Genesis 44:18-34

18Then Judah approached him and said, “Oh my lord, may your servant please speak a word in my lord’s ears, and 12do not be angry with your servant; for 3you are equal to Pharaoh.

194My lord asked his servants, saying, ‘Have you a father or a brother?’

20And we said to my lord, ‘We have an old father and 5a little boy born in our father’s old age. Now 6his brother is dead, so he alone is left of his mother, and his father loves him.’

21Then you said to your servants, ‘7Bring him down to me so that I may set my eyes on him.’

22But we said to my lord, ‘The boy cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father, 8his father would die.’

23You said to your servants, however, ‘9Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you will not see my face again.’

24So it came about when we went up to your servant my father, we told him the words of my lord.

25And 10our father said, ‘Go back, buy us a little food.’

26But 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.’

27Then your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that 11my wife bore me two sons;

28and the one left me, and 12I said, “Surely he is torn to pieces,” and I have not seen him since.

29If you also take this one from 13me, and harm happens to him, you will 14bring my gray hair down to Sheol in 15sorrow.’

30So now, when I come to your servant, my father, and the boy is not with us--since 1617our father’s life is so attached to the boy’s life--

31when he sees that the boy is not with us, he will die. So your servants will 18bring the gray hair of your servant, our father, down to Sheol in sorrow.

32For your servant 19accepted responsibility for the boy from my father, saying, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, then 20my father can let me take the blame forever.’

33So 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.

34For 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 21overtake my father.”