Genesis 45: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Joseph sends his attendants out of the room and tells his brothers who he is, weeping aloud. He tells them not to be angry with themselves for selling him, says God sent him ahead to preserve life, and tells them to bring Jacob and the whole family to live in Goshen. Pharaoh hears the news and tells the brothers to load up, take wagons, and bring their father back, promising them the best of Egypt. Joseph sends them off with clothes, gifts, and supplies; Jacob does not believe them at first, but after they report Joseph's words and he sees the wagons, his spirit revives and he says he will go see his son before he dies.

Claim by Claim

1. 45:1
   • Joseph could no longer restrain himself in front of all those standing beside him.
   • Joseph called out for every man to be sent out from his presence.
   • No man stood with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers.
2. 45:2
   • Joseph wept loudly.
   • The Egyptians heard him.
   • The household of Pharaoh heard.
3. 45:3
   • Joseph said to his brothers that he was Joseph.
   • Joseph asked whether his father was still alive.
   • His brothers were unable to answer him.
   • His brothers were terrified in his presence.
4. 45:4
   • Joseph told his brothers to come near to him.
   • His brothers came near.
   • Joseph said he was Joseph their brother.
   • Joseph said they had sold him into Egypt.
5. 45:5
   • Joseph told them not to be grieved.
   • Joseph told them not to be angry with themselves for having sold him there.
   • Joseph said God had sent him ahead of them to preserve life.
6. 45:6
   • Joseph said the famine had been in the land for two years.
   • Joseph said five more years remained.
   • Joseph said in those five years there would be no plowing and no harvest.
7. 45:7
   • Joseph said God sent him ahead of them to preserve for them a remnant in the earth.
   • Joseph said God sent him to keep them alive by a great deliverance.
8. 45:8
   • Joseph said it was not they who sent him there.
   • Joseph said God sent him there.
   • Joseph said God made him a father to Pharaoh.
   • Joseph said God made him lord of all Pharaoh's house.
   • Joseph said God made him ruler over all the land of Egypt.
9. 45:9
   • Joseph told them to hurry and go up to his father.
   • Joseph told them to say to his father that this is what his son Joseph says.
   • Joseph's message said God had made him lord of all Egypt.
   • Joseph's message told his father to come down to him.
   • Joseph's message told his father not to delay.
10. 45:10
    • Joseph said his father would dwell in the land of Goshen.
    • Joseph said his father would be near him.
    • Joseph included his father's children, grandchildren, flocks, herds, and all he had.
11. 45:11
    • Joseph said he would provide for his father there.
    • Joseph said five years of famine remained.
    • Joseph said this was lest his father, his household, and all he had come to destitution.
12. 45:12
    • Joseph said their own eyes were seeing.
    • Joseph said the eyes of his brother Benjamin were seeing.
    • Joseph said it was his own mouth speaking to them.
13. 45:13
    • Joseph told them to tell his father of all his honor in Egypt.
    • Joseph told them to tell his father all they had seen.
    • Joseph told them to hurry and bring his father down there.
14. 45:14
    • Joseph fell on the neck of his brother Benjamin and wept.
    • Benjamin wept on Joseph's neck.
15. 45:15
    • Joseph kissed all his brothers.
    • Joseph wept over them.
    • After that his brothers talked with him.
16. 45:16
    • The report was heard in Pharaoh's house that Joseph's brothers had come.
    • It pleased Pharaoh.
    • It pleased Pharaoh's servants.
17. 45:17
    • Pharaoh told Joseph to say to his brothers to do this.
    • Pharaoh said they should load their animals.
    • Pharaoh said they should go to the land of Canaan.
18. 45:18
    • Pharaoh said they should take their father and their households.
    • Pharaoh said they should come to him.
    • Pharaoh said he would give them the good of the land of Egypt.
    • Pharaoh said they would eat the fat of the land.
19. 45:19
    • Pharaoh said Joseph was commanded to have them do this.
    • Pharaoh said they should take wagons from the land of Egypt for their little ones and their wives.
    • Pharaoh said they should carry their father.
    • Pharaoh said they should come.
20. 45:20
    • Pharaoh said their eye should not look with regret on their belongings.
    • Pharaoh said the good of all the land of Egypt was theirs.
21. 45:21
    • The sons of Israel did so.
    • Joseph gave them wagons according to Pharaoh's command.
    • Joseph gave them provisions for the journey.
22. 45:22
    • Joseph gave to each of them changes of clothing.
    • Joseph gave Benjamin three hundred pieces of silver.
    • Joseph gave Benjamin five changes of clothing.
23. 45:23
    • Joseph sent to his father ten male donkeys carrying the good things of Egypt.
    • Joseph sent ten female donkeys carrying grain and bread and food for his father for the journey.
24. 45:24
    • Joseph sent his brothers away.
    • His brothers departed.
    • Joseph told them not to quarrel on the way.
25. 45:25
    • They went up out of Egypt.
    • They came into the land of Canaan to Jacob their father.
26. 45:26
    • They told Jacob that Joseph was still alive.
    • They told Jacob that Joseph was ruler over all the land of Egypt.
    • Jacob's heart went numb.
    • Jacob did not believe them.
27. 45:27
    • They told Jacob all the words Joseph had spoken to them.
    • Jacob saw the wagons Joseph had sent to carry him.
    • The spirit of Jacob their father revived.
28. 45:28
    • Israel said it was enough.
    • Israel said his son Joseph was still alive.
    • Israel said he would go and see Joseph before he died.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

45:1

"Brethren" is the old plural of brother. And "could not refrain himself" means he could not hold his feelings back any longer.

