healthy cows come up out of the river, and they began feeding on the grass.

Then seven other heads of grain came up. They were thin and scorched by a wind from the desert.

They did not recognize Joseph, but right away he knew who they were, though he pretended not to know. Instead, he spoke harshly and asked, "Where do you come from?" "From the land of Canaan," they answered. "We've come here to buy grain."

"No sir," they replied. "We're your servants, and we have only come to buy grain.

But they explained, "Sir, we come from a family of twelve brothers. The youngest is still with our father in Canaan, and one of our brothers is dead."

Joseph turned away from them and cried, but soon he turned back and spoke to them again. Then he had Simeon tied up and taken away while they watched.

they each loaded the grain on their donkeys and left.

When they stopped for the night, one of them opened his sack to get some grain for his donkey, and right away he saw his moneybag.

"Here's my money!" he told his brothers. "Right here in my sack." They were trembling with fear as they stared at one another and asked themselves, "What has God done to us?"

When the brothers started emptying their sacks of grain, they found their moneybags in them. They were frightened, and so was their father Jacob,

until finally, Jacob's family had eaten all the grain they had bought in Egypt. So Jacob said to his sons, "Go back and buy some more grain."

They answered, "He asked a lot of questions about us and our family. He wanted to know if you were still alive and if we had any more brothers. All we could do was answer his questions. How could we know he would tell us to bring along our brother?"

The brothers took the gifts, twice the amount of money, and Benjamin. Then they hurried off to Egypt. When they stood in front of Joseph,

he saw Benjamin and told the servant in charge of his house, "Take these men to my house. Slaughter an animal and cook it, so they can eat with me at noon."

But on the way they got worried and started thinking, "We are being taken there because of the money that was put back in our sacks last time. He will arrest us, make us his slaves, and take our donkeys."

When Joseph came home, they gave him the gifts they had brought, and they bowed down to him.