创44:16What 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."

创44:17But 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."

创44:18Then Judah went up to him and said: "Please, my lord, let your servant speak a word to my lord. Do not be angry with your servant, though you are equal to Pharaoh himself.

创44:19My lord asked his servants, 'Do you have a father or a brother?'

创44:20And 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.'

创44:21Then you said to your servants, 'Bring him down to me so I can see him for myself.'

创44:22And we said to my lord, 'The boy cannot leave his father; if he leaves him, his father will die.'

创44:23But you told your servants, 'Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you will not see my face again.'

创44:24When we went back to your servant my father, we told him what my lord had said.

创44:25Then our father said, 'Go back and buy a little more food.'

创44:26But 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.'

创44:27Your servant my father said to us, 'You know that my wife bore me two sons.

创44:28One of them went away from me, and I said, "He has surely been torn to pieces." And I have not seen him since.

创44:29If you take this one from me too and harm comes to him, you will bring my gray head down to the grave in misery.'

创44:30So 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,

创44:31sees that the boy isn't there, he will die. Your servants will bring the gray head of our father down to the grave in sorrow.

创44:32Your 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!'

创44:33Now then, please let your servant remain here as my lord's slave in place of the boy, and let the boy return with his brothers.

创44:34How can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? No! Do not let me see the misery that would come upon my father."

创45:1Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all his attendants, and he cried out, "Have everyone leave my presence!" So there was no one with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers.