And I proclaimed there a fast by the river Ahava, that we might afflict ourselves before the Lord our God, and might ask of him a right way for us, and for our children, and for all our substance.
And one of his servants answered: Let us take the five horses that are remaining in the city (because there are no more in the whole multitude of Israel, for the rest are consumed), and let us send and see.
If we will enter into the city, we shall die with the famine: and if we will remain here, we must also die. Come, therefore, and let us run over to the camp of the Syrians. If they spare us, we shall live: but if they kill us, we shall but die.
Give orders also that they take wagons out of the land of Egypt, for the carriage of their children and their wives. And say: Take up your father, and make haste to come with all speed.
And we said to him: We cannot go. If our youngest brother go down with us, we will set out together; otherwise, without him we dare not see the man's face.
But he said: My son shall not go down with you. His brother is dead, and he is left alone: if any mischief befall him in the land to which you go, you will bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to hell.
And we answered thee, my lord: We have a father an old man, and a young boy, that was born in his old age; whose brother by the mother is dead: and he alone is left of his mother, and his father loveth him tenderly.