16. Judah replied, "What can we say to my master? What words can we use? How can we prove we are innocent? God has found your servants guilty. We are now your slaves, all of us, including the one found with the cup."
17. Joseph said, "I’d never do such a thing. Only the man found with the cup will be my slave. As for the rest of you, you are free to go back to your father."
18. Judah approached him and said, “Please, my master, allow your servant to say something to my master without getting angry with your servant since you are like Pharaoh himself.
19. My master asked his servants, ‘Do you have a father or brother?’
20. And we said to my master, ‘Yes, we have an elderly father and a young brother, born when he was old. His brother is dead and he’s his mother’s only child. But his father loves him.’
21. You told your servants, ‘Bring him down to me so I can see him.’
22. And we said to my master, ‘The young man can’t leave his father. If he leaves, his father will die.’
23. You said to your servants, ‘If your youngest brother doesn’t come down with you, you’ll never see my face again.’
24. "When we went back to my father your servant, we told him what you said.
25. Our father told us, ‘Go back and buy for us a little food.’
26. But we said, ‘We can’t go down. We will go down only if our youngest brother is with us. We won’t be able to gain an audience with the man without our youngest brother with us.’
27. Your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife gave birth to two sons for me.