Genesis 45:5-15

45:5 Now, do not be upset and do not be angry with yourselves because you sold me here, ¹  for God sent me ²  ahead of you to preserve life! 45:6 For these past two years there has been famine in ³  the land and for five more years there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. 45:7 God sent me ⁴  ahead of you to preserve you ⁵  on the earth and to save your lives ⁶  by a great deliverance. 45:8 So now, it is not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me an adviser ⁷  to Pharaoh, lord over all his household, and ruler over all the land of Egypt. 45:9 Now go up to my father quickly ⁸  and tell him, ‘This is what your son Joseph says: “God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me; do not delay! 45:10 You will live ⁹  in the land of Goshen, and you will be near me – you, your children, your grandchildren, your flocks, your herds, and everything you have. 45:11 I will provide you with food ¹⁰  there because there will be five more years of famine. Otherwise you would become poor – you, your household, and everyone who belongs to you.”’ 45:12 You and my brother Benjamin can certainly see with your own eyes that I really am the one who speaks to you. ¹¹  45:13 So tell ¹²  my father about all my honor in Egypt and about everything you have seen. But bring my father down here quickly!” ¹³ 

45:14 Then he threw himself on the neck of his brother Benjamin and wept, and Benjamin wept on his neck. 45:15 He kissed all his brothers and wept over them. After this his brothers talked with him.

¹ tn Heb “let there not be anger in your eyes.”

² sn You sold me here, for God sent me. The tension remains as to how the brothers’ wickedness and God’s intentions work together. Clearly God is able to transform the actions of wickedness to bring about some gracious end. But this is saying more than that; it is saying that from the beginning it was God who sent Joseph here. Although harmonization of these ideas remains humanly impossible, the divine intention is what should be the focus. Only that will enable reconciliation.

³ tn Heb “the famine [has been] in the midst of.”

⁵ sn God sent me. The repetition of this theme that God sent Joseph is reminiscent of commission narratives in which the leader could announce that God sent him (e.g., Exod 3:15).

⁶ tn Heb “to make you a remnant.” The verb, followed here by the preposition לְ (lÿ), means “to make.”

⁷ tn The infinitive gives a second purpose for God’s action.

⁷ tn Heb “a father.” The term is used here figuratively of one who gives advice, as a father would to his children.

⁹ tn Heb “hurry and go up.”

¹¹ tn The perfect verbal form with vav consecutive here expresses instruction.

¹³ tn The verb כּוּל (kul) in the Pilpel stem means “to nourish, to support, to sustain.” As in 1 Kgs 20:27, it here means “to supply with food.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “And, look, your eyes see and the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that my mouth is the one speaking to you.”

¹⁷ tn The perfect verbal form with the vav consecutive here expresses instruction.

¹⁸ tn Heb “and hurry and bring down my father to here.”