[44:18] Judah went up to Joseph and said, “Please, sir, allow me to speak with you freely. Don't be angry with me; you are like the king himself.
[44:19] Sir, you asked us, ‘Do you have a father or another brother?’
[44:20] We answered, ‘We have a father who is old and a younger brother, born to him in his old age. The boy's brother is dead, and he is the only one of his mother's children still alive; his father loves him very much.’
[44:21] Sir, you told us to bring him here, so that you could see him,
[44:22] and we answered that the boy could not leave his father; if he did, his father would die.
[44:23] Then you said, ‘You will not be admitted to my presence again unless your youngest brother comes with you.’
[44:24] “When we went back to our father, we told him what you had said.
[44:25] Then he told us to return and buy a little food.
[44:26] We answered, ‘We cannot go; we will not be admitted to the man's presence unless our youngest brother is with us. We can go only if our youngest brother goes also.’
[44:27] Our father said to us, ‘You know that my wife Rachel bore me only two sons.
[44:28] One of them has already left me. He must have been torn to pieces by wild animals, because I have not seen him since he left.
[44:29] If you take this one from me now and something happens to him, the sorrow you would cause me would kill me, as old as I am.’
[44:32] What is more, I pledged my life to my father for the boy. I told him that if I did not bring the boy back to him, I would bear the blame all my life.
[44:33] And now, sir, I will stay here as your slave in place of the boy; let him go back with his brothers.
[44:34] How can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? I cannot bear to see this disaster come upon my father.”