Midrash su Genesi 42:25

Then Joseph commanded to fill their vessels with corn (Gen. 42:25). Upon their return to their father they related everything that had transpired. When their father asked: “Where is your brother Simeon?” They answered: “The man who rules that land is holding him captive until we bring our youngest brother to him.” Whereupon Jacob, their father, exclaimed: “Me have ye bereaved …Joseph is not, and Simeon is not.” … And Reuben spoke unto his father, saying: “Thou shalt slay my two sons” (ibid., vv. 36–37). “Fool,” he retorted, “are not your children, my children?” Then Judah told his brothers: “Let us not disturb the old man until all the bread is gone,” as it is said: And it came to pass, when they had eaten up the corn (ibid. 43:2). Thereupon Judah said: “Father, if Benjamin accompanies us, it is not certain whether he will be held or not, but if he does not join us, we shall all surely perish. Is it better to avoid the doubtful than to succumb to the inevitable? I will be surety for him; of my hand thou shalt require him (ibid., v. 9).” He sent Benjamin with them and told them: Take of the choice fruits of the land in your vessels, and carry down the man a present (ibid., v. 11). Hence it is written: Now Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt.

And when Jacob heard the words of the infants of his sons, he wept bitterly and his ‎compassion was aroused in their behalf. And Jacob called unto his sons, and all of them came ‎unto him, and they sat down before him. And he said unto them: See ye not that your children ‎are this day crying before me: Oh give us bread and there is none, and now go ye once more ‎and buy for us a little food. And Judah answered and said unto his father: If thou wilt send the ‎lad with us, then we will go down and purchase food for thee, but if thou wilt not send him ‎along we shall not go down; for the man hath admonished us saying: You shall not see my face ‎unless your brother be with you. For the king of Egypt is great and powerful, and if we go unto ‎him without our brother, then all of us will die. Knowest thou not, and hast thou not heard it, ‎that this king is exceedingly brave and wise and there is none like him in all the earth? Behold ‎we have seen all the kings of the earth yet have we seen none like the king of Egypt. For there ‎is none greater among the kings of the earth than Abimelech, king of the Philistines, but the ‎king of Egypt is greater and mightier than he, and Abimelech could not compare with one of his ‎princes. Thou hast not seen, oh my father, his temple and his throne and his servants that ‎stand before him. Thou hast not seen this king seated upon his throne in his beauty and in the ‎dignity of royalty, in kingly garments, with a large crown of gold upon his head. Thou hast not ‎seen the glory and the grandeur which God hath bestowed upon him, for there is none like ‎him in all the earth. Thou hast not seen, oh my father, the wisdom, understanding and ‎knowledge which God has placed within his heart, nor his pleasant voice when he spoke unto ‎us. We don’t know, oh my father, who has made known unto him our names and all the ‎incidents of our lives. He has inquired even concerning thee, saying: Is your father still alive ‎and is peace with him. Thou hast not seen that all the affairs of the Egyptian government are ‎under his control without even asking Pharaoh his master. Thou hast not seen the awe and the ‎terror which he exercises over all the Egyptians, and even we, when on leaving his presence, ‎we concluded to do unto Egypt as we have done to all the cities of the Amorites, and yet, ‎though our anger was burning exceedingly concerning his words, considering us as spies, when ‎we came before him once more his fear fell upon all of us and no man will be able to speak ‎unto him a word great or small. And now, our father, do send the lad along with us, and we will ‎go down and purchase food for thee for our support that we die not of hunger.‎