Then Judah said to his father Israel, ‘Send the boy with me. We will be on our way so that we may live and not die #– #neither we, nor you, nor our dependents.
I proclaimed a fast by the River Ahava, so that we might humble ourselves before our God and ask him for a safe journey for us, our dependents, and all our possessions.
But one of his servants responded, ‘Please, let messengers take five of the horses that are left in the city. Their fate is like the entire Israelite community who will die, so let’s send them and see.’
If we say, “Let’s go into the city,” we will die there because the famine is in the city, but if we sit here, we will also die. So now, come on. Let’s surrender to the Arameans’ camp. If they let us live, we will live; if they kill us, we will die.’
along with all Joseph’s family, his brothers, and his father’s family. Only their dependents, their flocks, and their herds were left in the land of Goshen.
But Jacob answered, ‘My son will not go down with you, for his brother is dead and he alone is left. If anything happens to him on your journey, you will bring my grey hairs down to Sheol in sorrow.’
and we answered my lord, “We have an elderly father and a younger brother, the child of his old age. The boy’s brother is dead. He is the only one of his mother’s sons left, and his father loves him.”