13. When the brothers saw this, they tore their clothing in despair. Then they loaded their donkeys again and returned to the city.
14. Joseph was still in his palace when Judah and his brothers arrived, and they fell to the ground before him.
15. “What have you done?” Joseph demanded. “Don’t you know that a man like me can predict the future?”
16. Judah answered, “Oh, my lord, what can we say to you? How can we explain this? How can we prove our innocence? God is punishing us for our sins. My lord, we have all returned to be your slaves—all of us, not just our brother who had your cup in his sack.”
17. “No,” Joseph said. “I would never do such a thing! Only the man who stole the cup will be my slave. The rest of you may go back to your father in peace.”
18. Then Judah stepped forward and said, “Please, my lord, let your servant say just one word to you. Please, do not be angry with me, even though you are as powerful as Pharaoh himself.
19. “My lord, previously you asked us, your servants, ‘Do you have a father or a brother?’
20. And we responded, ‘Yes, my lord, we have a father who is an old man, and his youngest son is a child of his old age. His full brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother’s children, and his father loves him very much.’
21. “And you said to us, ‘Bring him here so I can see him with my own eyes.’
22. But we said to you, ‘My lord, the boy cannot leave his father, for his father would die.’
23. But you told us, ‘Unless your youngest brother comes with you, you will never see my face again.’
24. “So we returned to your servant, our father, and told him what you had said.
25. Later, when he said, ‘Go back again and buy us more food,’
26. we replied, ‘We can’t go unless you let our youngest brother go with us. We’ll never get to see the man’s face unless our youngest brother is with us.’
27. “Then my father said to us, ‘As you know, my wife had two sons,
28. and one of them went away and never returned. Doubtless he was torn to pieces by some wild animal. I have never seen him since.