# The Story of Joseph and His Brethren/Part 1/Chapter 6

CHAPTER VI.
THE famine which Joseph had predicted, and against which he had so anxiously provided, was not confined to Egypt; it was "over all the face of the earth." And not only was there provision in Egypt for the Egyptians themselves, but "all countries came into Egypt to Joseph to buy corn, because that the famine was sore in all lands." The famine extended, of course, to the land of Canaan, where Joseph's father and his family dwelt. They felt its pressure, but Jacob had ascertained where relief was to be obtained. "When Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt, Jacob said unto his sons, Why do ye look one upon another? And he said, Behold, I have heard that there is corn in Egypt, get you down thither, and buy for us from thence, that we may live, and not die."
Ten of Jacob's sons set out for Egypt, the ​father having retained Benjamin at home. And now it was that they who hated Joseph for his dreams, and had done a cruel deed in order to belie them, began themselves to give them a literal fulfilment. When they came into his presence as the ruler of the land, in order to obtain corn, "they bowed down themselves with their faces to the earth." They knew not, indeed, that they were making "obeisance" to him whom they had sold to the Ishmaelites. But although they knew not Joseph, Joseph knew them. Joseph had now an object in view which induced him to withhold from them all knowledge of himself, and act towards them with affected suspicion and enmity. Having been told by them in answer to inquiries, who and whose sons they were, he accused them of being spies, and having no other object in coming into Egypt than to see the nakedness of the land. They had told him that Benjamin their youngest brother had been left with their father. Joseph's immediate object was to have Benjamin brought down. And his great desire to see Benjamin arose from himself and ​Benjamin being the sons of one mother, Rachel. In these times the children of the same mother loved each other more than the children of different mothers; and the circumstance of the ten brethren being the children of other mothers, though of the same father, was in a great measure the cause of their hating and persecuting Joseph. Having accused his brethren of being spies, and affecting to doubt the truth of their assurance that they were true men, Joseph proposed that they should prove the truth of their assertion by sending one of their number to bring down Benjamin; but he afterwards agreed with them to leave one of their number bound in the house of the prison, where Joseph himself had been so long confined, while the others returned with provisions, to bring Benjamin with them when they came again.
This unexpected stroke of adversity greatly disturbed the sons of Jacob, and, as is often the case in seasons of affliction, their conscience was awakened, and they began to trace their present distress to their former misconduct. No doubt they had often thought ​with themselves, and talked to each other, of their cruel treatment of their blameless brother, and no doubt a sense of guilt and dread of future retribution often troubled their guilty minds. How natural was it that their present misfortune should bring their crime forcibly to their recollection, and awaken a sense of their guilt! So keen were the stings of conscience, that they began to accuse themselves while they were yet in Joseph's presence. They spoke what they supposed to be a language unknown to Joseph. "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." Reuben increased this cause of self-accusation by reminding them that he had spoken unto them, saying—"Do not sin against the child, and ye would not hear; therefore, behold, also his blood is required."
In the account of their treatment of Joseph nothing is said about his anguish and his entreaties. But here we find an additional reason of their confession to one another of ​their guiltiness. His beseeching cry of anguish must have often sounded in their ears; and now, to use the expressive language of Scripture, the voice of their brother's blood seemed to pierce their very souls. What a picture does this present to us of the working of a guilty conscience! and what a warning does it read to us to shun all evil, and to preserve the conscience clear and void of offence!
And how beautiful a spectacle does the scene present to us, on the other hand, in the effect of the self-accusings of his brethren upon Joseph! Although their cruel treatment must also, by their recital, have been brought vividly before his mind, it excited in him no feelings of resentment or desire for revenge; on the contrary, tender affection and pity were the feelings of his kind and noble heart, and so deeply was he moved, that "he turned himself about from them and wept." Yet his purpose of benevolence required that he should carry his agreement with them into effect. He therefore returned to them, and took from them Simeon, and bound him before their eyes.
​Joseph had commanded his servants to fill their sacks with corn, and put every man's money into his sack. Laden with corn, and with provender for the way, the brethren took their departure, and proceeded on their journey homeward. When they halted at an inn on the way, one of them found, on opening his sack to give his ass provender, that his money was in his sack's mouth; and this was another source of distress to them, for even this, which might otherwise have seemed an instance of good fortune, appealed again to their guilty fears, and caused them to exclaim—"What is this that God hath done unto us?" They, however, resumed their journey, and came to their father in Canaan, and told him all that befell unto them.
And here was a new and double distress to their aged father. They had returned without Simeon, and they proposed to take Benjamin. Jacob could not help accusing them of multiplying his sorrows. "Me ye have bereaved of my children; Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and will ye take Benjamin away? All these things are against me." Jacob therefore ​declared that Benjamin should not go down to Egypt, "for should mischief befall him, it would bring down his grey hairs with sorrow to the grave." Still Benjamin was taken down to Egypt, as we shall soon see.