The Daily Audio Bible

¹⁸ And Joseph said unto them the third day, This do, and live; for I fear God: ¹⁹ if ye be true men, let one of your brethren be bound in your prison-house; but go ye, carry grain for the famine of your houses: ²⁰ and bring your youngest brother unto me; so shall your words be verified, and ye shall not die. And they did so. ²¹ And they said one to another, We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the distress of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear; therefore is this distress come upon us. ²² And Reuben answered them, saying, Spake I not unto you, saying, Do not sin against the child; and ye would not hear? therefore also, behold, his blood is required. ²³ And they knew not that Joseph understood them; for there was an interpreter between them. ²⁴ And he turned himself about from them, and wept; and he returned to them, and spake to them, and took Simeon from among them, and bound him before their eyes. ²⁵ Then Joseph commanded to fill their vessels with grain, and to restore every man’s money into his sack, and to give them provision for the way: and thus was it done unto them.

²⁶ And they laded their asses with their grain, and departed thence. ²⁷ And as one of them opened his sack to give his ass provender in the lodging-place, he espied his money; and, behold, it was in the mouth of his sack. ²⁸ And he said unto his brethren, My money is restored; and, lo, it is even in my sack: and their heart failed them, and they turned trembling one to another, saying, What is this that God hath done unto us? ²⁹ And they came unto Jacob their father unto the land of Canaan, and told him all that had befallen them, saying, ³⁰ The man, the lord of the land, spake roughly with us, and took us for spies of the country. ³¹ And we said unto him, We are true men; we are no spies: ³² we are twelve brethren, sons of our father; one is not, and the youngest is this day with our father in the land of Canaan. ³³ And the man, the lord of the land, said unto us, Hereby shall I know that ye are true men: leave one of your brethren with me, and take grain for the famine of your houses, and go your way; ³⁴ and bring your youngest brother unto me: then shall I know that ye are no spies, but that ye are true men: so will I deliver you your brother, and ye shall traffic in the land.

³⁵ And it came to pass as they emptied their sacks, that, behold, every man’s bundle of money was in his sack: and when they and their father saw their bundles of money, they were afraid. ³⁶ And Jacob their father said unto them, Me have ye bereaved of my children: Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away: all these things are ^[a]against me. ³⁷ And Reuben spake unto his father, saying, Slay my two sons, if I bring him not to thee: deliver him into my hand, and I will bring him to thee again. ³⁸ And he said, My son shall not go down with you; for his brother is dead, and he only is left: if harm befall him by the way in which ye go, then will ye bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Sheol.

43 And the famine was sore in the land. ² And it came to pass, when they had eaten up the grain which they had brought out of Egypt, their father said unto them, Go again, buy us a little food. ³ And Judah spake unto him, saying, The man did solemnly protest unto us, saying, Ye shall not see my face, except your brother be with you. ⁴ If thou wilt send our brother with us, we will go down and buy thee food: ⁵ but if thou wilt not send him, we will not go down; for the man said unto us, Ye shall not see my face, except your brother be with you. ⁶ And Israel said, Wherefore dealt ye so ill with me, as to tell the man whether ye had yet a brother? ⁷ And they said, The man asked straitly concerning ourselves, and concerning our kindred, saying, Is your father yet alive? have ye another brother? and we told him according to the tenor of these words: could we in any wise know that he would say, Bring your brother down? ⁸ And Judah said unto Israel his father, Send the lad with me, and we will arise and go; that we may live, and not die, both we, and thou, and also our little ones. ⁹ I will be surety for him; of my hand shalt thou require him: if I bring him not unto thee, and set him before thee, then ^[b]let me bear the blame for ever: ¹⁰ for except we had lingered, surely we had now returned a second time. ¹¹ And their father Israel said unto them, If it be so now, do this: take of the choice fruits of the land in your vessels, and carry down the man a present, a little balm, and a little honey, spicery and myrrh, ^[c]nuts, and almonds; ¹² and take double money in your hand; and the money that was returned in the mouth of your sacks carry again in your hand; peradventure it was an oversight: ¹³ take also your brother, and arise, go again unto the man: ¹⁴ and ^[d]God Almighty give you mercy before the man, that he may release unto you your other brother and Benjamin. And if I be bereaved of my children, I am bereaved. ¹⁵ And the men took that present, and they took double money in their hand, and Benjamin; and rose up, and went down to Egypt, and stood before Joseph.

