GenesisChapter 44

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¹Then Joseph gave orders to the man in charge of his house. "Fill the men's sacks with as much food as they can carry. Put each man's silver in the top of his sack. ²Put my cup, the silver one, in the top of the youngest one's sack. Put it there with the silver for his grain." So the man did what Joseph told him. ³At sunrise the men were sent on their way with their donkeys. ⁴They had not gone far from the city when Joseph spoke to the man in charge of his house. "Go after those men right now. When you catch up with them, ask them, 'Why have you paid back good with evil? ⁵Isn't this the cup my master drinks from? Doesn't he use it for divination? What you have done is evil!'"a ⁶The man caught up with them. He told them what Joseph had said. ⁷They said to him, "Why does my lord say such things? Your servants would never do anything like that. ⁸We found silver in the tops of our sacks. We even brought it back to you from the land of Canaan. So why would we steal silver or gold from your master's house? ⁹If any of your servants has it, he must die. And the rest of us will become my lord's slaves." ¹⁰"All right, as you say," the man answered. "But only the one who has the cup will be my slave. The rest of you will be free of blame." ¹¹So each man quickly put his sack down on the ground and opened it. ¹²The man searched. He started with the oldest and ended with the youngest. And the cup was found in Benjamin's sack! ¹³Then they all tore their clothes. They loaded their donkeys and went back to the city. ¹⁴Judah and his brothers came to Joseph's house. Joseph was still there. They threw themselves to the ground in front of him. ¹⁵Joseph said, "What is this you have done? Don't you know that a man like me can surely find out the truth by divination?"b ¹⁶Judah answered, "What can we say to my lord? How can we beg? How can we prove we're innocent? God has shown the sin of your servants. Now we are my lord's slaves. That means all of us, and the one who had the cup too." ¹⁷But Joseph said, "I would never do that! Only the man who had the cup will be my slave. The rest of you may go back to your father in peace." ¹⁸Then Judah came close to Joseph and said, "Sir, please let your servant say a word to my lord. Please don't be angry with your servant. You are as great as Pharaoh himself. ¹⁹My lord asked his servants, 'Do you have a father or a brother?' ²⁰We answered, 'We have an old father. We have a younger brother too. He was born when our father was old. The boy's brother is dead. He is the only son of his mother who is left. His father loves him.' ²¹Then you told your servants, 'Bring him down to me. I want to see him for myself.' ²²We said to my lord, 'The boy can't leave his father. If he did, his father would die.' ²³But you told your servants, 'Your youngest brother must come down with you. If he doesn't, you will not see my face again.' ²⁴We went back to your servant, my father. We told him what you said. ²⁵Then our father said, 'Go back and buy us some food.' ²⁶But we said, 'We can't go down there unless our youngest brother goes with us. If he isn't with us, we can't see the man.' ²⁷Your servant, my father, said to us, 'You know my wife gave me two sons. ²⁸One of them went away from me. I said, "He must have been torn to pieces!" I have not seen him since then. ²⁹Now you want to take this one from me too. If something bad happens to him, you will send me, an old gray-haired man, down to the grave in sorrow.'c ³⁰So now, suppose I go back to your servant, my father, and the boy is not with us. My father's life is tied up with the boy's life. ³¹When he sees the boy is not with us, he will die. Then your servants will have sent our gray-haired father, your servant, down to the grave in sorrow.d ³²Your servant promised my father to keep the boy safe. I said, 'If I don't bring him back to you, let the blame be on me all my life, my father.' ³³So please let your servant stay here as my lord's slave in place of the boy. Let the boy go home with his brothers. ³⁴How can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? I couldn't stand to see the pain it would bring him."