1Now the famine was still severe in the land.
2So when Jacob’s sons had eaten all the grain they had brought from Egypt, their father said to them, “Go back and buy us a little more food.”
3But Judah replied, “The man solemnly warned us, ‘You will not see my face again unless your brother is with you.’
4If you will send our brother with us, we will go down and buy food for you.
5But if you will not send him, we will not go; for the man told us, ‘You will not see my face again unless your brother is with you.’”
6“Why did you bring this trouble upon me?” Israel asked. “Why did you tell the man you had another brother?”
7They replied, “The man questioned us in detail about ourselves and our family: ‘Is your father still alive? Do you have another brother?’ And we answered him accordingly. How could we possibly know that he would say, ‘Bring your brother here’?”
8And Judah said to his father Israel, “Send the boy with me, and we will go at once, so that we may live and not die—neither we, nor you, nor our children.
9I will guarantee his safety. You may hold me personally responsible. If I do not bring him back and set him before you, then may I bear the guilt before you all my life.
10If we had not delayed, we could have come and gone twice by now.”
11Then their father Israel said to them, “If it must be so, then do this: Put some of the best products of the land in your packs and carry them down as a gift for the man—a little balm and a little honey, spices and myrrh, pistachios and almonds.
12Take double the silver with you so that you may return the silver that was put back into the mouths of your sacks. Perhaps it was a mistake.
13Take your brother as well, and return to the man at once.
14May God Almighty grant you mercy before the man, that he may release your other brother along with Benjamin. As for me, if I am bereaved, I am bereaved.”