Genesis 44:16-34

New American Standard Bible

¹⁶ So Judah said, “What can we say to my lord? What words can we speak? And how can we justify ourselves? God has found out the guilt of your servants; behold, we are my lord’s ^(A)slaves, both we and the one in whose ^[a]possession the cup has been found.” ¹⁷ But he said, “Far be it from me to do this. The man in whose ^[b]possession the cup has been found, he shall be my slave; but as for you, go up in peace to your father.”

¹⁸ Then Judah approached him and said, “Oh my lord, may your servant please speak a word in my lord’s ears, and ^[c](B)do not be angry with your servant; for ^(C)you are equal to Pharaoh. ^19 (D)My lord asked his servants, saying, ‘Have you a father or a brother?’ ²⁰ And we said to my lord, ‘We have an old father and ^(E)a little boy born in our father’s old age. Now ^(F)his brother is dead, so he alone is left of his mother, and his father loves him.’ ²¹ Then you said to your servants, ‘^(G)Bring him down to me so that I may set my eyes on him.’ ²² But we said to my lord, ‘The boy cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father, ^[d]his father would die.’ ²³ You said to your servants, however, ‘^(H)Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you will not see my face again.’ ²⁴ So it came about when we went up to your servant my father, we told him the words of my lord. ²⁵ And ^(I)our father said, ‘Go back, buy us a little food.’ ²⁶ But we said, ‘We cannot go down. If our youngest brother is with us, then we will go down; for we cannot see the man’s face unless our youngest brother is with us.’ ²⁷ Then your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that ^(J)my wife bore me two sons; ²⁸ and the one left me, and ^(K)I said, “Surely he is torn to pieces,” and I have not seen him since. ²⁹ If you also take this one from ^[e]me, and harm happens to him, you will ^(L)bring my gray hair down to Sheol in ^[f]sorrow.’ ³⁰ So now, when I come to your servant, my father, and the boy is not with us—since ^[g](M)our father’s life is so attached to the boy’s life— ³¹ when he sees that the boy is not with us, he will die. So your servants will ^(N)bring the gray hair of your servant, our father, down to Sheol in sorrow. ³² For your servant ^(O)accepted responsibility for the boy from my father, saying, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, then ^[h]my father can let me take the blame forever.’ ³³ So now, please let your servant remain as a slave to my lord instead of the boy, and let the boy go up with his brothers. ³⁴ For how shall I go up to my father if the boy is not with me? I fear that I may see the evil that would ^[i]overtake my father.”