1 When Jacob learned that there was grain in Egypt, he said to his sons, “Why do you keep looking at each other?
2 Listen,” he went on, “I have heard there is grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy some for us so that we will live and not die.”
3 So 10 of Joseph’s brothers went down to buy grain from Egypt.
4 But Jacob did not send Joseph’s brother Benjamin with his brothers, for he thought, “Something might happen to him.”
5 The sons of Israel were among those who came to buy grain, for the famine was in the land of Canaan.
6 Joseph was in charge of the country; he sold grain to all its people. His brothers came and bowed down before him with their faces to the ground.
7 When Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them, but he treated them like strangers and spoke harshly to them.“Where do you come from? ” he asked.“From the land of Canaan to buy food,” they replied.