land of Canaan, and the famine was over all the land, so that there was
no bread in the house to eat.

Then Jacob, the father, called his sons to him and said: "I have heard
that there is corn in Egypt. Go down there and buy for us, that we may
live and not die."

So Joseph's brothers came to Egypt to buy grain, and Joseph was ruler
over all Egypt, and sold grain to all who came. His brothers came before
him and bowed their faces to the ground as they asked for food, for the
famine was sore in their land. Now, Joseph knew his brothers when he saw
them, but they knew not the little lad they had sold into the land of
Egypt for twenty pieces of silver.

Joseph did not make himself known to his brothers, but asked them about
their country and their homes, if they had a father and other brothers;
and when they spoke of the old father, Jacob, and the youngest brother,
Benjamin, who had stayed with the old father, Joseph longed to tell them
that he was the brother whom the father had mourned as lost; but he
waited, and treated his brothers as strangers, for they knew him not.
Then he sent them home with their sacks full of grain, and took no money
for it. But when they returned the second time to Egypt, Joseph's heart
yearned for them, and for his old father and youngest brother. When they
were alone, he stood before his brothers, and, looking at them, said:
"Do you not know me? I am your brother, Joseph, the little lad whom you
sold into Egypt."

But when his brothers heard this they were much afraid, and drew away
from him, for they thought, now that he was ruler over all Egypt, he
would surely punish them for their evil treatment of him. But Joseph