Then Judah approached him, and said, “Oh my lord, may your servant please speak a word in my lord’s ears, and do not be angry with your servant; for you are equal to Pharaoh.

Then he commanded his house steward, saying, “Fill the men’s sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put each man’s money in the mouth of his sack.

Is not this the one from which my lord drinks and which he indeed uses for divination? You have done wrong in doing this.’”

So Judah said, “What can we say to my lord? What can we speak? And how can we justify ourselves? God has found out the iniquity of your servants; behold, we are my lord’s slaves, both we and the one in whose possession the cup has been found.”

We said to my lord, ‘We have an old father and a little child of his old age. Now his brother is dead, so he alone is left of his mother, and his father loves him.’

If you take this one also from me, and harm befalls him, you will bring my gray hair down to Sheol in sorrow.’

Put my cup, the silver cup, in the mouth of the sack of the youngest, and his money for the grain.” And he did as Joseph had told him.

When Judah and his brothers came to Joseph’s house, he was still there, and they fell to the ground before him.

Now, therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the lad a slave to my lord, and let the lad go up with his brothers.

when he sees that the lad is not with us, he will die. Thus your servants will bring the gray hair of your servant our father down to Sheol in sorrow.

Thus it came about when we went up to your servant my father, we told him the words of my lord.

They had just gone out of the city, and were not far off, when Joseph said to his house steward, “Up, follow the men; and when you overtake them, say to them, ‘Why have you repaid evil for good?

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,

For your servant became surety for the lad to my father, saying, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, then let me bear the blame before my father forever.’

Your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons;

But he said, “Far be it from me to do this. The man in whose possession the cup has been found, he shall be my slave; but as for you, go up in peace to your father.”

Behold, the money which we found in the mouth of our sacks we have brought back to you from the land of Canaan. How then could we steal silver or gold from your lord’s house?

For how shall I go up to my father if the lad is not with me—for fear that I see the evil that would overtake my father?”

Joseph said to them, “What is this deed that you have done? Do you not know that such a man as I can indeed practice divination?”

Then they tore their clothes, and when each man loaded his donkey, they returned to the city.

As soon as it was light, the men were sent away, they with their donkeys.

and the one went out from me, and I said, “Surely he is torn in pieces,” and I have not seen him since.

He searched, beginning with the oldest and ending with the youngest, and the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack.

They said to him, “Why does my lord speak such words as these? Far be it from your servants to do such a thing.

So he overtook them and spoke these words to them.

With whomever of your servants it is found, let him die, and we also will be my lord’s slaves.”

You said to your servants, however, ‘Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you will not see my face again.’

Then you said to your servants, ‘Bring him down to me that I may set my eyes on him.’

My lord asked his servants, saying, ‘Have you a father or a brother?’

So he said, “Now let it also be according to your words; he with whom it is found shall be my slave, and the rest of you shall be innocent.”

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.’

Our father said, ‘Go back, buy us a little food.’

Then they hurried, each man lowered his sack to the ground, and each man opened his sack.

But we said to my lord, ‘The lad cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father, his father would die.’