Genesis 44Book 1 of 66 · 34 verses · MBT primary, NKJV fallback where MBT pending

  1. Then Joseph commanded the steward of his house, saying, "Fill the men's sacks with as much food as they can carry, and put each man's money in the mouth of his sack.
  2. Also put my personal cup, the silver cup, in the mouth of the sack of the youngest, along with his grain money, and he did as Joseph had told him.
  3. As soon as the morning was light, the men were sent on their journey, they and their donkeys.
  4. When they had gone out of the city and were not yet far off, Joseph said to his steward, "Get up, pursue the men, and when you overtake them, say to them, 'Why have you repaid evil for good?
  5. Is not this the cup from which my lord drinks and which he indeed uses for divination? You have done wrong in doing this.
  6. So he overtook them, and he spoke to them these words as he had been instructed.
  7. And they said to him, "Why does my lord speak such words as these? Far be it from your servants to do such a thing.
  8. Look, we even brought back to you from the land of Canaan the money which we found in the mouth of our sacks, so how then could we steal silver or gold from your master's house?
  9. With whomever of your servants it is found, let him die, and the rest of us also will be my lord's slaves.
  10. And he said, "Now also let it be according to your words; he with whom it is found shall be my slave, and the rest of you shall be blameless."
  11. Then each man quickly lowered his sack to the ground, and each opened his sack.
  12. So he searched, beginning with the oldest and ending with the youngest, and the cup was found in Benjamin's sack.
  13. Then they tore their clothes in despair, and each man loaded his donkey and returned to the city.
  14. So Judah and his brothers came to Joseph's house, and he was still there, and they fell to the ground before him.
  15. Joseph said to them, "What deed is this you have done? Did you not know that a man like me can certainly practice divination?"
  16. Then Judah said, "What shall we say to my lord? What shall we speak? Or how can we justify ourselves? God has found out the iniquity of your servants; here we are, my lord's slaves, both we and he also in whose possession the cup was found."
  17. But he said, "Far be it from me that I should do this; the man in whose possession the cup was found, he shall be my slave, and as for you, go up in peace to your father."
  18. Then Judah approached him and said, "O my lord, please let your servant speak a word personally in my lord's hearing, and do not let your anger burn against your servant, for you are even like Pharaoh himself."
  19. My lord asked his servants, saying, 'Do you have a father or a brother?'
  20. And we said to my lord, We have a father, an elderly man, and a younger brother, 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.
  21. Then you said to your servants, 'Bring him down to me, that I may see him with my own eyes.'
  22. And we said to my lord, The boy cannot leave his father, for if he were to leave his father, his father would die.
  23. But you told your servants, 'Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you shall not see my face again.'
  24. So it was, when we went back to your servant my father, that we told him the words of my lord.
  25. And our father said, 'Go back again and buy us a little food.'
  26. But we said, 'We cannot go down unless our youngest brother is with us, then we will go down; for we cannot 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 never seen him since.
  29. But if you take this one also from me, and harm befalls him, you shall bring down my gray hair with sorrow to Sheol.
  30. Now therefore, when I come to your servant my father, and the boy is not with us, since his life is bound up in the boy's life,
  31. When he sees that the boy is not with us, he will die, and your servants will bring down the gray hairs of your servant our father with sorrow to the grave.
  32. For your servant became surety for the boy 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 here instead of the boy as a slave to my lord, and let the boy go back with his brothers.
  34. For how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me, lest I see the anguish that would overtake my father?