< Genesis 45 >
1 Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood by him; and he cried, Cause every man to go out from me. And there stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known to his brothers.
2 And he wept aloud: and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard.
3 And Joseph said to his brothers, I am Joseph; does my father yet live? And his brothers could not answer him; for they were troubled at his presence.
4 And Joseph said to his brothers, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt.
5 Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that you sold me here: for God did send me before you to preserve life.
6 For these two years has the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be ripening nor harvest.
7 And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
8 So now it was not you that sent me here, but God: and he has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.
9 Haste you, and go up to my father, and say to him, Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt: come down to me, tarry not:
10 And you shall dwell in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near to me, you, and your children, and your children’s children, and your flocks, and your herds, and all that you have:
11 And there will I nourish you; for yet there are five years of famine; lest you, and your household, and all that you have, come to poverty.
12 And, behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that it is my mouth that speaks to you.
13 And you shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt, and of all that you have seen; and you shall haste and bring down my father here.
14 And he fell on his brother Benjamin’s neck, and wept; and Benjamin wept on his neck.
15 Moreover he kissed all his brothers, and wept on them: and after that his brothers talked with him.
16 And the fame thereof was heard in Pharaoh’s house, saying, Joseph’s brothers are come: and it pleased Pharaoh well, and his servants.
17 And Pharaoh said to Joseph, Say to your brothers, This do you; lade your beasts, and go, get you to the land of Canaan;
18 And take your father and your households, and come to me: and I will give you the good of the land of Egypt, and you shall eat the fat of the land.
19 Now you are commanded, this do you; take you wagons out of the land of Egypt for your little ones, and for your wives, and bring your father, and come.
20 Also regard not your stuff; for the good of all the land of Egypt is yours.
21 And the children of Israel did so: and Joseph gave them wagons, according to the commandment of Pharaoh, and gave them provision for the way.
22 To all of them he gave each man changes of raiment; but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver, and five changes of raiment.
23 And to his father he sent after this manner; ten asses laden with the good things of Egypt, and ten she asses laden with corn and bread and meat for his father by the way.
24 So he sent his brothers away, and they departed: and he said to them, See that you fall not out by the way.
25 And they went up out of Egypt, and came into the land of Canaan to Jacob their father,
26 And told him, saying, Joseph is yet alive, and he is governor over all the land of Egypt. And Jacob’s heart fainted, for he believed them not.
27 And they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said to them: and when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father revived:
28 And Israel said, It is enough; Joseph my son is yet alive: I will go and see him before I die.
