GENESIS XLII- -SIMEON HELD AS HOSTAGE

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there be any truth in you: or else by the life of Pharaoh surely ye are spies.

17 And he put them all together into ward three days.

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 the house of your prison: go ye, carry corn for the famine of

your houses: 20 But 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 anguish 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, behold, also his blood is required.

23 And they knew not that Joseph understood them; for he spake unto them by an interpreter.

24 And he turned himself about from them, and wept; and returned to them again, and communed with them, and took from them Simeon, and bound him before their eyes.

25 Then Joseph commanded to fill their sacks with corn, and to restore every man's money into his sack, and to give them provision for the way: and thus did he unto them.

26 And they laded their asses with the corn, and departed thence. 27 And as one of them opened his sack to give his ass provender in the inn, he espied his money; for behold it was in his sack's mouth. 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 were afraid, saying one to another, 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 befell unto them, saying,

30 The man, who is the lord of the land, spake roughly to 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 be 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 country, said unto us, Hereby shall I know that ye are true men; leave one of your brethren here with me, and take food for the famine of your households, and be gone:

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 both they and their father saw the bundles of money, they were afraid.

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GENESIS XLIII-JACOB FEARS FOR BENJAMIN

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 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 is left alone1: if mischief befall him by the way in the which ye go, then shall ye bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave.

Chapter 43

1 Jacob is hardly persuaded to send Benjamin. 15 Joseph entertaineth his brethren. 31 He maketh them a feast. ND the famine was sore in the land.

2 And it came to pass, when they had eaten up the corn 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 us straitly of our state, and of 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 certainly 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 let me bear the blame for ever:

10 For except we had lingered, surely now we had returned this second time.

11 And their father Israel said unto them, If it must be so now, do this; take of the best fruits in the land in your vessels, and carry down the man a present, a little balm, and a little honey, spices, and myrrh, nuts, and almonds:

12 And take double money in your hand; and the money that was

Joseph and Benjamin were specially dear to Jacob as being the only sons of his beloved Rachel.

The Dead Sea

ENGRAVED BY T. TAYLOR FROM A PHOTOGRAPH.

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"The vale of Siddim, which is the salt sea."—Gen., 14, 3.

M

OST strange of all the bodies of water upon the earth is that Dead Sea which plays so prominent a part in the Bible story. An awful dreariness broods over this sea. Salt beds lie beneath it and around it. Nothing grows upon its banks. The driftwood carried down by the Jordan and other rivers becomes incrusted with the salt and adds to the bleak, white, unearthly desolation of the scene. The region must have been very different in early days. It is first mentioned in the biblical passage quoted above, which seems to imply that part of it was once the vale of Siddim, somewhere near which rose the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

In Sodom, Lot made his dwelling, and the Sodomites fought a battle in this vale of Siddim. This, the first tale of warfare in the Bible, enables us for a moment to compare the biblical story with other historical records. The king of Sodom, says the biblical account, was joined with four other kings. These five had been subject to Chedorlaomer, the great monarch of the Euphrates valley, whence Abram had come. Now these five lesser kings threw off their yoke, and Chedorlaomer came with three other kings to destroy them, "four kings against the five." Names necessarily change their spelling in passing from one language to another; but we find among the ruins in the Euphrates valley, records of a ruler of about this period whose name is very like Chedorlaomer; and one of his biblical associates, "Amraphel," seems probably the notable Hammurabi, the great lawgiver, who conquered all Babylonia about 2220 B. C.