Now Joseph had told his steward that when he filled the sacks, he should put into Benjamin’s sack a silver cup. And nobody knew it but the steward. So early the next morning, with Simeon and Benjamin, off they started very happily for home, singing as they went. And by and by, they heard a sound of voices following, and there was Joseph’s steward and some other men.
And the steward said, “Stop, you thieves, and give me my master’s silver cup which you have stolen.”
And the brothers stopped, and said, “We are no thieves. We have taken neither gold nor silver from your master’s palace. Search us, and the man with whom you find the cup shall die.”
“Very well,” he said, “the man with whom the cup is found shall be my slave.” So he searched the sacks, beginning with the oldest brother and ending with the youngest, and in Benjamin’s sack, there was the cup!
And they all cried out in great grief, and tore their clothes, for that was the custom, and back they went to Joseph’s palace. And Judah, one of the brothers, spoke to Joseph. “My lord,” he said, “you asked to see our little brother, and we brought him down. And our father said as we came away, ‘If mischief befall him, you shall bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave,’ and now if we go back without our brother, our father will die. Let me take his place. I will be your slave; and let him go.”
And Joseph sent everybody out of the room, except his brothers. And he said, “I am Joseph. Come near to me, I pray you. I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. And God has made me ruler of all Egypt.” And as they were amazed, he said, “Do you not see that I am indeed your brother? Go back now and bring my father, and all your flocks and herds, and your wives and children, and come and live with me.” And he kissed his brothers. And the next day he gave them wagons for his father and their wives and children, and sent them away.
So Jacob saw his son Joseph, for whom he had mourned as dead. And all the family moved down to Egypt, and Pharaoh gave them pastures for their sheep.
IX
THE BURNING BUSH
OSEPH and his brothers had many sons and daughters, and they in their turn had many sons and daughters; and even after they were grown up they were all called the Children of Israel; for Israel, you remember, was the new name of their father Jacob.