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^IAnd he commanded the one who was over his house, saying, “Fill the men’s bags with as much food as they can carry and put each man’s silver in the mouth of his bag, ²and put my cup, the silver cup, in the mouth of the youngest one’s bag, and the silver for his grain.” And he did according to Joseph’s word that he spoke.

³The morning was light: and the men had been sent away, they and their asses. ⁴They had gone out of the city. They had not gone far, and Joseph had said to the one who was over his house, “Get up. Pursue the men, and you’ll catch up with them and say to them, ‘Why did you pay back bad for good? ⁵Isn’t this the thing from which my lord drinks? And he divines by it! You’ve done bad, this thing that you’ve done.’” ⁶And he caught up with them and spoke these things to them.

⁷And they said to him, “Why would my lord speak things like these? Far be it from your servants to do a thing like this. ⁸Here, we brought the silver that we found in the mouth of our bags back to you from the land of Canaan, so how would we steal silver or gold from your lord’s house?! ⁹The one among your servants with whom it’s found, let him die, and also we’ll become my lord’s servants.”

¹⁰And he said, “Now, also, it will be so according to your words: the one with whom it’s found will become my servant. And you will be free.”

^IIAnd they hurried, and each man lowered his bag to the ground, and each man opened his bag. ¹²And he searched. With the oldest he began, and with the youngest he finished. And the cup was found in Benjamin’s bag. ¹³And they ripped their clothes, and each man loaded his ass, and they went back to the city. ¹⁴And Judah and his brothers came to Joseph’s house, and he was still there, and they fell to the ground before him.

¹⁵And Joseph said to them, “What is this thing that you’ve done? Didn’t you know that a man like me would divine?”

^l6And Judah said, “What shall we say to my lord? What shall we speak? By what shall we justify ourselves? God has found your servants’ crime. Here we’re my lord’s servants, both we and the one in whose hand the cup was found.”

¹⁷And he said, “Far be it from me to do this. The man in whose hand the cup was found: he will be my servant; and you, go up in peace to your father.”

¹⁸And Judah went over to him and said, “Please, my lord, let your servant speak something in my lord’s ears, and let your anger not flare at your servant, because you’re like Pharaoh himself. ¹⁹My lord asked his servants, saying, ‘Do you have a father or brother?’ ²⁰and we said to my lord, ‘We have an old father and a young son of his old age, and his brother’s dead, and he’s left alone of his mother, and his father loves him.’ ^2IAnd you said to your servants, ‘Bring him down to me, so I may set my eye on him.’ ²²And we said to my lord, ‘The boy can’t leave his father; if he left his father he’d die.’ ²³And you said to your servants, ‘If your youngest brother doesn’t come down with you, you won’t see my face again.’ ²⁴And it was, when we went up to your servant, my father, and told him my lord’s words, ²⁵that our father said, ‘Go back. Buy us a little food.’ ²⁶And we said, ‘We can’t go down. If our youngest brother is with us then we’ll go down, because we can’t see the man’s face if our youngest brother isn’t with us.’ ²⁷And your servant, my father, said to us, ‘You know that my wife gave birth to two for me, ²⁸and one went away from me, and I said he’s surely torn up, and I haven’t seen him since. ²⁹And if you take this one from me as well and some harm happens to him, then you’ll bring down my gray hair in wretchedness to Sheol.’ ³⁰And now, when I come to your servant, my father, and the boy isn’t with us, and he’s bound to him soul to soul, ³¹it will be, when he sees that the boy isn’t there, that he’ll die. And your servants will have brought down your servant our father’s gray hair in anguish to Sheol, ³²because your servant offered security for the boy to my father, saying, ‘If I don’t bring him to you then I’ll have sinned against my father for all time.’ ³³And now, let your servant stay as my lord’s servant in place of the boy, and let the boy go up with his brothers— ³⁴for how could I go up to my father and the boy isn’t with me—or else I’ll see the wretchedness that will find my father.”