Genesis 44

1Joseph gave orders to the man in charge of his household: “Load these men’s sacks with all the food they are able to carry, and put every man’s money back at the top of his sack. 2And put my cup, the silver one, in the top of the youngest one’s sack, along with the money he paid for his grain.” The steward carried out Joseph’s instructions. 3At first light the men were sent off with their donkeys. 4They had left the city and were still close by when Joseph told his steward, “Go after those men at once. When you catch up with them, ask them, ‘Why have you paid back good with evil? 5Is this not the cup my master drinks from, the one he uses to read omens? What you have done is wicked.’” 6When he caught up with them, he repeated those words to them. 7“Why would my lord say such things?” they answered. “Your servants would never do anything of the kind! 8Remember, we brought back to you from Canaan the money we found in the tops of our sacks. Why would we then steal silver or gold from your master’s house? 9If any one of us is found to have it, he must die, and the rest of us will become your slaves, my lord.” 10“Very well,” he replied, “it will be as you have said. But only the one who has the cup will become my slave; the rest of you will go free of blame.” 11Each of them quickly lowered his sack to the ground and opened it. 12The steward searched, starting with the eldest and ending with the youngest, and the cup turned up in Benjamin’s sack. 13At this they tore their clothes. Then each of them loaded his donkey again, and they went back to the city. 14Judah and his brothers came to Joseph’s house while he was still there, and they threw themselves down on the ground before him. 15“What have you done?” Joseph demanded. “Did you not realize that a man in my position can find things out by divination?” 16“My lord, what can we say?” Judah answered. “What words do we have? How could we prove we are innocent? God has exposed your servants’ guilt. We are your slaves now, my lord, all of us, not just the one who had the cup.” 17But Joseph answered, “I would never do such a thing! Only the one who had the cup will be my slave. The rest of you may return safely to your father.”

18Then Judah stepped up to him and said, “Forgive me, my lord, but let your servant say something to you in private, and please do not be angry with your servant, for you are as great as Pharaoh. 19My lord asked your servants whether we had a father or another brother. 20We answered, ‘We have an elderly father, and there is a young son born to him in his old age. The boy’s brother is dead; he is the only one of his mother’s sons still living, and his father loves him dearly.’ 21Then you told your servants, ‘Bring him down here so I can see him for myself.’ 22We told my lord, ‘The boy cannot leave his father. If he did, his father would die.’ 23But you told your servants, ‘If your youngest brother does not come down with you, you will not be allowed to see me again.’ 24When we returned to your servant, my father, we reported to him everything my lord had said. 25Later our father told us, ‘Go back and buy us a little more food.’ 26But we said, ‘We cannot go down there. We will go only if our youngest brother goes with us. Unless he is with us, the man will not see us.’ 27Your servant my father replied, ‘You know that my wife gave me two sons. 28One of them left me, and I said, “He must have been torn apart by a wild animal.” And I have never seen him again. 29If you take this one from me too, and something happens to him, you will send this gray head of mine down to the grave in misery.’ 30So now, if I go back to your servant my father without the boy, since his life and the boy’s life are tied together, 31as soon as he sees that the boy is not with us, he will die. Your servants will have sent our father, your servant, to the grave, gray-haired and grieving. 32Your servant guaranteed the boy’s safety to my father. I told him, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, I will be guilty before you, Father, all my life.’ 33Now then, please let me, your servant, stay here as my lord’s slave instead of the boy, and let the boy go home with his brothers. 34How could I go back to my father without the boy? I cannot bear to watch the misery it would bring him.”