Bowing Before the Brother: Genesis 42:1-38

When Jacob learned that there was grain in Egypt, he said to his sons, "Why do you just keep looking at each other?" He continued, "I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy some for us, so that we may live and not die."

Famine had spread beyond Egypt. Canaan was starving. And Jacob's ten older sons set out for the only place with food.

Then ten of Joseph's brothers went down to buy grain from Egypt. But Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph's brother, with the others, because he was afraid that harm might come to him.

Benjamin—Rachel's surviving son, the only remaining child of the wife Jacob had loved most. After losing Joseph, Jacob could not risk Benjamin.