1Then he instructed the manager of his house, saying, "Fill the men’s sacks with as much food as they can carry, and put each man’s silver in the mouth of his sack. 2Put my cup, the silver cup, in the sack’s mouth of the youngest, along with the silver for his grain." So he did according to the word that Joseph had told him. 3As soon as the morning dawned, the men were sent off along with their donkeys. 4When they were far from the city, Joseph said to his manager, "Up, go after the men, and when you overtake them, ask them, 'Why have you repaid evil for good? 5Why have you stolen my silver cup? Isn’t it from this that my lord drinks and by which he indeed uses for divination? You have done evil in doing this.'"

6And he caught up with them and spoke these words to them. 7But they said to him, "Why does my lord speak such words as these? Far be it from your servants that they should do such a thing. 8Look, the money that we found in the mouths of our sacks we brought back to you from the land of Canaan. How then could we steal silver or gold from your lord’s house? 9With whomever of your servants it is found, he must die, and we also will be my lord’s slaves." 10And he said, "Very well, then, it will be as you say. The one with whom it is found will be my slave, but you will be blameless." 11Then they hurried, and each man lowered his sack to the ground, and each man opened his sack. 12And he searched, beginning with the oldest, and ending at the youngest. And the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack. 13Then they tore their clothes, and each man loaded his donkey and returned to the city.

14So Judah and his brothers came to Joseph’s house, and he was still there, and they fell to the ground before him. 15And Joseph said to them, "What is this deed that you have done? Didn’t you know that a man like me can indeed practice divination?" 16Then Judah said, "What can we say to my lord? What can we speak? And how can we clear ourselves? God has uncovered the guilt of your servants. Look, we are my lord’s slaves, both we, and the one in whose possession the cup was found." 17But he said, "Far be it from me that I should do so. The man in whose possession the cup was found, he will be my slave. But as for you, go up to your father in peace."

18Then Judah approached him, and said, "My lord, please allow your servant to speak a word in the ears of my lord, and do not become angry with your servant, for you are like Pharaoh himself. 19My lord asked his servants, saying, 'Do you have a father or a brother?' 20And we said to my lord, 'We have a father, an old man, and a child born when he was old, a little one, and his brother is dead, and he is his mother’s only child, and his father loves him.' 21Then you said to your servants, 'Bring him down to me, so that I can see him myself.' 22And we said to my lord, 'The boy can't leave his father: for if he should leave his father, his father would die.' 23But you said to your servants, 'Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you will not see my face again.' 24And it happened when we came up to your servant my father, we told him the words of my lord. 25But our father said, ‘Go again, buy us a little food.’ 26We said, 'We can’t go down. If our youngest brother is with us, then we will go down, for we cannot see the man’s face unless our youngest brother is with us.' 27Then your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons. 28And the one disappeared from me, and I said, "Surely he is torn in pieces. "And I haven’t seen him since. 29If you take this one also from me, and harm happens to him, you will bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Sheol.' 30So now, when I come to your servant my father and the boy is not with us, since his life is bound up in the boy’s life, 31it will happen, when he sees that the boy is not with us, that he will die. Your servants will bring down the gray hairs of your servant our father with sorrow to Sheol. 32For your servant became collateral for the boy to my father, saying, 'If I do not bring him to you, then I will bear the blame to my father forever.' 33So now, please let your servant remain instead of the boy, a slave to my lord, and let the boy go up with his brothers. 34For how will I go up to my father if the boy isn’t with me? I could not bear to see the misery that would come on my father."