¹⁶ And when Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the steward of his house, Bring the men into the house, and slay, and make ready; for the men shall dine with me at noon. ¹⁷ And the man did as Joseph bade; and the man brought the men to Joseph’s house. ¹⁸ And the men were afraid, because they were brought to Joseph’s house; and they said, Because of the money that was returned in our sacks at the first time are we brought in; that he may ^[e]seek occasion against us, and fall upon us, and take us for bondmen, and our asses. ¹⁹ And they came near to the steward of Joseph’s house, and they spake unto him at the door of the house, ²⁰ and said, Oh, my lord, we came indeed down at the first time to buy food: ²¹ and it came to pass, when we came to the lodging-place, that we opened our sacks, and, behold, every man’s money was in the mouth of his sack, our money in full weight: and we have brought it again in our hand. ²² And other money have we brought down in our hand to buy food: we know not who put our money in our sacks. ²³ And he said, Peace be to you, fear not: your God, and the God of your father, hath given you treasure in your sacks: I had your money. And he brought Simeon out unto them. ²⁴ And the man brought the men into Joseph’s house, and gave them water, and they washed their feet; and he gave their asses provender. ²⁵ And they made ready the present against Joseph’s coming at noon: for they heard that they should eat bread there.

²⁶ And when Joseph came home, they brought him the present which was in their hand into the house, and bowed down themselves to him to the earth. ²⁷ And he asked them of their welfare, and said, Is your father well, the old man of whom ye spake? Is he yet alive? ²⁸ And they said, Thy servant our father is well, he is yet alive. And they bowed the head, and made obeisance. ²⁹ And he lifted up his eyes, and saw Benjamin his brother, his mother’s son, and said, Is this your youngest brother, of whom ye spake unto me? And he said, God be gracious unto thee, my son. ³⁰ And Joseph made haste; for his heart yearned over his brother: and he sought where to weep; and he entered into his chamber, and wept there. ³¹ And he washed his face, and came out; and he refrained himself, and said, Set on bread. ³² And they set on for him by himself, and for them by themselves, and for the Egyptians, that did eat with him, by themselves: because the Egyptians might not eat bread with the Hebrews; for that is an abomination unto the Egyptians. ³³ And they sat before him, the first-born according to his birthright, and the youngest according to his youth: and the men marvelled one with another. ³⁴ And ^[f]he took and sent messes unto them from before him: but Benjamin’s mess was five times so much as any of theirs. And they drank, and ^[g]were merry with him.

⁴⁷ Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a ^[a]net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind: ⁴⁸ which, when it was filled, they drew up on the beach; and they sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but the bad they cast away. ⁴⁹ So shall it be in ^[b]the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the righteous, ⁵⁰ and shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth.

⁵¹ Have ye understood all these things? They say unto him, Yea. ⁵² And he said unto them, Therefore every scribe who hath been made a disciple to the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is a householder, who bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old.

⁵³ And it came to pass, when Jesus had finished these parables, he departed thence.

⁵⁴ And coming into his own country he taught them in their synagogue, insomuch that they were astonished, and said, Whence hath this man this wisdom, and these ^[c]mighty works? ⁵⁵ Is not this the carpenter’s son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, ^[d]James, and Joseph, and Simon, and Judas? ⁵⁶ And his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then hath this man all these things? ⁵⁷ And they were ^[e]offended in him. But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honor, save in his own country, and in his own house. ⁵⁸ And he did not many ^[f]mighty works there because of their unbelief.

14 At that season Herod the tetrarch heard the report concerning Jesus, ² and said unto his servants, This is John the Baptist; he is risen from the dead; and therefore do these powers work in him. ³ For Herod had laid hold on John, and bound him, and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife. ⁴ For John said unto him, It is not lawful for thee to have her. ⁵ And when he would have put him to death, he feared the multitude, because they counted him as a prophet. ⁶ But when Herod’s birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced in the midst, and pleased Herod. ⁷ Whereupon he promised with an oath to give her whatsoever she should ask. ⁸ And she, being put forward by her mother, saith, Give me here on a platter the head of John the Baptist. ⁹ And the king was grieved; but for the sake of his oaths, and of them that sat at meat with him, he commanded it to be given; ¹⁰ and he sent and beheaded John in the prison. ¹¹ And his head was brought on a platter, and given to the damsel: and she brought it to her mother. ¹² And his disciples came, and took up the corpse, and buried him; and they went and told Jesus.