Genesis 45

The Truth Revealed.#Joseph reveals his identity and the family is reconciled. 1Joseph could no longer restrain himself in the presence of all his attendants, so he cried out, “Have everyone withdraw from me!” So no one attended him when he made himself known to his brothers. 2But his sobs were so loud that the Egyptians heard him, and so the news reached Pharaoh’s house. 3#Acts 7:13. “I am Joseph,” he said to his brothers. “Is my father still alive?” But his brothers could give him no answer, so dumbfounded were they at him.

4“Come closer to me,” Joseph told his brothers. When they had done so, he said: “I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. 5But now do not be distressed, and do not be angry with yourselves for having sold me here. It was really for the sake of saving lives that God sent me here ahead of you.#Gn 50:20. 6The famine has been in the land for two years now, and for five more years cultivation will yield no harvest. 7God, therefore, sent me on ahead of you to ensure for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives in an extraordinary deliverance. 8So it was not really you but God who had me come here; and he has made me a father to Pharaoh,#Father to Pharaoh: a term applied to a vizier in ancient Egypt. lord of all his household, and ruler over the whole land of Egypt.

9#In these verses, as in 46:31–47:5a, all from the Yahwist source, Joseph in his own name invites his father and brothers to come to Egypt. Only after their arrival is Pharaoh informed of the fact. On the other hand, in 45:16–20, which scholars have traditionally attributed to the Elohist source, it is Pharaoh himself who invites Joseph’s family to migrate to his domain. “Hurry back, then, to my father and tell him: ‘Thus says your son Joseph: God has made me lord of all Egypt; come down to me without delay.#Acts 7:14. 10You can settle in the region of Goshen,#The region of Goshen: the meaning of the term is unknown. It is found in no Egyptian source. It is generally thought to be in the modern Wadi Tumilat in the eastern part of the Nile Delta. where you will be near me—you and your children and children’s children, your flocks and herds, and everything that you own. 11I will provide for you there in the five years of famine that lie ahead, so that you and your household and all that are yours will not suffer want.’ 12Surely, you can see for yourselves, and Benjamin can see for himself, that it is I who am speaking to you. 13Tell my father all about my high position in Egypt and all that you have seen. But hurry and bring my father down here.” 14Then he threw his arms around his brother Benjamin and wept on his shoulder. 15Joseph then kissed all his brothers and wept over them; and only then were his brothers able to talk with him.

16The news reached Pharaoh’s house: “Joseph’s brothers have come.” Pharaoh and his officials were pleased. 17So Pharaoh told Joseph: “Say to your brothers: ‘This is what you shall do: Load up your animals and go without delay to the land of Canaan. 18There get your father and your households, and then come to me; I will assign you the best land in Egypt, where you will live off the fat of the land.’#Acts 7:14. 19Instruct them further: ‘Do this. Take wagons from the land of Egypt for your children and your wives and bring your father back here. 20Do not be concerned about your belongings, for the best in the whole land of Egypt shall be yours.’”

21The sons of Israel acted accordingly. Joseph gave them the wagons, as Pharaoh had ordered, and he supplied them with provisions for the journey. 22He also gave to each of them a set of clothes, but to Benjamin he gave three hundred shekels of silver and five sets of clothes. 23Moreover, what he sent to his father was ten donkeys loaded with the finest products of Egypt and another ten loaded with grain and bread and provisions for his father’s journey. 24As he sent his brothers on their way, he told them, “Do not quarrel on the way.”

25So they went up from Egypt and came to the land of Canaan, to their father Jacob. 26When they told him, “Joseph is still alive—in fact, it is he who is governing all the land of Egypt,” he was unmoved, for he did not believe them. 27But when they recounted to him all that Joseph had told them, and when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to transport him, the spirit of their father Jacob came to life. 28“Enough,” said Israel. “My son Joseph is still alive! I must go and see him before I die.”

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Genesis 45

CHAPTER 45

1Joseph might no longer abstain himself, while many men stood there before him; wherefore he commanded that all men should go out, and that none alien were present in the knowing of Joseph and his brethren.

2And Joseph raised up his voice with weeping, which the Egyptians heard, and all the household of Pharaoh.

3And he said to his brethren, I am Joseph; liveth my father yet? His brethren might not answer, and were aghast with full much dread.

4To whom Joseph said meekly, Cometh nigh to me. And when they had nighed nigh, he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt;

5do not ye dread, neither seem it to be hard to you, that ye sold me into these countries; for God hath sent me before you into Egypt for your health.

6For it is two years that hunger began to be in the land, yet five more years shall pursue, in which men shall not be able to ear, neither reap;

7and God before-sent me, that ye be kept alive on earth, and may have meats to live.

8I was sent hither not by your counsel, but by God’s will, which hath made me as the father of Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and prince in all the land of Egypt.

9Haste ye, and goeth up to my father, and ye shall say to him, Thy son Joseph sendeth these things to thee; God hath made me lord of all the land of Egypt; come down here to me, and tarry not,

10and dwell in the land of Goshen; and thou shalt be beside me, thou, and thy sons, and the sons of thy sons, thy sheep, and thy great beasts, and all things which thou wieldest,

11and there I shall feed thee; for yet five years of hunger be left, lest both thou perish, and thine house, and all things which thou wieldest.

12Lo! your eyes, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see, that my mouth speaketh to you;

13tell ye to my father all my glory, and all things which ye saw in Egypt; haste ye, and bring ye him to me.

14And when he had embraced, and felled into the neck of Benjamin, his brother, he wept, the while also Benjamin wept in like manner on the neck of Joseph.

15And Joseph kissed all his brethren, and wept on them all; after which things they were hardy to speak to him.

16And it was heard, and published by famous word in the king’s hall, The brethren of Joseph be come. And Pharaoh joyed, and all his household;

17and Pharaoh said to Joseph, that he should command his brethren, and say to them, Charge ye your beasts, and go ye into the land of Canaan,

18and take ye from thence your father, and your kindred, and come ye back to me; and I shall give you all the goods of Egypt, that ye eat the marrow of the land.

19Command thou also, that they take wains of the land of Egypt to the carriage of their little children, and wives, and say thou, Take ye your father, and haste ye in coming soon,

20neither leave ye anything of the appurtenance of your house, for all the riches of Egypt shall be yours.

21The sons of Israel did as it was commanded to them; to which Joseph gave wains, by the behest of Pharaoh, and meats in the way;

22and he commanded two stoles to be brought forth to each; forsooth he gave to Benjamin three hundred pieces of silver, with five of the best stoles;

23and he sent to his father so much of silver, and of clothes, and he added to them ten male asses, that should bear of the riches of Egypt, and so many female asses, bearing wheat and loaves in the way.

24Therefore he let go his brethren, and said to them going forth, Be ye not wroth in the way.

25Which went up from Egypt, and came into the land of Canaan, to their father Jacob;

26and they told to him, and said, Joseph, thy son, liveth, and he is lord in all the land of Egypt. And when this was heard, Jacob waked as of a grievous sleep; nevertheless he believed not to them.

27They told on the contrary to him all the order of the thing; and when Jacob had seen the wains, and all things which Joseph had sent, his spirit lived again,

28and he said, It sufficeth to me, if Joseph my son liveth yet; I shall go and see him before that I die.

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