Genesis 44:31
It shall come to pass, when he seeth that the lad is not with us, that he will die: and thy servants shall bring down the gray hairs of thy servant our father with sorrow to the grave. It shall come to pass, when he seeth that the lad is not with us, that he will die: and thy servants shall bring down the gray hairs of thy servant our father with sorrow to the grave.
Jacob had been reluctant to let Benjamin go down to Egypt, and Judah had become surety for the lad, pledging to bear the blame forever if he did not bring him back to his father. In pleading aside with Joseph, Judah laid out Jacob's great grief over the loss of Joseph, and that Benjamin was all that was left of the mother Jacob loved.
Jacob's life was bound up with Benjamin's life. Judah feared that when Jacob saw that the lad was not with them, grief over the separation would cause his father to die. Those who hold the fuller account add that the separation itself would kill him, so that Judah could not return and meet his father without Benjamin.
To bring the aged father's gray hairs in sorrow to the grave means the brothers causing him sorrow so great that it would hasten his death. Out of concern for his father, Judah said he could not meet his father without Benjamin. So he nobly offered to remain as a bondman and slave in Benjamin's place and let the lad go up with his brothers.