¹² So he searched. He began with the oldest and ^[a]left off with the youngest; and the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack.

²⁶ But we said, ‘We cannot go down; if our youngest brother is with us, then we will go down; for we may not see the man’s face unless our youngest brother is with us.’ ²⁷ Then your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that ^(A)my wife bore me two sons; ²⁸ and the one went out from me, and I said, ^(B)“Surely he is torn to pieces”; and I have not seen him since. ²⁹ But if you ^(C)take this one also from me, and calamity befalls him, you shall bring down my gray hair with sorrow to the grave.’

³⁰ “Now therefore, when I come to your servant my father, and the lad is not with us, since ^(D)his life is bound up in the lad’s life, ³¹ it will happen, when he sees that the lad is not with us, that he will die. So your servants will bring down the gray hair of your servant our father with sorrow to the grave. ³² For your servant became surety for the lad to my father, saying, ^(E)‘If I do not bring him back to you, then I shall bear the blame before my father forever.’

² Also put my cup, the silver cup, in the mouth of the sack of the youngest, and his grain money.” So he did according to the word that Joseph had spoken.

³³ And they sat before him, the firstborn according to his ^(A)birthright and the youngest according to his youth; and the men looked in astonishment at one another.

¹⁴ And may God ^(A)Almighty ^(B)give you mercy before the man, that he may release your other brother and Benjamin. ^(C)If I am bereaved, I am bereaved!”

³⁶ And Jacob their father said to them, “You have ^(A)bereaved me: Joseph is no more, Simeon is no more, and you want to take ^(B)Benjamin. All these things are against me.”

³⁷ Then Reuben spoke to his father, saying, “Kill my two sons if I do not bring him back to you; put him in my hands, and I will bring him back to you.”

³⁸ But he said, “My son shall not go down with you, for ^(C)his brother is dead, and he is left alone. ^(D)If any calamity should befall him along the way in which you go, then you would ^(E)bring down my gray hair with sorrow to the grave.”