1. Now the famine in the land was severe.
2. And it happened that as they finished eating the grain which they had brought from Egypt their father said to them, “Return and buy a little food for us.”
3. Then Judah said to him, “The man solemnly admonished us, saying, ‘You shall not see my face unless your brother is with you.’
4. If you will send our brother with us, we will go down and buy food for you,
5. but if you will not send him, we will not go down, for the man said to us, ‘You shall not see my face unless your brother is with you.’ ”
6. Then Israel said, “Why did you bring trouble to me by telling the man you still had a brother?”
7. And they said, “The man asked explicitly about us and about our family, saying, ‘Is your father still alive? Do you have a brother?’ And we answered him according to these words. How could we know that he would say, ‘Bring down your brother’?”
8. Then Judah said to his father Israel, “Send the boy with me, and let us arise and go, so that we will live and not die—you, we, and our children.