1. Now the famine was severe in the land.
2. When they finished eating the grain they had brought from Egypt their father said to them, “Go back. Buy us a little food.”
3. But Judah said to him, “The man warned us firmly saying, ‘You won’t see my face unless your brother is with you.’
4. If you send our brother with us, we will go down and buy grain for you for food.
5. But if you won’t send him, we won’t go down, because the man said to us, ‘You won’t see my face unless your brother is with you.’”
6. Then Israel said, “Why did you do evil to me by telling the man that you have another brother?”
7. They said, “The man questioned particularly about us and about our relatives saying, ‘Is your father still alive? Do you have a brother?’ So we spoke to him on the basis of these words. How could we possibly know that he would say, ‘Bring your brother down’”?