16
Then Judah said, "What shall we say to my lord? What shall we speak? Or how shall we clear ourselves? God has found out the iniquity of your servants; here we are, my lord's slaves, both we and he also with whom the cup was found."
17
But he said, "Far be it from me that I should do so; the man in whose hand the cup was found, he shall be my slave. And as for you, go up in peace to your father."
18
Then Judah came near to him and said: "O my lord, please let your servant speak a word in my lord's hearing, and do not let your anger burn against your servant; for you are even like Pharaoh.
19
My lord asked his servants, saying, 'Have you a father or a brother?'
20
And we said to my lord, 'We have a father, an old man, and a child of his old age, who is young; his brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother's children, and his father loves him.'
21
Then you said to your servants, 'Bring him down to me, that I may set my eyes on him.'
22
And we said to my lord, 'The lad cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father, his father would die.'
23
But you said to your servants, 'Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you shall see my face no more.'
24
So it was, when we went up to your servant my father, that we told him the words of my lord.
25
And our father said, 'Go back and 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 may not see the man's face unless our youngest brother is with us.'