²⁹ Now if you take his brother away from me, and any harm comes to him, you will send this grieving, white-haired man to his grave.^[a]’

³⁸ But Jacob replied, “My son will not go down with you. His brother Joseph is dead, and he is all I have left. If anything should happen to him on your journey, you would send this grieving, white-haired man to his grave.^[a]”

³¹ If he sees that the boy is not with us, our father will die. We, your servants, will indeed be responsible for sending that grieving, white-haired man to his grave.

³⁶ Jacob exclaimed, “You are robbing me of my children! Joseph is gone! Simeon is gone! And now you want to take Benjamin, too. Everything is going against me!”

¹⁷ Then my anger will blaze forth against them. I will abandon them, hiding my face from them, and they will be devoured. Terrible trouble will come down on them, and on that day they will say, ‘These disasters have come down on us because God is no longer among us!’

¹⁴ May God Almighty^[a] give you mercy as you go before the man, so that he will release Simeon and let Benjamin return. But if I must lose my children, so be it.”