45:2

"Pharaoh" is a title, not a personal name: it is the Egyptian word for the king, originally meaning "great house," that is, the royal palace. The narrative never gives this king's own name.

45:3

The word translated "shaken" or "troubled" is a strong one in Hebrew: it describes being struck dumb with dismay or terror, the reaction of people who suddenly find themselves at the mercy of someone they had wronged.

45:4

The brothers had sold Joseph to slave traders bound for Egypt years earlier and told their father he had been killed by a wild animal. They have been talking to this Egyptian official for two chapters without recognizing him, because he was a teenager when they last saw him and is now dressed, groomed and speaking as an Egyptian.

45:6

"Earing" has nothing to do with ears of grain. It is an old English word for plowing, the work of breaking up soil before planting. Joseph is saying that for five more years there will be no point even preparing the fields.

45:7

The phrase behind "keep part of your family alive" is literally "to preserve for you a remnant", a survivor group left after a disaster has carried off the rest. The same word is later used of the part of Israel that survives war or exile.

45:8

"A father to Pharaoh" is a court title, not a family relationship. In both Egyptian and Semitic usage, calling an official the king's "father" marked him as the ruler's chief adviser and second-in-command.

45:9

"Go up" to Canaan and "come down" to Egypt are fixed geographical idioms. Canaan is hill country and Egypt is the low Nile valley, so travel between them is always described as going up or coming down, regardless of the direction on a map.

45:10

Goshen is a district in the eastern Nile delta, on the edge of Egypt nearest to Canaan. It was well watered grazing land, suitable for herders like Jacob's family, and lay outside the densely settled Egyptian heartland.

45:11

"Household" means everyone who lived in the home. That was the family and the workers too.

45:12

In their earlier meetings Joseph had spoken to his brothers through an interpreter, keeping up his disguise as an Egyptian official (Genesis 42:23). "It is my own mouth speaking to you" means he is now addressing them directly in their own language, so they can hear for themselves who he is.

45:13

The word rendered "honor" is Hebrew *kavod*, literally "weight", a person's standing, wealth and visible splendor. Joseph is telling them to describe his rank and household, which is the evidence that will persuade Jacob.

45:14

Falling on someone's neck and weeping was the ordinary way for close kin to greet each other after a long separation in this culture; it is a public, physical greeting, not a private display.

45:15

A kiss between male relatives was the standard greeting of family and equals in the ancient Near East, comparable to an embrace or handshake today. That the brothers only speak to him "after that" marks how long their fear held.

45:16

"This was good in the eyes of Pharaoh" is a Hebrew idiom for approval: it pleased him. "Eyes" here stands for judgment or opinion, not for literal seeing.

45:17

Canaan is the region between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean, roughly the area later called Israel, a journey of about two to three weeks by donkey from the Egyptian delta.

45:18

"The fat of the land" is an idiom for its richest produce. Fat was the most prized part of an animal and so became a general word for the best or richest portion of anything.

45:19

Wheeled wagons were Egyptian technology and a rarity in the hill country of Canaan, where goods moved on the backs of donkeys. Sending them was both a practical provision for the old and the young and an unmistakable display of Egyptian royal backing, which is why the sight of them convinces Jacob in verse 27.

45:20

"Stuff" in 1611 English meant household goods and possessions, with none of the dismissive tone the word carries now. Pharaoh is telling them not to bother hauling their furniture and equipment across the desert.

45:21

"The sons of Israel" here means Jacob's actual sons; Israel is Jacob's second name. The same phrase later becomes the standard term for the whole nation descended from them, and the narrative is beginning to use it in both senses at once.

45:22

Silver was not yet minted as coins; it circulated as weighed metal. Three hundred shekels is roughly seven and a half pounds of silver, an enormous sum, and pointedly more than the twenty shekels the brothers had received for selling Joseph. Sets of clothing were valuable goods in their own right and a customary gift of honor.

45:23

"Corn" in the King James Version means grain of any kind, usually wheat or barley; American corn was unknown in Europe in 1611. "Meat" likewise means food in general, not flesh. "Asses" are donkeys, the ordinary pack animal of the region.

45:24

The Hebrew verb can mean either "do not quarrel" or "do not be agitated, do not be afraid" on the road. Both senses fit: the brothers have reason to blame each other for selling Joseph, and reason to be nervous about the journey.

45:26

"His heart went numb" translates an idiom for the heart growing cold or ceasing, the body's reaction to news too large to take in. It describes shock, not a physical collapse.

45:27

His "spirit revived" means he felt happy and strong again. He had been sad for a very long time.

45:28

Jacob is called Israel here, the second name given to him in Genesis 32. The narrative alternates between the two, and the switch to "Israel" often accompanies moments when he acts as the head of the family line rather than as a private man.