I may prove your words, that ye die not. They
did as he said, and spake together: We be worthy
and well deserved to suffer this, for we have sinned
in our brother, seeing his anguish when he prayed
us and we heard him not, therefore this tribulation
is fallen upon us. Of whom Reuben said:
Said not I to you, in no wise sin not ye in the child,
and ye would not hear me? Now his blood is wroken.
They knew not that Joseph understood them, forasmuch
as he spake alway to them by an interpreter.
Then Joseph turned him a little and wept. After
he returned to them, and took Simeon in their presence
and bound him, and sent him to prison, and commanded
to his ministers to fill their sacks with wheat, and
to put each man’s money in their sacks, and
above that to give them meat to spend in their way;
which did so. And they took their wheat and laid
it on their asses and departed on their way.
After, one of them, on the way, opened his sack for
to give his beast meat, and found his money in the
mouth of his sack and said to his brethren: My
money is given to me again, lo! I have found it
in my sack. And they were all astonied:
What is this that God hath done to us? Then they
came home to their father in the land of Canaan and
told to him all things that was fallen to them, saying:
The lord of the country hath spoken hard to us and
had supposed that we been spies of that province,
to whom we answered that, we were peaceable people
ne were no such spies, and that we were twelve sons
gotten of one father, one is dead and the youngest
is with our father in the land of Canaan. Which
then said to us: Now shall I prove whether ye
be peaceable or no. Ye shall leave here one brother
with me, and lead home that is necessary for you,
and go your way and see that ye bring with you your
youngest brother that I may know that ye be none espies
and that ye may receive this brother that I hold in
prison, and then forthon what that ye will buy ye
shall have license. And this said, each of them
poured out the wheat, and every man found his money
bounden in the mouth of every sack. Then said
Jacob their father: Ye have made me without children.
Joseph is gone and lost, Simeon is bounden in prison,
and Benjamin ye will take away from me, on me come
all these evils. To Reuben answered: Slay
my two sons if I bring him not again to thee; deliver
him to me in my hand, and I shall restore him again
to thee. The father said: My son shall not
go with you, his brother is dead and he is left now
alone, if any adversity should hap to him in the way
that ye go into, ye shall lead my old hairs with sorrow
to hell.