Genesis 42 explained: Joseph's Brothers Come for Grain

Famine sends the brothers (vv. 1-5)

The famine reaches Canaan too, so Jacob sends ten of his sons to Egypt to buy grain. He keeps back Benjamin, Joseph's only full brother, because he cannot bear to lose him as he believes he lost Joseph.

Bowing to a stranger (vv. 6-8)

The brothers bow low before Egypt's governor without realizing he is Joseph, whom they sold as a teenager about twenty years earlier. Their bowing matches Joseph's boyhood dreams of his brothers bowing to him, the dreams that made them hate him in chapter 37.

Accused of spying (vv. 9-17)

Joseph speaks harshly and accuses them of scouting Egypt's weak points, a common suspicion toward foreigners at the time, then jails them for three days. The story never says exactly why he acts this way, though many readers think he wanted news of his father and Benjamin and wanted to see whether his brothers had changed.

Old guilt surfaces (vv. 18-24)

Saying he fears God, Joseph softens his terms: one brother stays as a hostage while the rest take food home and must come back with Benjamin. Not knowing he understands them, the brothers blame their trouble on ignoring his pleas years ago, and he turns away to weep before having Simeon tied up in front of them.

Silver in the sacks (vv. 25-35)

Joseph secretly has their payment put back in their grain sacks along with supplies for the road. To the brothers this is frightening rather than kind, since it could make them look like thieves, and they read it as something God is doing to them.

Jacob refuses (vv. 36-38)

Jacob, grieving Joseph and now Simeon, refuses to risk Benjamin, even when Reuben desperately offers his own two sons' lives as a guarantee. Jacob says losing Benjamin would send him to the grave in grief.

Key verse: Genesis 42:21

Where Christians differ

Christians differ on whether Joseph's harsh treatment of his brothers is a wise and loving test meant to bring them to honesty, or also shows his own lingering hurt and anger working itself out.

Something to think about

When an old wrong comes back to mind years later, what do you think makes it possible, or hard, for people to face it honestly?