¹ Now when Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt, Jacob said to his sons, Why do ye look one upon another?

² And he said, Behold, I have heard that there is corn in Egypt: go down thither, and buy for us from thence; that we may live, and not die.

³ And Joseph's ten brethren went down to buy corn in Egypt.

⁴ But Benjamin, Joseph's brother, Jacob sent not with his brethren: for he said, Lest perhaps mischief shall befall him.

⁵ And the sons of Israel came to buy corn among those that came: for the famine was in the land of Canaan.

⁶ And Joseph was the governor over the land, and he it was that sold to all the people of the land: and Joseph's brethren came, and bowed themselves before him with their faces to the earth.

⁷ And Joseph saw his brethren, and he knew them, but made himself strange to them, and spoke roughly to them; and he said to them, Whence come ye? And they said, From the land of Canaan to buy food.

⁸ And Joseph knew his brethren, but they knew not him.

⁹ And Joseph remembered the dreams which he dreamed of them, and said to them, Ye are spies; to see the nakedness of the land have ye come.

¹⁰ And they said to him, No, my lord, but to buy food have thy servants come.

¹¹ We are all one man's sons; we are true men; thy servants are no spies.

¹² And he said to them, No, but to see the nakedness of the land have ye come.

¹³ And they said, Thy servants are twelve brethren, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan; and behold, the youngest is this day with our father, and one is not.

¹⁴ And Joseph said to them, That is what I spoke to you, saying, Ye are spies:

¹⁵ By this ye shall be proved: By the life of Pharaoh ye shall not go forth hence, except your youngest brother shall come hither.

¹⁶ Send one of you, and let him bring your brother, and ye shall be kept in prison, that your words may be proved, whether there is any truth in you: or else by the life of Pharaoh surely ye are spies.

¹⁷ And he put them all together into custody three days.

¹⁸ And Joseph said to them the third day, This do, and live; for I fear God:

¹⁹ If ye are true men, let one of your brethren be bound in the house of your prison: go ye, carry corn for the famine of your houses:

²⁰ But bring your youngest brother to me; so shall your words be verified, and ye shall not die. And they did so.

²¹ And they said one to another, We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear; therefore is this distress come upon us.

²² And Reuben answered them, saying, Did I not speak to you, saying, Do not sin against the young man; and ye would not hear? therefore behold also his blood is required.

²³ And they knew not that Joseph understood them; for he spoke to them by an interpreter.

²⁴ And he turned himself away from them, and wept; and returned to them again, and communed with them, and took from them Simeon, and bound him before their eyes.

²⁵ Then Joseph commanded to fill their sacks with corn, and to restore every man's money into his sack, and to give them provision for the way: and thus did he to them.

²⁶ And they loaded their asses with the corn, and departed thence.

²⁷ And as one of them opened his sack to give his ass provender in the inn, he espied his money: for behold, it was in his sack's mouth.

²⁸ And he said to his brethren, My money is restored; and see it is even in my sack: and their heart failed them, and they were afraid, saying one to another, What is this that God hath done to us?

²⁹ And they came to Jacob their father to the land of Canaan, and told him all that befell them, saying,

³⁰ The man who is the lord of the land, spoke roughly to us, and took us for spies of the country.

³¹ And we said to him, We are true men; we are no spies:

³² We are twelve brethren, sons of our father: one is not, and the youngest is this day with our father in the land of Canaan.

³³ And the man, the lord of the country, said to us, By this shall I know that ye are true men: leave one of your brethren here with me, and take food for the famine of your households, and depart:

³⁴ And bring your youngest brother to me: then shall I know that ye are no spies, but that ye are true men: then will I deliver to you your brother, and ye shall traffick in the land.

³⁵ And it came to pass as they emptied their sacks, that behold, every man's bundle of money was in his sack; and when they and their father saw the bundles of money, they were afraid.

³⁶ And Jacob their father said to them, Me have ye bereaved: Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away: all these things are against me.

³⁷ And Reuben spoke to his father, saying, Slay my two sons, if I bring him not to thee: deliver him into my hand, and I will bring him to thee again.

³⁸ And he said, My son shall not go down with you; for his brother is dead, and he is left alone: if mischief shall befall him by the way in which ye go, then will ye bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave.

¹ Hear my teaching, my people. Turn your ears to the words of my mouth.

² I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old,

³ Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.

⁴ We will not hide them from their children, telling to the generation to come the praises of Yahweh, his strength, and his wondrous works that he has done.

⁵ For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a teaching in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children;

⁶ that the generation to come might know, even the children who should be born; who should arise and tell their children,

⁷ that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments,

⁸ and might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that didn't make their hearts loyal, whose spirit was not steadfast with God.

