Genesis 44:24-34

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:

28 and the one went out from me, and I said, "Surely he is torn in pieces;" and I haven't seen him since.

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

30 Now therefore when I come to your servant my father, and the boy is not with us; seeing that his life is bound up in the boy's life;

31 it will happen, when he sees that the boy is no more, that he will die. Your servants will bring down the gray hairs of your servant, our father, with sorrow to Sheol.

32 For your servant became collateral for the boy to my father, saying, 'If I don't bring him to you, then I will bear the blame to my father forever.'

33 Now therefore, please let your servant stay instead of the boy, a bondservant to my lord; and let the boy go up with his brothers.

34 For how will I go up to my father, if the boy isn't with me? Lest I see the evil that will come on my father."

Genesis 44:24-34 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.