Chapter Forty-Five

Joseph reveals himself to his brothers and comforts them

Genesis 45:1. Joseph could no longer control himself before all those who stood beside him, and he cried out: send everyone away from me. And no one stood with Joseph when he revealed himself to his brothers. The strong feelings and emotions that filled Joseph’s soul and had been held back for so long now had to express themselves outwardly in a way fitting to their nature – by revealing himself to his brothers. In this act or display of brotherly love, Joseph naturally did not wish to have as witnesses his Egyptian servants and subordinates (compare Jacob’s meeting with Rachel, especially Gen 29:6-7 and our remarks on them) and he sent them away, unwilling perhaps also to make them witnesses of his brothers’ crime.

Genesis 45:2. And he wept loudly, and the Egyptians heard, and the house of Pharaoh heard. Nevertheless, word of his brothers’ arrival to Joseph spread throughout Pharaoh’s palace (compare verse 16).

Genesis 45:3. And Joseph said to his brothers: I am Joseph, is my father still alive? But his brothers could not answer him, because they were confused before him. Revealing himself to his brothers, Joseph speaks briefly: “I am Joseph.” But, knowing or observing what a striking impression this revelation makes upon them, he hastens to soften the force of this impression by asking about his father’s health – a question he had already proposed earlier (Gen 43:27) to his brothers, but which he now proposes again so that he himself might once more hear the pleasant news about his dear father, and so that to his brothers he might give proof of his truly filial feelings toward Jacob, and at the same time brotherly feelings toward them. The latter he then displays (verses 14–15) with the intensity characteristic of people of the East in general. But his brothers, still more struck than gladdened, in deep astonishment remain silent: the supreme ruler of Egypt, before whom they have trembled all the while, declares himself to be their brother, and this brother was not only insulted by them once, but shamefully sold into slavery.

Genesis 45:4. And Joseph said to his brothers: come near to me. They came near. He said: I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. Joseph’s first concern was to comfort his brothers and assure them that he would not take vengeance upon them. Encouraging them (in the Vulgate, verse 4, it is added: gently), Joseph first asks them to draw near to him (probably from fear they had fallen to the ground) and see for themselves that it is their brother before them.

Genesis 45:5. But now do not grieve and do not regret that you sold me here, because God sent me before you to preserve your lives; With great delicacy and true magnanimity Joseph strives to smooth over the acute sense of guilt in his brothers by pointing to divine Providence (Gen 45:7-8), which turned their deed toward a good end and made it a means for the salvation of Joseph’s entire family. It is self-evident that, in expressing to his brothers this well-intentioned proposition, Joseph had in mind that they had already been sufficiently punished, had repented, and therefore were worthy of forgiveness both from their brother and from God. Holy Scripture here, as in many other places, practically expresses the truth that divine providence, while not constraining and not excluding human freedom of action, prevents the destructive consequences of such actions and directs them to good.

Genesis 45:6. For now two years of famine on the land: there remain yet five years, in which there will be neither plowing nor reaping; It is possible that, foreseeing a prolonged and universal famine, the ruler of Egypt forbade the inhabitants to sow, so as not to waste seed in vain (Metropolitan Philaret).

Genesis 45:7. God sent me before you, to preserve you in the land and to save your lives with a great deliverance. The salvation of Jacob’s house from death by hunger, from the perspective of the history of salvation, is presented as more important than the salvation of the Egyptians and other neighboring peoples, therefore Joseph says that the purpose of his exaltation was first and foremost the salvation of his father’s family.

Genesis 45:8. So it was not you who sent me here, but God, who has made me a father to Pharaoh and lord of all his house and ruler of all the land of Egypt. By repeating his thought that God sent him to Egypt, Joseph strives to instill this conviction in his brothers and further comfort them (compare Ps 104:17). The title “father of the king” for the first royal minister was very common in the ancient East: among the Persians, Greeks (1 Macc 11:32), and no doubt among the Egyptians.

Genesis 45:9. Go quickly to my father and say to him: thus says your son Joseph: God has made me lord of all Egypt; come to me, do not delay; Joseph urges his brothers to bring his father to him – from fear lest he should not find him alive (compare verse 13).

