But he said, “My son shall not go down with you, for his brother is dead, and he is the only one left. If harm should happen to him on the journey that you are to make, you would bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Sheol.”
Now the famine was severe in the land. And when they had eaten the grain that they had brought from Egypt, their father said to them, “Go again, buy us a little food.” But Judah said to him, “The man solemnly warned us, saying, ‘You shall not see my face unless your brother is with you.’ If you will send our brother with us, we will go down and buy you food. But if you will not send him, we will not go down, for the man said to us, ‘You shall not see my face, unless your brother is with you.’” Israel said, “Why did you treat me so badly as to tell the man that you had another brother?” They replied, “The man questioned us carefully about ourselves and our kindred, saying, ‘Is your father still alive? Do you have another brother?’ What we told him was in answer to these questions. Could we in any way know that he would say, ‘Bring your brother down’?” And Judah said to Israel his father, “Send the boy with me, and we will arise and go, that we may live and not die, both we and you and also our little ones. I will be a pledge of his safety. From my hand you shall require him. If I do not bring him back to you and set him before you, then let me bear the blame forever. If we had not delayed, we would now have returned twice.”
Comment: Last time we were looking at Genesis, Jacob, flush with the Egyptian supplies of grain, was adamant that under no circumstances would Benjamin be taken away from him! But the grain disappeared before the famine broke. It reads as if the matter of the sons returning for more supplies was talked about more than once but Jacob dug his toes in over the Benjamin issue. The other sons were equally determined that it was pointless to go without him. They reiterated the Egyptian overlord’s conditions for giving more help. Judah offered his life to be forfeit if they failed to go and return with Benjamin. Frustrated they said ‘If you would only see sense, dad, we could have gone and returned twice by this time!’ Will the old man agree?
Prayer: Life has many hard decisions, Lord. Help me to trust You, to choose wisely and to walk on in faith!
As I read it! 