18. Judah went up to Joseph and said, “Please, sir, allow me to speak with you freely. Don't be angry with me; you are like the king himself.
19. Sir, you asked us, ‘Have you got a father or another brother?’
20. We answered, ‘We have a father who is old and a younger brother, born to him in his old age. The boy's brother is dead, and he is the only one of his mother's children still alive; his father loves him very much.’
21. Sir, you told us to bring him here, so that you could see him,
22. and we answered that the boy could not leave his father; if he did, his father would die.
23. Then you said, ‘You will not be admitted to my presence again unless your youngest brother comes with you.’
24. “When we went back to our father, we told him what you had said.
25. Then he told us to return and buy a little food.
26. We answered, ‘We cannot go; we will not be admitted to the man's presence unless our youngest brother is with us. We can go only if our youngest brother goes also.’
27. Our father said to us, ‘You know that my wife Rachel bore me only two sons.
28. One of them has already left me. He must have been torn to pieces by wild animals, because I have not seen him since he left.
29. If you take this one from me now and something happens to him, the sorrow you would cause me would kill me, old as I am.’