8. We even brought back to you from the land of Canaan the silver we found inside the mouths of our sacks. So why would we steal silver or gold from your master’s house?
9. If any of your servants is found to have it, he will die; and the rest of us will become my lord’s slaves.’
10. ‘Very well, then,’ he said, ‘let it be as you say. Whoever is found to have it will become my slave; the rest of you will be free from blame.’
11. Each of them quickly lowered his sack to the ground and opened it.
12. Then the steward proceeded to search, beginning with the eldest and ending with the youngest. And the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack.
13. At this, they tore their clothes. Then they all loaded their donkeys and returned to the city.
14. Joseph was still in the house when Judah and his brothers came in, and they threw themselves to the ground before him.
15. Joseph said to them, ‘What is this you have done? Don’t you know that a man like me can find things out by divination?’
16. ‘What can we say to my lord?’ Judah replied. ‘What can we say? How can we prove our innocence? God has uncovered your servants’ guilt. We are now my lord’s slaves – we ourselves and the one who was found to have the cup.’
17. But Joseph said, ‘Far be it from me to do such a thing! Only the man who was found to have the cup will become my slave. The rest of you, go back to your father in peace.’
18. Then Judah went up to him and said: ‘Pardon your servant, my lord, let me speak a word to my lord. Do not be angry with your servant, though you are equal to Pharaoh himself.
19. My lord asked his servants, “Do you have a father or a brother?”
20. And we answered, “We have an aged father, and there is a young son born to him in his old age. His brother is dead, and he is the only one of his mother’s sons left, and his father loves him.”
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.”