Genesis 44:16-34
So Judah said,“ What can we say to my lord? What words can we speak? And how can we justify ourselves? God has found out the guilt of your servants; behold, we are my lord’s slaves, both we and the one in whose possession the cup has been found.”But he said,“ Far be it from me to do this. The man in whose possession the cup has been found, he shall be my slave; but as for you, go up in peace to your father.”Then Judah approached him and said,“ Oh my lord, may your servant please speak a word in my lord’s ears, and do not be angry with your servant; for you are equal to Pharaoh.My lord asked his servants, saying,‘ Have you a father or a brother?’And we said to my lord,‘ We have an old father and a little boy born in our father’s old age. Now his brother is dead, so he alone is left of his mother, and his father loves him.’Then you said to your servants,‘ Bring him down to me so that I may set my eyes on him.’But we said to my lord,‘ The boy cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father, his father would die.’You said to your servants, however,‘ Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you will not see my face again.’So it came about when we went up to your servant my father, we told him the words of my lord.And our father said,‘ Go back, buy us a little food.’But 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.’Then your servant my father said to us,‘ You know that my wife bore me two sons;and the one left me, and I said,“ Surely he is torn to pieces,” and I have not seen him since.If you also take this one from me, and harm happens to him, you will bring my gray hair down to Sheol in sorrow.’So now, when I come to your servant, my father, and the boy is not with us— since our father’s life is so attached to the boy’s life—when he sees that the boy is not with us, he will die. So your servants will bring the gray hair of your servant, our father, down to Sheol in sorrow.For your servant accepted responsibility for the boy from my father, saying,‘ If I do not bring him back to you, then my father can let me take the blame forever.’So 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.For 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 overtake my father.”
