Genesis 42:15Plain English VersionSo I’m going to test you mob, to see if you are lying. You said, ‘Our youngest brother is with our father in Canaan country.’ All right, I want your youngest brother to come here, so that I can see him. I’m telling you strongly, if your brother doesn’t come here, I will not let you leave this place. Pharaoh, the big boss of this country, he is the one that gives me the power to promise that.” See the chapter |
Then Joseph said to his brothers, “This is how I am going to test you mob. One of you has to go back to your home country and get your youngest brother, then bring him back here. The rest of you mob have to stay here, and I will put you in jail. If your youngest brother comes here, then I will know that you told me the true story, and I will let you go free. But if he doesn’t come, then I will know that you are my enemies. I will be really sure, just like I’m really sure that Pharaoh is alive.”
After that, you have to get your youngest brother, and you have to bring him here to me. Then I will know that you are not my enemies. Yes, I will know that you are good men, and you didn’t lie to me. Then I will give your other brother back to you, the one that stayed here in Egypt country. And then I will let you buy and sell things in my country.’ ”
But they didn’t know that he was their brother Joseph. They thought that he was one of the Egypt people. Joseph looked at those men, and he saw that they were his brothers. But Joseph pretended that he didn’t know them. He talked to them in the Egypt language, and somebody else talked to Joseph’s brothers in their own language and told them the things Joseph said. And Joseph talked in a rough way to them. He said, “Where do you mob come from?” His brothers said, “We come from Canaan country. We want to buy food here in Egypt.”
But Jacob’s son Judah said, “You know that we can’t go back to Egypt country without our youngest brother Benjamin. That man that is in charge of Egypt, he will not let us do that. Last time we went to Egypt, that man talked strongly to us, and he said, ‘You can only come back here if you bring your youngest brother with you.’ ”
And there is another thing that I want to say, my friends, and it is very important. Whenever you promise something, don’t say, “God is the boss over heaven and earth, and if I don’t do what I promise, he will punish me.” Don’t say anything like that. You see, if you say that, and then don’t do what you promised, then God will say that you are guilty. So just tell the true story. Say yes when that is true, or no when that is true, and don’t say anything more.