⁹ The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.

¹⁰ They didn't keep God's covenant, and refused to walk in his law.

¹¹ They forgot his doings, his wondrous works that he had shown them.

¹² He did marvelous things in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.

¹³ He split the sea, and caused them to pass through. He made the waters stand as a heap.

¹⁴ In the daytime he also led them with a cloud, and all night with a light of fire.

¹⁵ He split rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink abundantly as out of the depths.

¹⁶ He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.

¹⁷ Yet they still went on to sin against him, to rebel against the Most High in the desert.

¹⁸ They tempted God in their heart by asking food according to their desire.

¹⁹ Yes, they spoke against God. They said, "Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?

²⁰ Behold, he struck the rock, so that waters gushed out, and streams overflowed. Can he give bread also? Will he provide flesh for his people?"

²¹ Therefore Yahweh heard, and was angry. A fire was kindled against Jacob, anger also went up against Israel,

²² because they didn't believe in God, and didn't trust in his salvation.

²³ Yet he commanded the skies above, and opened the doors of heaven.

²⁴ He rained down manna on them to eat, and gave them food from the sky.

²⁵ Man ate the bread of angels. He sent them food to the full.

²⁶ He caused the east wind to blow in the sky. By his power he guided the south wind.

²⁷ He rained also flesh on them as the dust; winged birds as the sand of the seas.

²⁸ He let them fall in the midst of their camp, around their habitations.

²⁹ So they ate, and were well filled. He gave them their own desire.

³⁰ They didn't turn from their cravings. Their food was yet in their mouths,

³¹ when the anger of God went up against them, killed some of the fattest of them, and struck down the young men of Israel.

³² For all this they still sinned, and didn't believe in his wondrous works.

³³ Therefore he consumed their days in vanity, and their years in terror.

³⁴ When he killed them, then they inquired after him. They returned and sought God earnestly.

³⁵ They remembered that God was their rock, the Most High God, their redeemer.

³⁶ But they flattered him with their mouth, and lied to him with their tongue.

³⁷ For their heart was not right with him, neither were they faithful in his covenant.

³⁸ But he, being merciful, forgave iniquity, and didn't destroy them. Yes, many times he turned his anger away, and didn't stir up all his wrath.

³⁹ He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes away, and doesn't come again.

⁴⁰ How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness, and grieved him in the desert!

⁴¹ They turned again and tempted God, and provoked the Holy One of Israel.

⁴² They didn't remember his hand, nor the day when he redeemed them from the adversary;

⁴³ how he set his signs in Egypt, his wonders in the field of Zoan,

⁴⁴ he turned their rivers into blood, and their streams, so that they could not drink.

⁴⁵ He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.

⁴⁶ He gave also their increase to the caterpillar, and their labor to the locust.

⁴⁷ He destroyed their vines with hail, their sycamore fig trees with frost.

⁴⁸ He gave over their livestock also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.

⁴⁹ He threw on them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, indignation, and trouble, and a band of angels of evil.

⁵⁰ He made a path for his anger. He didn't spare their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence,

⁵¹ and struck all the firstborn in Egypt, the chief of their strength in the tents of Ham.

⁵² But he led forth his own people like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

⁵³ He led them safely, so that they weren't afraid, but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

⁵⁴ He brought them to the border of his sanctuary, to this mountain, which his right hand had taken.

⁵⁵ He also drove out the nations before them, allotted them for an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.

⁵⁶ Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God, and didn't keep his testimonies;

⁵⁷ but turned back, and dealt treacherously like their fathers. They were turned aside like a deceitful bow.

⁵⁸ For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their engraved images.

⁵⁹ When God heard this, he was angry, and greatly abhorred Israel;

⁶⁰ So that he forsook the tent of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men;

⁶¹ and delivered his strength into captivity, his glory into the adversary's hand.

⁶² He also gave his people over to the sword, and was angry with his inheritance.

⁶³ Fire devoured their young men. Their virgins had no wedding song.

⁶⁴ Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows couldn't weep.

⁶⁵ Then the Lord awakened as one out of sleep, like a mighty man who shouts by reason of wine.

⁶⁶ He struck his adversaries backward. He put them to a perpetual reproach.

⁶⁷ Moreover he rejected the tent of Joseph, and didn't choose the tribe of Ephraim,

⁶⁸ But chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion which he loved.

⁶⁹ He built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth which he has established forever.

⁷⁰ He also chose David his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds;

⁷¹ from following the ewes that have their young, he brought him to be the shepherd of Jacob, his people, and Israel, his inheritance.

⁷² So he was their shepherd according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands. A Psalm by Asaph.