¹⁸Then Judah went up to him. He said, “Please, sir. Let me speak a word to you. Don’t be angry with me, even though you are equal to Pharaoh himself. ¹⁹You asked us, ‘Do you have a father or a brother?’ ²⁰We answered, ‘We have an old father. A young son was born to him when he was old. His brother is dead. He’s the only one of his mother’s sons left. And his father loves him.’

²¹“Then you said to us, ‘Bring him down to me. I want to see him for myself.’

²²“We said to you, ‘The boy can’t leave his father. If he does, his father will die.’

²³“But you told us, ‘Your youngest brother must come down here with you. If he doesn’t, you won’t see my face again.’ ²⁴So we went back to my father. We told him what you had said.

²⁵“Then our father said, ‘Go back. Buy a little more food.’

²⁶“But we said, ‘We can’t go down. We’ll only go if our youngest brother goes there with us. We can’t even see the man’s face unless our youngest brother goes with us.’

²⁷“Your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife had two sons by me. ²⁸One of them went away from me. And I said, “He must have been torn to pieces.” I haven’t seen him since. ²⁹What if you take this one from me too and he is harmed? Then you would cause me to die as a sad old man. I would go down into the grave full of pain and suffering.’

³⁰“So now, what will happen if the boy isn’t with us when I go back to my father? His life is closely tied up with the boy’s life. ³¹When he sees that the boy isn’t with us, he’ll die as a sad old man. Because of us, he’ll go down into the grave full of sorrow.

³²“I promised my father I would keep the boy safe. I said, ‘Father, I’ll bring him back to you. If I don’t, you can put the blame on me for the rest of my life.’

³³“Now then, please let me stay here. Let me be your slave in place of the boy. Let the boy return with his brothers. ³⁴How can I go back to my father if the boy isn’t with me? Don’t let me see the pain and suffering that would come to my father.”

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