The word "soul" stands for Joseph. AT: "because we saw how distressed Joseph was" or "because we saw that Joseph was suffering" (See: [[rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-synecdoche]])
The abstract noun "distress" can be stated as the verb "suffering." AT: "That is why we are suffering like this now" (See: [[rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-abstractnouns]])