12. He searched, beginning with the oldest and ending with the youngest. The cup was found in Benjamin’s sack.
13. Then they tore their clothes, and every man loaded his donkey and returned to the city.
14. When Judah and his brothers came to Joseph’s house, he was still there; and they fell to the ground before him.
15. Joseph said to them, “What deed is this that you have done? Did you not know that such a man as I can certainly practice divination?”
16. And 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 servants, both we and he also in whose possession the cup was found.”
17. But he said, “Far be it from me that I should do so. The man in whose possession the cup was found shall be my slave; but as for you, go up in peace to your father.”
18. Then Judah approached him and said, “O my lord, please let your servant speak a word in my lord’s ears, and do not be angry with your servant, for you are equal to 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 young brother, the child of his old age. His brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother, and his father loves him.’
21. “You said to your servants, ‘Bring him down to me, so that I may set my eyes on him.’
22. We said to my lord, ‘The boy cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father, his father would die.’
23. You said to your servants, ‘Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you will not see my face again.’
24. When we went back to your servant, my father, we told him the words of my lord.
25. “Our father said, ‘Go again and buy us a little food.’
26. 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.’
27. “Your servant, my father, said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons.
28. And the one went out from me, and I said, “Surely he was torn in pieces,” and I have not seen him since.
29. And if you take this one also from me and he is harmed, you will bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave.’