Genesis 44:17-27

17 He said, "Far be it from me that I should do so. The man in whose hand the cup is found, he will be my bondservant; but as for you, go up in peace to your father."

18 Then Judah came near to him, and said, "Oh, my lord, please let your servant speak a word in my lord's ears, and don't let your anger burn against your servant; for you are even as Pharaoh.

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

20 We said to my lord, 'We have a father, an old man, and a child of his old age, a little one; and his brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother; and his father loves him.'

21 You said to your servants, 'Bring him down to me, that I may set my eyes on him.'

22 We said to my lord, 'The boy can't leave his father: for if he should leave his father, his father would die.'

23 You said to your servants, 'Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you will see my face no more.'

24 It happened when we came up to your servant my father, we told him the words of my lord.

25 Our father said, 'Go again, buy us a little food.'

26 We said, 'We can't go down. If our youngest brother is with us, then will we go down: for we may not see the man's face, unless our youngest brother is with us.'

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

Genesis 44:17-27 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO GENESIS 44

This chapter relates the policy of Joseph in making an experiment of his brethren's regard and affection for Benjamin; he ordered his steward to put every man's money into his sack, and his silver cup in Benjamin's, and when they were got out of the city, to follow after them, and charge them with the theft, as he did; and having searched their sacks, as they desired he would, found the cup with Benjamin, which threw them into the utmost distress, and obliged them to return to Joseph, Ge 44:1-14; who charged them with their ill behaviour towards him; they acknowledge it, and propose to be his servants; but he orders them to depart to their father, retaining Benjamin in servitude, Ge 44:15-17; upon which Judah addressed him in a very polite and affectionate manner, and relates the whole story, both of what passed between Joseph and them, concerning Benjamin, the first time they were in Egypt, and between their father and them upon the same subject, when he directed them to go a second time thither to buy corn, and how he became a surety to his father for him, and therefore proposed to be his bondman now, not being able to see his father's face without Benjamin, Ge 44:18-34.