Judah Pleads for Benjamin

18 Then Judah approached Joseph and said, “Sir, please let your servant speak personally to my lord. Do not be angry with your servant, for you are equal to Pharaoh himself. 19 My lord asked his servants, ‘Do you have a father or a brother?’

20 And we answered, ‘We have an elderly father and a younger brother, the child of his old age. The boy’s brother is dead. He is the only one of his mother’s sons left, and his father loves him.’

21 Then you told your servants, ‘Bring him down to me so that I can see him for myself.’

22 So we said to my lord, ‘The boy cannot leave his father. If he were to leave, his father would die.’

23 But you said to your servants, ‘Unless your younger brother comes down with you, you will not see my face again.’

24 Now when we returned to your servant my father, we relayed your words to him.

25 Then our father said, ‘Go back and buy us some food.’

26 But we answered, ‘We cannot go down there unless our younger brother goes with us. So if our younger brother is not with us, we cannot see the man.’

27 And your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons. 28 When one of them was gone, I said: “Surely he has been torn to pieces.” And I have not seen him since. 29 Now if you also take this one from me and harm comes to him, you will bring my gray hair down to Sheol in sorrow.’

30 So if the boy is not with us when I return to your servant, and if my father, whose life is wrapped up in the boy’s life, 31 sees that the boy is not with us, he will die. Then your servants will have brought the gray hair of your servant our father down to Sheol in sorrow. 32 Indeed, your servant guaranteed the boy’s safety to my father, saying, ‘If I do not return him to you, I will bear the guilt before you, my father, all my life.’

33 Now please let your servant stay here as my lord’s slave in place of the boy. Let him return with his brothers. 34 For how can I go back to my father without the boy? I could not bear to see the misery that would overwhelm him.”