Open English Translation GEN Chapter 44

44 Then Yosef commanded his head servant, “Fill the men’s sacks with grain, as much as they are able to carry, and put each man’s payment back into the top of his sack. 2 And put my own silver cup in the top of the youngest one’s sack along with his payment.” So he did what he was instructed. 3 The next morning at daylight, the brothers and their donkeys were sent off to start their trip home. 4 They hadn’t gone very far out of the city when Yosef told his head servant, “Get up and, follow after those men. When you overtake them, ask them, ‘Why did you repay good with evil? 5 Isn’t this the cup that my master drinks from and indeed, what he divines with? You’ve done evil taking that.’ ”

6 So the servant overtook them and did exactly what he’d been instructed to do. 7 But they asked him, “Why does my master say that? Far be it from your servants to do something like that. 8 Listen, we brought the silver that we found in the top of our sacks back to you from the land of Canaan. So why would we then steal silver or gold from the house of your master? 9 If you find anything stolen with any of us, that person can be executed, and the rest of us can also be taken as slaves for my master.”

10 “Indeed,” the servant replied, “according to your words, that’s how it’ll be: whoever is found with the stolen cup will become my slave, but you others will be free to go.” 11 So each of the brothers quickly lowered his sack to the ground, and each one opened his sack. 12 Then Yosef’s servant searched beginning with the oldest and ending with the youngest, and the cup was found in Benyamin’s sack. 13 Seeing this, the brothers tore their clothes (as a sign of their distress), and each one loaded up his donkey, and they all returned to the city.

14 When Yehudah and his brothers got to Yosef’s house, he was still there, and they fell to their knees and bowed to the ground in front of him. 15 “What’s this that you’ve done?” Yosef demanded. “Didn’t you know that a man like me can certainly divine the truth?”

16 “What can we say to my master?” Yehuda answered. “What words could we speak? How could we possibly justify ourselves? God has exposed the sin of your servants. So now, we are slaves for my master—both we and the one who was found with the cup.”

17 “Far be it from me to do that.” Yosef corrected them. “Only the man who had the cup will become my slave, and the rest of you can go back to your father in peace.”

18 Then Yehuda went closer to Yosef and said quietly, “Please, my master, please let your servant speak a word in my master’s ears, and don’t get angry with me, since you’re as powerful as Far’oh. 19 My master previously asked his servants if we had a father or another brother? 20 And we answered to my master, ‘Yes, we have an elderly father and also the youngest son of his old age. But that son’s brother is dead, so he alone is left of his mother’s children, and his father loves him.’ 21 Then you told your servants, ‘Bring the other son here so I can see him myself.’ 22 And we said to my master, ‘The young man isn’t able to leave his father, because if he does, then the old man will die.’ 23 But then you said to your servants, ‘If your youngest brother doesn’t come with you, you won’t get access to me again.’

24 “After all that, when we went back to your servant my father, we explained your words to him, my master. 25 Eventually, our father told us, ‘Return there to buy some food for us.’ 26 But we told him, ‘We can’t go back unless our youngest brother is with us, because we wouldn’t be able to get access to that man if our youngest brother wasn’t with us.’ 27 Then your servant my father told us, ‘You know that my wife gave birth to two sons for me. 28 One of them went away from me, and I’ve assumed that he was torn to pieces, and I’ve never seen him again. 29 So if you also take this son away and something happened to him, then you’d bring my gray head down to the grave in misery.’

30 “So now, if I was to return home to your servant my father without that young man, since his father’s soul is bound to his soul, 31 then as soon as he sees that the young man isn’t will us, then he’ll have a heart attack and so your servants will bring the gray head of your servant our father down to the grave in misery. 32 But your servant guaranteed the young man to my father, saying, ‘If I don’t get him back to you, then I will have sinned against my father all my life.’

33 “So now, please let your servant stay as a slave for my master instead of the young man, and let the young man go home with his brothers. 34 So now, how could I possibly go home to my father if that young man isn’t with me? I wouldn’t be able to cope with my father’s misery.”