Genesis 43:1–14

In the mean time the famine was heavy upon all the land.

²And when they had eaten up all the corn, which they had brought out of Egypt, Jacob said to his sons: Go again, and buy us a little food.

³Juda answered: The man declared unto us with the attestation of an oath, saying: You shall not see my face, unless you bring your youngest brother with you.

⁴If therefore thou wilt send him with us, we will set out together, and will buy necessaries for thee.

⁵But if thou wilt not, we will not go: for the man, as we have often said, declared unto us, saying: You shall not see my face without your youngest brother.

⁶Israel said to them: You have done this for my misery, in that you told him you had also another brother.

⁷But they answered: The man asked us in order concerning our kindred: if our father lived: if we had a brother: and we answered him regularly, according to what he demanded: could we know that he would say: Bring hither your brother with you?

⁸And Juda said to his father: Send the boy with me, that we may set forward, and may live: lest both we and our children perish.

⁹I take the boy upon me, require him at my hand: unless I bring him again, and restore him to thee, I will be guilty of sin against thee for ever.

¹⁰If delay had not been made, we had been here again the second time.

¹¹Then Israel said to them: If it must needs be so, do what you will: take of the best fruits of the land in your vessels, and carry down presents to the man, a little balm, and honey, and storax, myrrh, turpentine, and almonds.

¹²And take with you double money, and carry back what you found in your sacks, lest perhaps it was done by mistake.

¹³And take also your brother, and go to the man.

¹⁴And may my almighty God make him favourable to you: and send back with you your brother, whom he keepeth, and this Benjamin: and as for me I shall be desolate without children.