Genesis 45:1-28

The Reconciliation of the Brothers

45:1 Joseph was no longer able to control himself before all his attendants, ¹  so he cried out, “Make everyone go out from my presence!” No one remained ²  with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers. 45:2 He wept loudly; ³  the Egyptians heard it and Pharaoh’s household heard about it. ⁴ 

45:3 Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! Is my father still alive?” His brothers could not answer him because they were dumbfounded before him. 45:4 Joseph said to his brothers, “Come closer to me,” so they came near. Then he said, “I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. 45:5 Now, do not be upset and do not be angry with yourselves because you sold me here, ⁵  for God sent me ⁶  ahead of you to preserve life! 45:6 For these past two years there has been famine in ⁷  the land and for five more years there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. 45:7 God sent me ⁸  ahead of you to preserve you ⁹  on the earth and to save your lives ¹⁰  by a great deliverance. 45:8 So now, it is not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me an adviser ¹¹  to Pharaoh, lord over all his household, and ruler over all the land of Egypt. 45:9 Now go up to my father quickly ¹²  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 ¹³  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 ¹⁴  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. ¹⁵  45:13 So tell ¹⁶  my father about all my honor in Egypt and about everything you have seen. But bring my father down here quickly!” ¹⁷ 

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.

45:16 Now it was reported ¹⁸  in the household of Pharaoh, “Joseph’s brothers have arrived.” It pleased ¹⁹  Pharaoh and his servants. 45:17 Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Say to your brothers, ‘Do this: Load your animals and go ²⁰  to the land of Canaan! 45:18 Get your father and your households and come to me! Then I will give you ²¹  the best land in Egypt and you will eat ²²  the best ²³  of the land.’ 45:19 You are also commanded to say, ²⁴  ‘Do this: Take for yourselves wagons from the land of Egypt for your little ones and for your wives. Bring your father and come. 45:20 Don’t worry ²⁵  about your belongings, for the best of all the land of Egypt will be yours.’”

45:21 So the sons of Israel did as he said. ²⁶  Joseph gave them wagons as Pharaoh had instructed, ²⁷  and he gave them provisions for the journey. 45:22 He gave sets of clothes to each one of them, ²⁸  but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver and five sets of clothes. ²⁹  45:23 To his father he sent the following: ³⁰  ten donkeys loaded with the best products of Egypt and ten female donkeys loaded with grain, food, and provisions for his father’s journey. 45:24 Then he sent his brothers on their way and they left. He said to them, “As you travel don’t be overcome with fear.” ³¹ 

45:25 So they went up from Egypt and came to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan. ³²  45:26 They told him, “Joseph is still alive and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt!” Jacob was stunned, ³³  for he did not believe them. 45:27 But when they related to him everything Joseph had said to them, ³⁴  and when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to transport him, their father Jacob’s spirit revived. 45:28 Then Israel said, “Enough! My son Joseph is still alive! I will go and see him before I die.”

Genesis 21:30

21:30 He replied, “You must take these seven ewe lambs from my hand as legal proof ³⁵  that I dug this well.” ³⁶ 

Genesis 11:25

11:25 And after he became the father of Terah, Nahor lived 119 years and had other sons and daughters.

Genesis 11:29

11:29 And Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, ³⁷  and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milcah; ³⁸  she was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milcah and Iscah.

Joshua 24:14

24:14 Now ³⁹  obey ⁴⁰  the Lord and worship ⁴¹  him with integrity and loyalty. Put aside the gods your ancestors ⁴²  worshiped ⁴³  beyond the Euphrates ⁴⁴  and in Egypt and worship ⁴⁵  the Lord.

Nehemiah 9:7

9:7 “You are the LORD God who chose Abram and brought him forth from Ur of the Chaldeans. You changed his name to Abraham.

Isaiah 1:10

1:10 Listen to the Lord’s word,

you leaders of Sodom! ⁴⁶ 

Pay attention to our God’s rebuke, ⁴⁷ 

people of Gomorrah!

Isaiah 51:1-2

There is Hope for the Future

51:1 “Listen to me, you who pursue godliness, ⁴⁸ 

who seek the Lord!

