Signs of the Times, Book 1 - Ellen G. White

The famine was severe in the land of Canaan also. Jacob and his sons
were troubled. Their supply of food was nearly exhausted, and they looked
forward to the future with perplexity. Starvation stared them in the face. At
length Jacob heard of the wonderful provisions which the King of Egypt had
made, and that the people of all the surrounding countries journeyed to Egypt
to buy corn. And he said to his sons, "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. And Joseph's ten brethren went down to buy corn in Egypt.
But Benjamin, Joseph's brother, Jacob sent not with his brethren; for he said,
Lest peradventure mischief befall him."
Jacob's sons came with the crowd of buyers to purchase corn of Joseph;
and they "bowed down themselves before him with their faces to the earth."
He knew them at once, but they failed to recognize him. There was, indeed,
little semblance between the mighty governor of Egypt, and the stripling
whom, twenty-two years previous, they had sold to the Ishmaelites. As he
saw his brethren stooping and making their obeisance, his dreams came back
to his memory, and the scenes of the past rose up vividly before him. His
keen eye again surveyed the group before him, and he saw that Benjamin
was missing. Had he also fallen a victim to the treacherous cruelty of those
savage men? He determined to know the truth. "Ye are spies," he said, "to
see the nakedness of the land, ye are come."
They answered, "Nay, my lord, but to buy food are thy servants come.
We are all one man's sons; we are true men; thy servants are no spies." He
wished to learn if they possessed the same haughty spirit as when he was
with them, and also to lead them to make some disclosures in regard to their
home, yet he well knew how deceitful their answers might be. He repeated
the charge, and they replied, "Thy servants are twelve brethren, the sons of
one man in the land of Canaan; and, behold, the youngest is still with our
father, and one is not." They felt humbled in their adversity, and manifested
grief rather than anger at the suspicions of Joseph. He professed to doubt the
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