1 Then he commanded the steward of his house, saying, “Fill the men’s sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put each man’s silver in the mouth of his sack. 2 And put my cup, the silver cup, in the mouth of the sack of the youngest, and his grain silver.” So he did according to the word that Joseph had spoken. 3 As soon as the morning was light, the men were sent away, they and their donkeys. 4 They had not gone very far out of the city, and Joseph said to his steward, “Get up, follow the men! And when you overtake them, say to them, ‘Why have you paid back wrong in place of good? 5 Isn’t this the cup which my master drinks with and can certainly see things supernaturally with? What you have done is wrong!’” 6 So he overtook them, and he spoke these words to them.
7 And they said to him, “Why does my master speak words like these? There is no way your servants would do something like this! 8 Look, the silver, which we found in the mouth of our sacks, we brought back to you from the land of Canaan. How then should we steal silver or gold out of your master’s house? 9 With whomever of your servants it is found, let him die, and we also will be my master’s slaves!”
10 And he said, “Now also let it be according to your words. He with whom it is found will be my slave; and you will be blameless.”
11 So each man hurried and put his sack down on the ground, and each man opened his sack. 12 And he searched, beginning with the oldest, and ending with the youngest. And the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack. 13 Then they tore their clothes, and each man loaded his donkey and returned to the city.
14 So Judah and his brothers came to Joseph’s house, and he was still there. And they bowed down on the ground in front of him. 15 And Joseph said to them, “What is this deed that you have done? Don’t you know that a man like me can certainly see things supernaturally?”
16 Judah said, “What can we say to my master? What can we speak? And how can we prove we are innocent? God has found out the crookedness of your servants. Look, we are my master’s slaves, both we and he also in whose hand the cup is found.”
17 He said, “There is no way that I would do that! The man in whose hand the cup was found, he will be my slave. But as for you, go up in peace to your father.”
18 Then Judah came near to him and said, “Oh, my master, please let your servant speak a word in my master’s ears, and don’t let your anger burn against your servant; for you are even like Pharaoh. 19 My master asked his servants, saying, ‘Do you have a father or a brother?’ 20 And we said to my master, ‘We have a father, an old man, and a child of his old age, a little one; and his brother is dead, and he is the only one left of his mother; and his father loves him.’ 21 And you said to your servants, ‘Bring him down to me so I can see him with my eyes.’ 22 And we said to my master, ‘The boy can’t leave his father. For if he left his father, his father would die.’ 23 But you said to your servants, ‘Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, don’t see my face again!’ 24 So it was, when we went up to your servant my father, we told him the words of my master. 25 And our father said, ‘Go back and buy us a little food.’ 26 But we said, ‘We can’t go down. If our youngest brother is with us, then we will go down. Because we may not see the man’s face unless our youngest brother is with us.’ 27 Then your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife gave birth to two sons for me. 28 And one went out from me, and I said, “Surely he has been ripped apart;” and I haven’t seen him since. 29 And if you take this one also from me, and something bad happens to him, you will bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave.’ 30 Now therefore when I come to your servant my father, and the boy is not with us; since his life is bound up in the boy’s life; 31 it will happen, when he sees that the boy is missing, that he will die. So your servants will bring down the gray hairs of your servant our father with sorrow to the grave. 32 For your servant became collateral for the boy to my father, saying, ‘If I don’t bring him to you, then I will bear the blame to my father forever.’ 33 Now therefore, please let your servant stay instead of the boy as a my master’s slave; and let the boy go up with his brothers. 34 For how will I go up to my father, if the boy isn’t with me?—so I won’t see the harm that will come on my father.”