Look at the rock from which you were chiseled,

at the quarry ⁴⁹  from which you were dug! ⁵⁰ 

51:2 Look at Abraham, your father,

and Sarah, who gave you birth. ⁵¹ 

When I summoned him, he was a lone individual, ⁵² 

but I blessed him ⁵³  and gave him numerous descendants. ⁵⁴ 

Matthew 3:7

3:7 But when he saw many Pharisees ⁵⁵  and Sadducees ⁵⁶  coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You offspring of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?

Matthew 11:24

11:24 But I tell you, it will be more bearable for the region of Sodom ⁵⁷  on the day of judgment than for you!”

Luke 3:7

3:7 So John ⁵⁸  said to the crowds ⁵⁹  that came out to be baptized by him, “You offspring of vipers! ⁶⁰  Who warned you to flee ⁶¹  from the coming wrath?

John 8:44

8:44 You people ⁶²  are from ⁶³  your father the devil, and you want to do what your father desires. ⁶⁴  He ⁶⁵  was a murderer from the beginning, and does not uphold the truth, ⁶⁶  because there is no truth in him. Whenever he lies, ⁶⁷  he speaks according to his own nature, ⁶⁸  because he is a liar and the father of lies. ⁶⁹ 

Ephesians 2:3

2:3 among whom ⁷⁰  all of us ⁷¹  also ⁷²  formerly lived out our lives in the cravings of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath ⁷³  even as the rest… ⁷⁴ 

Ephesians 2:1

New Life Individually

2:1 And although you were ⁷⁵  dead ⁷⁶  in your transgressions and sins,

Ephesians 3:10

3:10 The purpose of this enlightenment is that ⁷⁷  through the church the multifaceted wisdom ⁷⁸  of God should now be disclosed to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly realms.

[45:1]  ¹ tn Heb “all the ones standing beside him.”

[45:1]  ² tn Heb “stood.”

[45:2]  ³ tn Heb “and he gave his voice in weeping,” meaning that Joseph could not restrain himself and wept out loud.

[45:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “and the Egyptians heard and the household of Pharaoh heard.” Presumably in the latter case this was by means of a report.

[45:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “let there not be anger in your eyes.”

[45:5]  ⁶ 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.

[45:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “the famine [has been] in the midst of.”

[45:7]  ⁸ 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).

[45:7]  ⁹ tn Heb “to make you a remnant.” The verb, followed here by the preposition לְ (lÿ), means “to make.”

[45:7]  ¹⁰ tn The infinitive gives a second purpose for God’s action.

[45:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “a father.” The term is used here figuratively of one who gives advice, as a father would to his children.

[45:9]  ¹² tn Heb “hurry and go up.”

[45:10]  ¹³ tn The perfect verbal form with vav consecutive here expresses instruction.

[45:11]  ¹⁴ 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.”

[45:12]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “And, look, your eyes see and the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that my mouth is the one speaking to you.”

[45:13]  ¹⁶ tn The perfect verbal form with the vav consecutive here expresses instruction.

[45:13]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and hurry and bring down my father to here.”

[45:16]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and the sound was heard.”

[45:16]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “was good in the eyes of.”

[45:17]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and go! Enter!”

[45:18]  ²¹ tn After the imperatives in vv. 17-18a, the cohortative with vav indicates result.

[45:18]  ²² tn After the cohortative the imperative with vav states the ultimate goal.

[45:18]  ²³ tn Heb “fat.”

[45:19]  ²⁴ tn The words “to say” have been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[45:20]  ²⁵ tn Heb “let not your eye regard.”

[45:21]  ²⁶ tn Heb “and the sons of Israel did so.”

[45:21]  ²⁷ tn Heb “according to the mouth of Pharaoh.”

[45:22]  ²⁸ tn Heb “to all of them he gave, to each one, changes of outer garments.”

[45:22]  ²⁹ tn Heb “changes of outer garments.”

[45:23]  ³⁰ tn Heb “according to this.”

