44:1  Then he commanded his house steward, saying, "Fill the men's sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put each man's money in the mouth of his sack.

44:2  "Put my cup, the silver cup, in the mouth of the sack of the youngest, and his money for the grain." And he did as Joseph had told him.

44:3  As soon as it became light, they sent the men away with their donkeys.

44:4  They had just gone out of the city, and had not gone far off, when Joseph said to his house steward, "Up, follow the men; and when you overtake them, say to them, 'Why have you repaid evil for good?

44:5  'Do we not recognize this as the one from which my lord drinks and which he indeed uses for divination? You have done wrong in doing this.'"

44:6  So he overtook them and spoke these words to them.

44:7  They said to him, "Why does my lord speak such words as these? We would never do such a thing.

44:8  "Behold, the money which we found in the mouth of our sacks we have brought back to you from the land of Canaan. How then could we steal silver or gold from your lord's house?

44:9  "With whomever your servants find, let him die, and we also will become my lord's slaves."

44:10  So he said, "Now let it also happen according to your words; he with whom I find it shall become my slave, and the rest of you I shall regard as innocent."

44:11  Then they hurried, each man lowered his sack to the ground, and each man opened his sack.

44:12  He searched, beginning with the oldest and ending with the youngest, and Benjamin found the cup in his sack.

44:13  Then they tore their clothes, and when each man loaded his donkey, they returned to the city.

44:14  When Judah and his brothers came to Joseph's house, they found him still there, and they fell to the ground before him.

44:15  Joseph said to them, "What deed have you done? Do you not know that such a man as I can indeed practice divination?"

44:16  So Judah said, "What can we say to my lord? What can we speak? And how can we justify ourselves? God has found out the iniquity of your servants; behold, we have yielded ourselves as my lord's slaves, both we and the one in whose possession we found the cup ."

44:17  But he said, "Let me never do this. The man in whose possession we found the cup, he shall remain my slave; but as for you, go up in peace to your father."

44:18  Then Judah approached him, and said, "Oh my lord, may your servant please speak a word in my lord's ears, and do not become angry with your servant; for we acknowledge you as equal to Pharaoh.

44:19  "My lord asked his servants, saying, 'Have you a father or a brother?'

44:20  "We said to my lord, 'We have an old father and a little child of his old age Now his brother died, so he alone remains of his mother, and his father loves him.'

44:21  "Then you said to your servants, ' Bring him down to me that I may set my eyes on him.'

44:22  "But we said to my lord, 'The lad cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father, his father would die.'

44:23  "You said to your servants, however, 'Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you will not see my face again.'

44:24  "Thus it came about when we went up to your servant my father, we told him the words of my lord.

44:25  "Our father said, 'Go back, buy us a little food.'

44:26  "But we said, 'We cannot go down. If our youngest brother comes with us, then we will go down; for we cannot see the man's face unless our youngest brother comes with us.'

44:27  "Your servant my father said to us, 'You know that my wife bore me two sons;

44:28  and the one went out from me, and I said, "Surely a beast has torn him in pieces," and I have not seen him since.

44:29  'If you take this one also from me, and harm befalls him, you will bring my gray hair down to Sheol in sorrow.'

44:30  "Now, therefore, when I come to your servant my father, and the lad does not come with us, since he has bound his life in the lad's life,

44:31  when he sees that the lad does not come with us, he will die. Thus your servants will bring the gray hair of your servant our father down to Sheol in sorrow.

44:32  "For your servant became surety for the lad to my father, saying, 'If I do not bring him back to you, then let me bear the blame before my father forever.'

44:33  "Now, therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the lad a slave to my lord, and let the lad go up with his brothers.

44:34  "For how shall I go up to my father if the lad does not come with me--for fear that I see the evil that would overtake my father?"