New King James Version

Genesis 44:26-33 New King James Version (NKJV)

26. But we said, ‘We cannot go down; if our youngest brother is with us, then we will go down; for 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 bore me two sons;

28. and the one went out from me, and I said, “Surely he is torn to pieces”; and I have not seen him since.

29. But if you take this one also from me, and calamity befalls him, you shall bring down my gray hair with sorrow to the grave.’

30. “Now therefore, when I come to your servant my father, and the lad is not with us, since his life is bound up in the lad’s life,

31. it will happen, when he sees that the lad is not with us, that he will die. So your servants will bring down the gray hair of your servant our father with sorrow to the grave.

32. For your servant became surety for the lad to my father, saying, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, then I shall bear the blame before my father forever.’

33. Now therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the lad as a slave to my lord, and let the lad go up with his brothers.