6. Israel demanded, “Why did you bring this trouble on me by telling the man that you had another brother?”
7. They answered: “The man kept asking about us and our family: ‘Is your father still living? Do you have another brother?’ We answered him accordingly. How could we know that he would say, ‘Bring your brother down here’?”
8. Then Judah urged his father Israel: “Let the boy go with me, that we may be off and on our way if you and we and our children are to keep from starving to death.
9. I myself will serve as a guarantee for him. You can hold me responsible for him. If I fail to bring him back and set him before you, I will bear the blame before you forever.
10. Had we not delayed, we could have been there and back twice by now!”
11. Israel their father then told them: “If it must be so, then do this: Put some of the land’s best products in your baggage and take them down to the man as gifts: some balm and honey, gum and resin, and pistachios and almonds.
12. Also take double the money along, for you must return the amount that was put back in the mouths of your bags; it may have been a mistake.
13. Take your brother, too, and be off on your way back to the man.
14. May God Almighty grant you mercy in the presence of the man, so that he may let your other brother go, as well as Benjamin. As for me, if I am to suffer bereavement, I shall suffer it.”