Genesis 44

CHAPTER 44

The Brothers Fall Before Joseph

^1aThen he commanded his house steward, saying, “Fill the men’s sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put each man’s money in the mouth of his sack.

²“Now put my cup, the silver cup, in the mouth of the sack of the youngest, and his money for the grain.” And he did ¹as Joseph had told him.

³¹As the morning light broke, the men were sent away, they with their donkeys.

⁴Now they had just gone out of ^athe city and were not far off when Joseph said to his house steward, “Arise, pursue the men; you shall overtake them and say to them, ‘Why have you repaid evil for good?

⁵‘Is not this the one from which my lord drinks and which he indeed uses to interpret ^aomens? You have done evil in doing this.’”

⁶So he overtook them and spoke these words to them.

⁷And they said to him, “Why does my lord speak such words as these? Far be it from your servants to do such a thing.

⁸“Behold, ^athe money which we found in the mouth of our sacks we have brought back to you from the land of Canaan. How then could we steal silver or gold from your lord’s house?

⁹“^aWith whomever of your servants it is found, let him die, and we also will be my lord’s ^bslaves.”

¹⁰So he said, “Now let it also be according to your words; he with whom it is found shall be my slave, but the rest of you shall be innocent.”

¹¹Then they hurried, each man brought his sack down to the ground, and each man opened his sack.

¹²So he searched, beginning with the oldest and ending with the youngest, and ^athe cup was found in Benjamin’s sack.

¹³Then they ^atore their clothes, and each man loaded his donkey and returned to ^bthe city.

¹⁴Then Judah and his brothers came to Joseph’s house, and he was still there. So ^athey fell to the ground before him.

¹⁵And Joseph said to them, “What is this deed that you have done? Do you not know that such a man as I can indeed interpret ^aomens?”

¹⁶So Judah said, “What can we say to my lord? What can we speak? And how can we justify ourselves? God has found out the iniquity of your servants; behold, we are my lord’s ^aslaves, both we and the one in whose ¹possession the cup has been found.”

¹⁷But he said, “Far be it from me to do this. The man in whose ¹possession the cup has been found, he shall be my slave; but as for you, go up in peace to your father.”

Judah Remains Instead of Benjamin

¹⁸Then Judah came near to him and said, “O my lord, may your servant please speak a word in my lord’s ears, and ^1ado not be angry with your servant; for ^byou are equal to Pharaoh.

¹⁹“^aMy lord asked his servants, saying, ‘Have you a father or a brother?’

²⁰“And we said to my lord, ‘We have an old father and ^aa little child of his old age. Now ^bhis brother is dead, so he alone is left of his mother, and his father loves him.’

²¹“Then you said to your servants, ‘^aBring him down to me that I may set my eyes on him.’

²²“And we said to my lord, ‘The boy cannot leave his father; if he should leave his father, ¹his father would die.’

²³“You said to your servants, however, ‘^aIf your youngest brother does not come down with you, you will not see my face again.’

²⁴“Thus it happened that when we went up to your servant my father, we told him the words of my lord.

²⁵“^aAnd our father said, ‘Go back, buy us a little food.’

²⁶“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 if our youngest brother is not with us.’

²⁷“And your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that ^amy wife bore me two sons;

²⁸and the one went out from me, and ^aI said, “Surely he is torn to pieces,” and I have not seen him since.

²⁹‘If you take this one also from ¹me and harm befalls him, you will ^abring my gray hair down to Sheol in ²evil.’

³⁰“So now, when I come to your servant my father, and the boy is not with us—^1aand his life is bound up in the boy’s life—

³¹so it will be that when he sees that the boy is not with us, he will die. Thus your servants will ^abring the gray hair of your servant our father down to Sheol in sorrow.

³²“For your servant ^abecame a guarantee for the boy to my father, saying, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, ¹then I shall bear the sin before my father all my days.’

³³“So now, please let your servant remain instead of the boy as a slave to my lord, and let the boy go up with his brothers.

³⁴“For how shall I go up to my father if the boy is not with me, lest I see the evil that would ¹overtake my father?”