21. ‘Then you said to your servants, “Bring him down to me so I can see him for myself.”
22. And we said to my lord, “The boy cannot leave his father; if he leaves him, his father will die.”
23. But you told 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 what my lord had said.
25. ‘Then our father said, “Go back and buy a little more food.”
26. But we said, “We cannot go down. Only if our youngest brother is with us will we go. We cannot 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. One of them went away from me, and I said, ‘He has surely been torn to pieces.’ And I have not seen him since.
29. If you take this one from me too and harm comes to him, you will bring my grey head down to the grave in misery.”
30. ‘So now, if the boy is not with us when I go back to your servant my father, and if my father, whose life is closely bound up with the boy’s life,
31. sees that the boy isn’t there, he will die. Your servants will bring the grey head of our father down to the grave in sorrow.
32. Your servant guaranteed the boy’s safety to my father. I said, “If I do not bring him back to you, I will bear the blame before you, my father, all my life!”