NSB(i)
18 Judah went up to Joseph and said: »Please, Sir, let me speak openly with you. Do not be angry with me, although you are equal to Pharaoh.
19 »Sir, you asked us, ‘Do you have a father or a brother?’
20 »We answered, ‘We have a father who is old and a younger brother born to him when he was already old. The boy’s brother is dead. He is the only one of his mother’s sons left, and his father loves him.’
21 ‘Then you said to us, ‘Bring him here to me so that I can see him myself.’
22 »We replied, ‘The boy cannot leave his father. If the boy leaves him, his father will die.’
23 »Then you said you will not be admitted to my presence again unless your youngest brother comes with you.’
24 »We went back and told our father what you said.
25 »He told us to return and buy a little food.
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 also goes.’
27 »Our father said, ‘You know that my wife Rachel bore me only two sons.
28 »‘One has already left me. He must have been torn to pieces by wild animals, because I have not seen him since he left.
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.’
30 »That is why Benjamin must be with us when I go back to my father. He loves him so much
31 »that he will die if Benjamin does not come back with me.
32 »I promised my father I would bring him home safely. If I do not, I told my father he could blame me the rest of my life.
33 »Sir, I am your slave. Please let me stay here in place of Benjamin. Please let him return home with his brothers.
34 »How can I face my father if Benjamin is not with me? I could not bear to see my father in such sorrow.«