1. The famine was severe in the land.

2. When they had eaten up the grain which they had brought out of Egypt, their father said to them, "Go again, buy us a little more food."

3. JUDAH spoke to him, saying, "The man solemnly warned us, saying, 'You shall not see my face, unless your brother is with you.'

4. If you'll send our brother with us, we'll go down and buy you food,

5. but if you'll not send him, we'll not go down, for the man said to us, 'You shall not see my face, unless your brother is with you.'"

6. Israel said, "Why did you treat me so badly, telling the man that you had another brother?"

7. They said, "The man asked directly concerning ourselves, and concerning our relatives, saying, 'Is your father still alive? Have you another brother?' We just answered his questions. Is there any way we could know that he would say, 'Bring your brother down?'"

8. JUDAH said to Israel, his father, "Send the boy with me, and we'll get up and go, so that we may live, and not die, both we, and you, and also our little ones.

9. I'll be collateral for him. From my hand will you require him. If I don't bring him to you, and set him before you, then let me bear the blame forever,

10. for if we hadn't delayed, surely we would have returned a second time by now."

14. JUDAH and his brothers came to Joseph's house, and he was still there. They fell on the ground before him.

15. Joseph said to them, "What deed is this that you have done? Don't you know that such a man as I can indeed divine?"

16. JUDAH said, "What will we tell my lord? What will we speak? Or how will we clear ourselves? God has found out the iniquity of your servants. Behold, we are my lord's slaves, both we, and he also in whose hand the cup is found."

17. He said, "Far be it from me that I should do so. The man in whose hand the cup is found, he will be my slave; but as for you, go up in peace to your father."

18. Then JUDAH came near to him, and said, "Oh, my lord, please let your servant speak a word in my lord's ears, and don't let your anger burn against your servant; for you are even as Pharaoh.

19. My lord asked his servants, saying, 'Have you a father, or a brother?'

20. We said to my lord, 'We have a father, an old man, and a child of his old age, a little one; and his brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother; and his father loves him.'

21. You said to your servants, 'Bring him down to me, that I may set my eyes on him.'

22. We said to my lord, 'The boy can't leave his father: for if he should leave his father, his father would die.'

23. You said to your servants, 'Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you will see my face no more.'

24. When we came up to your servant my father, we told him the words of my lord.

25. Our father said, 'Go again, buy us a little food.'

26. We said, 'We can't go down. If our youngest brother is with us, then we will go down: for we may not see the man's face, unless our youngest brother is with us.'

27. Your servant, my father, said to us, 'You know that my wife bore me two sons:

28. and the one went out from me, and I said, "Surely he is torn in pieces"; and I haven't seen him since.

29. If you take this one also from me, and harm happens to him, you will bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Sheol.'

30. Now therefore when I come to your servant my father, and the boy is not with us; since his life is bound up in the boy's life;

31. it will happen, when he sees that the boy is no more, that he will die. Your servants will bring down the gray hairs of your servant, our father, with sorrow to Sheol.

32. For your servant became collateral for the boy to my father, saying, 'If I don't bring him to you, then I will bear the blame to my father forever.'

33. Now therefore, please let your servant stay instead of the boy, my lord's slave; and let the boy go up with his brothers.

34. For how will I go up to my father, if the boy isn't with me?-lest I see the evil that will come on my father."

He sent JUDAH before him to Joseph, to show the way before him to Goshen, and they came into the land of Goshen.