But here I am again! Ready to begin!
Okay. So. Remember that there is a famine in the Land, and I mean *all* the Land. Not just Egypt, but other places too.
Jacob (also known as Israel) sees that his family is starving. He has heard that there is food in Egypt and that they are selling it. So he sends his oldest sons into Egypt to buy food. But Benjamin, who is Joseph's only full brother (the rest are his half-brothers) stays behind with his father.
I would like to point out that all if Jacob's children are not actually *children* at this point. They are grown men, most, if not all of whom are married and have their own children. Benjamin may only have been a teenager by this point, but it has been at least 15 years since Joseph was sold into slavery. Joseph had been a teenager when he went into Egypt, and he knows and remember his younger brother, so Benjamin may be in his 20's.
So Joseph's brothers come into Egypt, looking for food.
Joseph is in charge of selling the grain, so his brothers have to come to him about it. They don't recognize him, it's been 15 years. He's grown from an awkward teenager into a strong man. He dresses and speaks like the Egyptians. Even though he still understands the language his brothers speak, he uses an interpreter to talk to them. He is married and has children now. He has changed alot.
But he recognizes them.
As soon as they arrive, Joseph accuses them of being spies. He knows they aren't but he says they are anyway.
They answer him saying that they are honest men. They tell him that they have two more brothers, but one of them died (they are referring to Joseph) and the other is still at home with their father.
Joseph says he doesn't believe them. He says he wants proof. He tells them to bring their younger brother to prove that they aren't spies, that their story is true.
Joseph probably really just wanted to see Benjamin. He was the only one of his brothers who hadn't had a hand in selling him into slavery. He was the only one who is Joseph's full blooded brother. He probably wants to make sure that the older brothers have not treated Benjamin like they treated Joseph.
The brothers start talking to each other in their native langue, assuming Joseph can't understand what they are saying, but of course, he can.
They think that this must be a punishment from God for what they did to Joseph.
Reuben pipes in and says that he had told them not to hurt Joseph, but they hadn't listened, and now the blood was on their hands.
While listening to their conversation, Joseph gets choked up and has to leave to cry for a while. He may not have known that Reuben had tried to save him. Perhaps he had hated Reuben until now, and now realizes that he had tried to save him. Or perhaps he was just overwhelmed with the flurry of emotions that would be stirred up at seeing his brothers again.
So Joseph has the 10 oldest brothers locked in prison for three days (I bet it was the same prison that Joseph had been locked up in for so long).
After the three days are over, Joseph brings them out and tells them that he is going to keep Simeon until they bring back Benjamin.
I would like to point out here that Joseph did not keep Reuben. Although he was the oldest, he kept Simeon in prison instead. Simeon had been the oldest boy who had agreed to help in the plot against Joseph.
I'm sure there is some resentment against the brothers who had plotted to kill him. At this point, Joseph knows that Reuben had tried to save Joseph's life. He was going to come back and get him out of the pit later. But Simeon had been there and been part of selling Joseph into Egypt.
Even though Joseph is the most powerful man, aside from Pharaoh, in the entire world, he had to go through some hard times to get there. And he had not seen his family, not even heard about or from them, in over a decade.
So Simeon is thrown back into prison. The other brothers buy their food and take it back to their homes, not knowing that Joseph had put their money back into the bags of food.
When one of the brothers open his sack of grain to feed his donkey later, he finds his money back in his bag. He shows his brothers and they are terrified. Here they think that they have just *stolen* from the most powerful man in the world.
They take their food back to their homes and when they open all the other sacks of grain, they find all their money back in the bags. When they tell their father, they are all very afraid.
When they tell Jacob about what happened in Egypt, he is very upset.
Reuben asks if he can take Benjamin with him into Egypt, otherwise they won't ever be able to come back to buy any more food.
Jacob says no. He has lost Joseph and now Simeon, and they want to take Benjamin, the only remaining son of his most beloved wife.
Jacob is probably pretty mad at Reuben. He had been there both times that his brothers disappeared Being the oldest, he would have been responsible for his younger brothers (being the oldest can be a drag at times).
So Jacob won't let Benjamin go, and so they just wait until the food they bought runs out (yes, they did leave Simeon in Egypt in a prison. Great brothers, eh?).
Cheers!
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