Genesis 45:10–11. You will live in the land of Goshen; and you will be near me, you and your sons, and your sons’ sons, and your flocks and your herds, and all that you have; and I will provide for you there, for there are yet five years of famine, so that you and your household and all that you have may not come to poverty. Joseph sets forth two grounds which should have moved Jacob to settle in Egypt and to settle in the land of Goshen: • here he will be closer to Joseph and will share in his happiness and • Joseph will provide for him with his family during the remaining five years of famine. The determination of the geographical position of the land of Goshen presents considerable difficulties because of the fragmentary and incidental nature of the biblical data about Goshen (the most thorough and well-founded investigation of the position of Goshen is given in the work of Professor F. G. Eleonsky, “History of the Israeli People in Egypt,” St. Petersburg, 1884, pp. 1–33). That Goshen lay east of the Nile (contrary to the opinion of Yablonsky, Briant, and others) is evident from the non-mention in the books of Genesis and Exodus of the crossing of the Nile by the Hebrews. The proximity of Goshen to the border – to Memphis or Tanis (Zoan) is presupposed here (verse 10); its proximity to the north-eastern border is indicated in several other places (Gen 46:28; Exod 12:37). Regarding the qualities of the land of Goshen, the existence of water and irrigation in it is proved by passages Deut 11:10; Num 11:5; its fertility is testified to by Gen 47:4-6. In Exod 13:17 attention is drawn to the proximity of Goshen to the land of the Philistines. According to the Seventy, who in Gen 45:10 call Goshen Arabian (η Γεσεμ Ἀραβίας), and according to the Coptic translations, Goshen was located in what is called the Egyptian Arabia or Arabian nome (mentioned by Herodotus, Strabo, and Ptolemy) – in the eastern part of lower Egypt, between the Red Sea and the Nile or its Pelusian branch. This date is accepted in modern biblical scholarship, which furthermore identifies Goshen with the fertile valley – Wadi Tumilat, cutting through in a narrow strip from east to west the space between the Nile and the Bitter Lakes.

Genesis 45:12. And behold, your eyes and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see that it is my mouth that speaks to you; A new assurance to the brothers that they see before them their brother Joseph is required, perhaps because until now the entire conversation had taken place through an interpreter.

Genesis 45:14–15. And he fell on the neck of Benjamin his brother, and wept; and Benjamin wept on his neck. And he kissed all his brothers and wept, embracing them. In the display of mutual brotherly feelings, Joseph and his brothers show a purely Eastern impetuosity and expansiveness. And only now do the brothers dare to speak with Joseph in a brotherly manner.

Joseph sends his brothers after his father

Genesis 45:16. News reached Pharaoh’s house that Joseph’s brothers had come; and it pleased Pharaoh and his servants. It was important for Joseph and his brothers that Pharaoh should learn of the arrival of Joseph’s brothers beforehand and not be prejudiced against them: therefore, Joseph probably took care to inform Pharaoh promptly of the arrival of his brothers. The favor in which Joseph was held by Pharaoh, Pharaoh extended also to Joseph’s brothers.

Genesis 45:17. And Pharaoh said to Joseph: say to your brothers: do this: load your animals and go to the land of Canaan; The detailed account of Pharaoh’s speech or command to Joseph is given by the sacred writer because of the importance of this command for the subsequent settlement of Joseph’s father and brothers in Egypt and the residence of their descendants in that country. The Hebrews in Egypt, by virtue of this command, occupied a legal position as those invited into the country by its supreme authority, not as self-intruding outsiders.

Genesis 45:18. And take your father and your households and come to me; I will give you the best land in Egypt, and you will eat the best of the land. “The best of the land” (compare Deut 32:14; Ps 80:17) – “the best pastures” (according to Metropolitan Philaret) or the very best products of Egypt.

Genesis 45:19. And as for you, I command you to say to them: do this: take for yourselves carts from the land of Egypt for your children and your wives, and bring your father and come; While in mountainous Syria and Palestine carts were scarcely used at all, widespread use of them in Assyro-Babylonia and later in Egypt (compare Gen 41:42-43) is beyond doubt. Both Assyrian and Egyptian carts are depicted on monuments as two-wheeled, with an entrance at the rear. In Egypt, carts were usually drawn by horses, which appeared there no later than the 12th dynasty.

