Seven years of abundance have come and gone, and we pick up the story two years into the famine. If the years of abundance began immediately upon Joseph's interpretation of Pharaoh's dreams, then Joseph is 39. It has been at least 22 years since he has seen his family. But Jacob (Israel) learned there was food in Egypt and sent his ten oldest sons to buy grain. He kept Benjamin at home in safety so as not to lose the only other son Rachel bore for him. Remember, Jacob believes Joseph is dead. It is a little bothersome to me that Benjamin is always portrayed as a little boy in this story's children's bible version. In fact, by this time, Benjamin was a grown man with ten sons of his own. It is funny how we can get a picture in our heads from childhood and how that shapes our view of the story. (as a side note, I always pictured Daniel in the lion's den as a young man, but he was well over eighty when that took place)...