18 Then Judah came near to him, and said, Ah! my lord, let thy servant, I pray thee, speak a word in my lord's ears, and let not thine anger burn against thy servant; for thou art even as Pharaoh. 19 My lord asked his servants, saying, Have ye a father, or a brother? 20 And we said to my lord, We have an aged father, and a child born to him in his old age, [yet] young; and his brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother; and his father loves him. 21 And thou saidst unto thy servants, Bring him down to me, that I may set mine eye on him. 22 And we said to my lord, The youth cannot leave his father: if he should leave his father, [his father] would die. 23 And thou saidst to thy servants, Unless your youngest brother come down with you, ye shall see my face no more. 24 And it came to pass when we came up to thy servant my father, we told him the words of my lord. 25 And our father said, Go again, buy us a little food. 26 But we said, We cannot go down: if our youngest brother be with us, then will we go down; for we cannot see the man's face unless our youngest brother is with us. 27 And thy servant my father said to us, Ye know that my wife bore me two [sons]; 28 and the one went out from me, and I said, He must certainly have been torn in pieces; and I have not seen him [again] hitherto. 29 And if ye take this one also from me, and mischief should befall him, ye will bring down my grey hairs with misery to Sheol. 30 And now, when I come to thy servant my father, and the lad is not with us,—seeing that his life is bound up with his life, 31 it will come to pass when he sees that the lad is not [there], that he will die; and thy servants will bring down the grey hairs of thy servant our father with sorrow to Sheol. 32 For thy servant became surety for the lad to my father, saying, If I bring him not to thee, then I shall be guilty toward my father all my days. 33 And now, let thy servant stay, I pray thee, instead of the lad a bondman to my lord, and let the lad go up with his brethren; 34 for how should I go up to my father if the lad were not with me?—lest I see the evil that would come on my father.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Genesis 44:18-34
Commentary on Genesis 44:18-34
(Read Genesis 44:18-34)
Had Joseph been, as Judah supposed him, an utter stranger to the family, he could not but be wrought upon by his powerful reasonings. But neither Jacob nor Benjamin need an intercessor with Joseph; for he himself loved them. Judah's faithful cleaving to Benjamin, now, in his distress, was recompensed long afterwards by the tribe of Benjamin keeping with the tribe of Judah, when the other tribes deserted it. The apostle, when discoursing of the mediation of Christ, observes, that our Lord sprang out of Judah, Hebrews 7:14; and he not only made intercession for the transgressors, but he became a Surety for them, testifying therein tender concern, both for his Father and for his brethren. Jesus, the great antitype of Joseph, humbles and proves his people, even after they have had some tastes of his loving-kindness. He brings their sins to their remembrance, that they may exercise and show repentance, and feel how much they owe to his mercy.