bound up in the lads life] If he came not backe he would thinke some deadly mischiefe had befallen him; as he did of Joseph; and such was the tendernesse of Jacobs heart, that if Benjamin should die, he could not live; this strength of affection was the weaknesse of that good man; yet commonly the parents are more kind to their children, then their children to them: and so there is not oftner an errour of excesse on the one side, then of defect on the other. But in this pathetick supplication and pleading Judah sheweth more love to his father, and his brother, then to himselfe; offering himselfe a prisoner, that Benjamin may goe free, and so his father may have none occasion of such griefe, as may hasten his death. A good example for sonnes that they shew themselves carefull of their parents content, and that they doe not (as many doe) either by their wickednesse, disobedience, or dissolutenesse grieve their hearts, and bring their heads before or when they be gray with sorrow to their graves.