Genesis 45:11-28

Contemporary English Version

¹¹ I will take care of you there during the next five years of famine. But if you don't come, you and your family and your animals will starve to death.”

¹² All of you, including my brother Benjamin, can tell by what I have said that I really am Joseph. ¹³ Tell my father about my great power here in Egypt and about everything you have seen. Hurry and bring him here.

¹⁴ Joseph and Benjamin hugged each other and started crying. ¹⁵ Joseph was still crying as he kissed each of his other brothers. After this, they started talking with Joseph.

¹⁶ When it was told in the palace that Joseph's brothers had come, the king and his officials were happy. ¹⁷ So the king said to Joseph:

Tell your brothers to load their donkeys and return to Canaan. ¹⁸ Tell them to bring their father and their families here. I will give them the best land in Egypt, and they can eat and enjoy everything that grows there. ¹⁹ Also tell your brothers to take some wagons from Egypt for their wives and children to ride in. And be sure they bring their father. ²⁰ They can leave their possessions behind, because they will be given the best of everything in Egypt.

²¹ Jacob's sons agreed to do what the king had said. And Joseph gave them wagons and food for their trip home, just as the king had ordered. ²² Joseph gave some new clothes to each of his brothers, but to Benjamin he gave five new outfits and 300 pieces of silver. ²³ To his father he sent ten donkeys loaded with the best things in Egypt, and ten other donkeys loaded with grain and bread and other food for the return trip. ²⁴ Then he sent his brothers off and told them, “Don't argue on the way home!”

²⁵ Joseph's brothers left Egypt, and when they arrived in Canaan, ²⁶ they told their father that Joseph was still alive and was the ruler of Egypt. But their father was so surprised that he could not believe them. ²⁷ Then they told him everything Joseph had said. When he saw the wagons Joseph had sent, he felt much better ²⁸ and said, “Now I can believe you! My son Joseph must really be alive, and I will get to see him before I die.”