[45:24]  ³¹ tn Heb “do not be stirred up in the way.” The verb means “stir up.” Some understand the Hebrew verb רָגָז (ragaz, “to stir up”) as a reference to quarreling (see Prov 29:9, where it has this connotation), but in Exod 15:14 and other passages it means “to fear.” This might refer to a fear of robbers, but more likely it is an assuring word that they need not be fearful about returning to Egypt. They might have thought that once Jacob was in Egypt, Joseph would take his revenge on them.

[45:25]  ³² tn Heb “and they entered the land of Canaan to their father.”

[45:26]  ³³ tn Heb “and his heart was numb.” Jacob was stunned by the unbelievable news and was unable to respond.

[45:27]  ³⁴ tn Heb “and they spoke to him all the words of Joseph which he had spoke to them.”

[21:30]  ³⁵ tn Heb “that it be for me for a witness.”

[21:30]  ³⁶ sn This well. Since the king wanted a treaty to share in Abraham’s good fortune, Abraham used the treaty to secure ownership of and protection for the well he dug. It would be useless to make a treaty to live in this territory if he had no rights to the water. Abraham consented to the treaty, but added his rider to it.

[11:29]  ³⁷ sn The name Sarai (a variant spelling of “Sarah”) means “princess” (or “lady”). Sharratu was the name of the wife of the moon god Sin. The original name may reflect the culture out of which the patriarch was called, for the family did worship other gods in Mesopotamia.

[11:29]  ³⁸ sn The name Milcah means “Queen.” But more to the point here is the fact that Malkatu was a title for Ishtar, the daughter of the moon god. If the women were named after such titles (and there is no evidence that this was the motivation for naming the girls “Princess” or “Queen”), that would not necessarily imply anything about the faith of the two women themselves.

[24:14]  ³⁹ sn Joshua quotes the Lord’s words in vv. 2b-13 (note that the Lord speaks in the first person in these verses); in vv. 14-15 Joshua himself exhorts the people (note the third person references to the Lord).

[24:14]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “fear.”

[24:14]  ⁴¹ tn Or “and serve.”

[24:14]  ⁴² tn Heb “your fathers.”

[24:14]  ⁴³ tn Or “served.”

[24:14]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “the river,” referring to the Euphrates. This has been specified in the translation for clarity; see v. 3.

[24:14]  ⁴⁵ tn Or “and serve.”

[1:10]  ⁴⁶ sn Building on the simile of v. 9, the prophet sarcastically addresses the leaders and people of Jerusalem as if they were leaders and residents of ancient Sodom and Gomorrah. The sarcasm is appropriate, for if the judgment is comparable to Sodom’s, that must mean that the sin which prompted the judgment is comparable as well.

[1:10]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “to the instruction of our God.” In this context, which is highly accusatory and threatening, תּוֹרָה (torah, “law, instruction”) does not refer to mere teaching, but to corrective teaching and rebuke.

[51:1]  ⁴⁸ tn Or “righteousness” (KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV); NAB “justice”; NLT “hope for deliverance.”

[51:1]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “the excavation of the hole.”

[51:1]  ⁵⁰ sn The “rock” and “quarry” refer here to Abraham and Sarah, the progenitors of the nation.

[51:2]  ⁵¹ sn Although Abraham and Sarah are distant ancestors of the people the prophet is addressing, they are spoken of as the immediate parents.

[51:2]  ⁵² tn Heb “one”; NLT “was alone”; TEV “was childless.”

[51:2]  ⁵³ tn “Bless” may here carry the sense of “endue with potency, reproductive power.” See Gen 1:28.

[51:2]  ⁵⁴ tn Heb “and I made him numerous.”

[3:7]  ⁵⁵ sn Pharisees were members of one of the most important and influential religious and political parties of Judaism in the time of Jesus. There were more Pharisees than Sadducees (according to Josephus, Ant. 17.2.4 [17.42] there were more than 6,000 Pharisees at about this time). Pharisees differed with Sadducees on certain doctrines and patterns of behavior. The Pharisees were strict and zealous adherents to the laws of the OT and to numerous additional traditions such as angels and bodily resurrection.

