But we said to him, ‘We are honest men; we are not spies!

We are all the sons of one man; we are honest men! Your servants are not spies.”

If one of us has it, ¹  he will die, and the rest of us will become my lord’s slaves!”

Why should we die before your very eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land in exchange for food, and we, with our land, will become ¹  Pharaoh’s slaves. ²  Give us seed that we may live ³  and not die. Then the land will not become desolate.” ⁴ 

Abram said to Lot, “Let there be no quarreling between me and you, and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, for we are close relatives. ¹ 

because we are about to destroy ¹  it. The outcry against this place ²  is so great before the Lord that he ³  has sent us to destroy it.”

There we were, ¹  binding sheaves of grain in the middle of the field. Suddenly my sheaf rose up and stood upright and your sheaves surrounded my sheaf and bowed down ²  to it!”

They replied, “Your servants are from a family of twelve brothers. ¹  We are the sons of one man in the land of Canaan. The youngest is with our father at this time, ²  and one is no longer alive.” ³ 

We are from a family of twelve brothers; we are the sons of one father. ¹  One is no longer alive, ²  and the youngest is with our father at this time ³  in the land of Canaan.’

Pharaoh said to Joseph’s ¹  brothers, “What is your occupation?” They said to Pharaoh, “Your servants take care of flocks, just as our ancestors did.” ² 

They said to one other, ¹  “Surely we’re being punished ²  because of our brother, because we saw how distressed he was ³  when he cried to us for mercy, but we refused to listen. That is why this distress ⁴  has come on us!”

Then Judah said to his father Israel, “Send the boy with me and we will go immediately. ¹  Then we will live ²  and not die – we and you and our little ones.

But the men were afraid when they were brought to Joseph’s house. They said, “We are being brought in because of ¹  the money that was returned in our sacks last time. ²  He wants to capture us, ³  make us slaves, and take ⁴  our donkeys!”

Judah replied, “What can we say ¹  to my lord? What can we speak? How can we clear ourselves? ²  God has exposed the sin of your servants! ³  We are now my lord’s slaves, we and the one in whose possession the cup was found.”

Tell him, ‘Your servants have taken care of cattle ¹  from our youth until now, both we and our fathers,’ so that you may live in the land of Goshen, ²  for everyone who takes care of sheep is disgusting ³  to the Egyptians.”