1 Now the famine in the land was severe.
2 And it happened that as they finished eating the grain which they had brought from Egypt their father said to them, “Return and buy a little food for us.”
3 Then Judah said to him, “The man solemnly admonished us, saying, ‘You shall not see my face unless your brother is with you.’
4 If you will send our brother with us, we will go down and buy food for you,
5 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.’ ”
6 Then Israel said, “Why did you bring trouble to me by telling the man you still had a brother?”
7 And they said, “The man asked explicitly about us and about our family, saying, ‘Is your father still alive? Do you have a brother?’ And we answered him according to these words. How could we know that he would say, ‘Bring down your brother’?”