[3:7]  ⁵⁶ sn The Sadducees controlled the official political structures of Judaism at this time, being the majority members of the Sanhedrin. They were known as extremely strict on law and order issues (Josephus, J. W. 2.8.2 [2.119], 2.8.14 [2.164-166]; Ant. 13.5.9 [13.171-173], 13.10.6 [13.293-298], 18.1.2 [18.11], 18.1.4 [18.16-17], 20.9.1 [20.199]; Life 2 [10-11]). See also Matt 16:1-12; 22:23-34; Mark 12:18-27; Luke 20:27-38; Acts 5:17; 23:6-8.

[11:24]  ⁵⁷ sn The allusion to Sodom, the most wicked of OT cities from Gen 19:1-29, shows that to reject the current message is even more serious, and will result in more severe punishment, than the worst sins of the old era. The phrase region of Sodom is in emphatic position in the Greek text.

[3:7]  ⁵⁸ tn Grk “he”; the referent (John) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:7]  ⁵⁹ sn The crowds. It is interesting to trace references to “the crowd” in Luke. It is sometimes noted favorably, other times less so. The singular appears 25 times in Luke while the plural occurs 16 times. Matt 3:7 singles out the Sadducees and Pharisees here.

[3:7]  ⁶⁰ tn Or “snakes.”

[3:7]  ⁶¹ sn The rebuke “Who warned you to flee…?” compares the crowd to snakes who flee their desert holes when the heat of a fire drives them out.

[8:44]  ⁶² tn The word “people” is supplied in the translation to clarify that the Greek pronoun and verb are plural.

[8:44]  ⁶³ tn Many translations read “You are of your father the devil” (KJV, ASV, RSV, NASB) or “You belong to your father, the devil” (NIV), but the Greek preposition ἐκ (ek) emphasizes the idea of source or origin. Jesus said his opponents were the devil’s very offspring (a statement which would certainly infuriate them).

[8:44]  ⁶⁴ tn Grk “the desires of your father you want to do.”

[8:44]  ⁶⁵ tn Grk “That one” (referring to the devil).

[8:44]  ⁶⁶ tn Grk “he does not stand in the truth” (in the sense of maintaining, upholding, or accepting the validity of it).

[8:44]  ⁶⁷ tn Grk “Whenever he speaks the lie.”

[8:44]  ⁶⁸ tn Grk “he speaks from his own.”

[8:44]  ⁶⁹ tn Grk “because he is a liar and the father of it.”

[2:3]  ⁷⁰ sn Among whom. The relative pronoun phrase that begins v. 3 is identical, except for gender, to the one that begins v. 2 (ἐν αἵς [en Jais], ἐν οἵς [en Jois]). By the structure, the author is building an argument for our hopeless condition: We lived in sin and we lived among sinful people. Our doom looked to be sealed as well in v. 2: Both the external environment (kingdom of the air) and our internal motivation and attitude (the spirit that is now energizing) were under the devil’s thumb (cf. 2 Cor 4:4).

[2:3]  ⁷¹ tn Grk “we all.”

[2:3]  ⁷² tn Or “even.”

[2:3]  ⁷³ sn Children of wrath is a Semitic idiom which may mean either “people characterized by wrath” or “people destined for wrath.”

[2:3]  ⁷⁴ sn Eph 2:1-3. The translation of vv. 1-3 is very literal, even to the point of retaining the awkward syntax of the original. See note on the word dead in 2:1.

[2:1]  ⁷⁵ tn The adverbial participle “being” (ὄντας, ontas) is taken concessively.

[2:1]  ⁷⁶ sn Chapter 2 starts off with a participle, although you were dead, that is left dangling. The syntax in Greek for vv. 1-3 constitutes one incomplete sentence, though it seems to have been done intentionally. The dangling participle leaves the readers in suspense while they wait for the solution (in v. 4) to their spiritual dilemma.

[3:10]  ⁷⁷ tn Grk “that.” Verse 10 is a subordinate clause to the verb “enlighten” in v. 9.

[3:10]  ⁷⁸ tn Or “manifold wisdom,” “wisdom in its rich variety.”