Genesis 45:20. And do not be concerned about your possessions, for the best of all the land of Egypt will be given to you. Pharaoh and Joseph advise Jacob’s family not to be concerned about the prospective loss of various household goods; they will find all this in Egypt.

Joseph’s brothers depart for home

Genesis 45:22. To each one of them he gave changes of garments, and to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver and five changes of garments; Sending his brothers after his father, Joseph provides all of them with gifts and supplies. To his beloved Benjamin, probably also in recompense for the difficult test he had endured by Joseph’s will, he gives particularly significant rewards or gifts.

Genesis 45:23. And to his father he sent ten donkeys loaded with the best products of Egypt, and ten female donkeys loaded with grain, bread, and provisions for his father on the journey. Joseph is especially concerned with providing comfort for the journey to Egypt for his elderly father, who had suffered so much – if not by his fault, at least because of his special closeness to his father’s heart and the vicissitudes of fate.

Genesis 45:24. And he sent his brothers away, and they went. And he said to them: do not quarrel on the way. Sending his brothers away, Joseph gives them the counsel not to quarrel, not to reproach one another on the journey. The Hebrew word ragaz often has the meaning: to fear, to tremble (Exod 15:14; Deut 2:25), which is why some interpreters render Joseph’s words (verse 24) as: do not be afraid on the way (Metropolitan Philaret: “do not be troubled on the road”). But from the context of the discourse, from the general sense of Joseph’s conversation, which was directed (compare verse 5–8) toward the comfort and reconciliation of his brothers, one should prefer, following the Seventy (ὀργίζεσθε), the Vulgate (irascamini), and others, the other meaning of the same verb: to quarrel, to dispute, to be angry (thus in Russian and Slavonic), for the brothers could not fear, going on the same path the fourth time; but disputes and arguments about the cause of Joseph’s, their father’s, and their own misfortunes could easily have arisen among them: Joseph warns them against all such things.

The joy of Jacob

Genesis 45:25–27. And they went out of Egypt, and came to the land of Canaan to Jacob their father, and told him, saying: Joseph your son is still alive, and now he rules over all the land of Egypt. But his heart was troubled, because he did not believe them. When they recounted to him all the words of Joseph which he had spoken to them, and when he saw the carts which Joseph had sent to carry him, then the spirit of Jacob their father revived. At the sudden, unexpected, and striking news that Joseph not only lives, but also holds an exceedingly high position as the ruler of all Egypt, Jacob, as if awakening from a heavy sleep (Vulgate: quasi de gravi somno evigilans), did not dare to believe and even lost presence of mind (Symmachus: animo deliquit, Seventy: ἐξέστη τἡ διάνοια). Only when his sons recounted to him in detail all that concerned Joseph – consequently, also that they once sold him, that he is now the first dignitary of Egypt, and forgives them and calls them with their father to Egypt; when their account of Joseph’s greatness and the commission given to him was confirmed by the Egyptian carts Jacob saw, “then the spirit of Jacob was revived” – he felt within himself a renewal of vital strength (according to Jewish interpreters, now the prophetic spirit returned to Jacob, which had left him since the day of Joseph’s loss).

Genesis 45:28. And Israel said: It is enough; my son Joseph is still alive; I will go and see him before I die. Filled as it were with youthful vitality, Jacob quickly and irrevocably decides the question of settling in Egypt. According to Jewish interpreters, by the word “enough” Jacob expressed that for him the gifts sent by Joseph nor his greatness held no significance; that what was most important for him was that Joseph lived. “As fire in a lamp, when the oil is running out, begins to go out, but as soon as someone adds even a little oil to the lamp, the fire, already ready to go out, immediately gives the clearest light, so also this old man, already ready to be extinguished by sorrow (Gen 37:35), now... from an old man became a youth, scattered the cloud of sadness, calmed the storm of thoughts, and finally was comforted” (Chrysostom, Homily 65, 697).