Genesis 44:14-30
English Standard Version
Chapter 44
14When Judah and his brothers came to Joseph 's house, he was still there. They fell before him to the ground. 15Joseph said to them, "What deed is this that you have done? Do you not know that a man like me can indeed practice divination?" 16And Judah said, "What shall we say to my lord? What shall we speak? Or how can we clear ourselves? God has found out the guilt of your servants; behold, we are my lord 's servants, both we and he also in whose hand the cup has been found." 17But he said, "Far be it from me that I should do so! Only the man in whose hand the cup was found shall be my servant. But as for you, go up in peace to your father."
18Then Judah went up to him and said, "Oh, my lord, please let your servant speak a word in my lord 's ears, and let not your anger burn against your servant, for you are like Pharaoh himself.
19My lord asked his servants, saying, ‘Have you a father, or a brother?’
20And we said to my lord, ‘We have a father, an old man, and a young brother, the child of his old age. His brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother 's children, and his father loves him.’
21Then you said to your servants, ‘Bring him down to me, that I may set my eyes on him.’
22We said to my lord, ‘The boy cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father, his father would die.’
23Then you said to your servants, ‘Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you shall not see my face again.’
24"When we went back to your servant my father, we told him the words of my lord.
25And when our father said, ‘Go again, buy us a little food,’
26we said, ‘We cannot go down. If our youngest brother goes with us, then we will go down. For we cannot see the man 's face unless our youngest brother is with us.’
27Then your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons.
28One left me, and I said, "Surely he has been torn to pieces," and I have never seen him since.
29If you take this one also from me, and harm happens to him, you will bring down my gray hairs in evil to Sheol.’
