Joseph plans to keep Benjamin with him
1Joseph told the manager of his house: ‘Fill the men's bags with wheat. Make it as full as they can carry, and put each man's money back into the top of his bag. 2You must put my cup, the silver cup, in the bag of the youngest brother with his money for the wheat.’ The manager did what Joseph told him. 3When the sun came up the next morning, Joseph's slaves let his brothers go with their donkeys. 4The brothers were not far from the city when Joseph told the manager of his house: ‘Follow those men. When you get to them, ask them: “Why have you done a bad thing like that to me? I was good to you. 5Where is my master's cup? He drinks from it and he uses it to say what will happen in the future. You have done a very bad thing.” ’
6The manager went and when he came to the brothers, he told them what Joseph had said. 7They asked him: ‘Sir, why do you talk like that? We would never do a bad thing like that. 8We brought back the money that we found in our bags before. We would never steal silver or gold from your master's house. 9If you find the cup in one of our bags, you may kill that person and then we will all be your slaves.’ 10The manager said: ‘Yes, we will do as you say. But only the man in whose bag I find the cup will be my slave. All the other brothers may go.’ 11Everyone put his bag on the ground quickly and opened it. 12The manager looked into the bags. He started looking in the bag of the oldest brother and stopped at the youngest brother, and then he found the cup in Benjamin's bag. 13The brothers tore their clothes because they were sad and upset. They put everything they had on their donkeys and went back to the city.
14When Judah and his brothers came to Joseph's house, Joseph was still there. They lay before him with their faces to the ground. 15Joseph asked them: ‘What have you done? You must know that a man like me can tell what will happen in the future.’
16Judah said to him: ‘Sir, what can we say to you? What can we say and how can we prove that we are innocent? God has shown that we are guilty. Sir, here we are now. We are your slaves, all of us, and the one who had your cup.’
17Joseph said: ‘No, I would never do that. The man who had my cup will be my slave. You others may go back to your father.’
Judah tries to save Benjamin
18Judah came to Joseph and told him: ‘Please, sir, may I talk to you alone? Do not get angry with me. You are like Pharaoh. 19Sir, when we were here the first time, you asked us if we had a father and a brother. 20And we told you that we had a father who was old and we had another brother. He is the youngest. He was born when our father was old and he has a different mother to us. Her other son is dead, and our youngest brother is the only one of her sons left. Our father loves him very much. 21Sir, you told us to bring him to you because you wanted to see him. 22Sir, we told you that this son could not go away from his father and that if he should leave his father, his father would die. 23But, sir, you told us if we did not bring our youngest brother with us, then we could not see you again.
24We went to our father and we told him what you said. 25One day our father told us that we would have to go and buy food, 26and we told him that we could not go if our youngest brother was not with us. If we went and our youngest brother was not with us, then we could not go and see you again. 27Our father told us: “You know that I had only 2 children with this wife. 28One son went away from me and I think a wild animal has killed him. I have never, to this day, seen him again. 29I am an old man. If you take this son away from me and something happens to him, then I, an old man, will be so sad that I will die.”
30If I go to my father, and the son that he loves so much is not with us, what will happen? 31My father will die if he sees his son is not with us. Then it will be our fault if our father who is old dies because he is so sad. 32I promised my father that I would look after his son and make sure that he was safe. I said if he did not go back to my father, then it would be my fault forever. 33Sir, please let me stay here in my brother's place. Sir, I will be your slave, but please let the boy go back with his brothers. 34I can not go to my father if the boy is not with me. I do not want to see how unhappy my father will be.’
