Verse

Genesis 44:30

ESV "Now therefore, as soon as I come to your servant my father, and the boy is not with us, then, as his life is bound up in the boy 's life,
NIV "So now, if the boy is not with us when I go back to your servant my father, and if my father, whose life is closely bound up with the boy’s life,
NASB So now, when I come to your servant, my father, and the boy is not with us—since our father’s life is so attached to the boy’s life—
CSB "So if I come to your servant my father and the boy is not with us—his life is wrapped up with the boy’s life—
NLT And now, my lord, I cannot go back to my father without the boy. Our father’s life is bound up in the boy’s life.
KJV Now therefore when I come to thy servant my father, and the lad be not with us; seeing that his life is bound up in the lad's life;
NKJV “Now therefore, when I come to your servant my father, and the lad is not with us, since his life is bound up in the lad’s life,

What does Genesis 44:30 mean?

Jacob will die of grief if Benjamin does not return home. This is the message Judah has passionately tried to convey to the Egyptian governor (Genesis 41:44; 42:7–8), so he will not keep Benjamin as a slave (Genesis 44:18–29). The man is demanding this youngest brother remain after a valuable silver cup was found in Benjamin's bag (Genesis 44:12–14). Jacob himself has said plainly that it will kill him to lose another son of Rachel (Genesis 42:38). Judah is unaware that the Egyptian vizier is that "other" lost son, Joseph (Genesis 37:24–28), who is testing his family.

Now Judah puts it even more plainly: His father's life is bound up in the life of Benjamin. The two are connected by old Jacob's powerful love. Judah describes the imagined moment of arriving back home in Canaan without Benjamin. Their old father will simply die of sorrow (Genesis 44:31).
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