For except we had lingered, surely now we had returned this second time.
The saying belongs to the famine that drove Jacob's sons down to Egypt to buy grain, where they arrived and bowed before Joseph without recognizing him. By the time it was spoken the hunger was still severe and pressing, with Jacob and his children and households calling for food that had to be fetched as grain from Egypt to keep them alive. The brothers could not go back there without Benjamin, because the ruler in Egypt had solemnly required that he be brought with them.
Judah had offered himself as surety for Benjamin, pledging to bear the blame forever if he failed to bring him back to his father. On that ground he pressed Jacob to delay no longer in sending Benjamin, arguing that lingering from unwillingness to let him go had already wasted time enough to have gone to Egypt and returned a second time with food.
The saying belongs to the famine that drove Jacob's sons down to Egypt to buy grain, where they arrived and bowed before Joseph without recognizing him. By the time it was spoken the hunger was still severe and pressing, with Jacob and his children and households calling for food that had to be fetched as grain from Egypt to keep them alive. The brothers could not go back there without Benjamin, because the ruler in Egypt had solemnly required that he be brought with them.
Judah had offered himself as surety for Benjamin, pledging to bear the blame forever if he failed to bring him back to his father. On that ground he pressed Jacob to delay no longer in sending Benjamin, arguing that lingering from unwillingness to let him go had already wasted time enough to have gone to Egypt and returned a second time with food.