18 Judah came forward. He said, "Please, master; can I say just one thing to you? Don't get angry. Don't think I'm presumptuous - you're the same as Pharaoh as far as I'm concerned. 19 You, master, asked us, 'Do you have a father and a brother?' 20 And we answered honestly, 'We have a father who is old and a younger brother who was born to him in his old age. His brother is dead and he is the only son left from that mother. And his father loves him more than anything.' 21 "Then you told us, 'Bring him down here so I can see him.' 22 We told you, master, that it was impossible: 'The boy can't leave his father; if he leaves, his father will die.' 23 "And then you said, 'If your youngest brother doesn't come with you, you won't be allowed to see me.' 24 "When we returned to our father, we told him everything you said to us. 25 So when our father said, 'Go back and buy some more food,' 26 we told him flatly, 'We can't. The only way we can go back is if our youngest brother is with us. We aren't allowed to even see the man if our youngest brother doesn't come with us.' 27 "Your servant, my father, told us, 'You know very well that my wife gave me two sons. 28 One turned up missing. I concluded that he'd been ripped to pieces. I've never seen him since. 29 If you now go and take this one and something bad happens to him, you'll put my old gray, grieving head in the grave for sure.' 30 "And now, can't you see that if I show up before your servant, my father, without the boy, this son with whom his life is so bound up, 31 the moment he realizes the boy is gone, he'll die on the spot. He'll die of grief and we, your servants who are standing here before you, will have killed him. 32 And that's not all. I got my father to release the boy to show him to you by promising, 'If I don't bring him back, I'll stand condemned before you, Father, all my life.' 33 "So let me stay here as your slave, not this boy. Let the boy go back with his brothers. 34 How can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? Oh, don't make me go back and watch my father die in grief!"
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.