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Genesis 45-46
New English Translation

The Reconciliation of the Brothers

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

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. 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. 5 Now, do not be upset and do not be angry with yourselves because you sold me here,[e] for God sent me[f] ahead of you to preserve life! 6 For these past two years there has been famine in[g] the land and for five more years there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. 7 God sent me[h] ahead of you to preserve you[i] on the earth and to save your lives[j] by a great deliverance. 8 So now, it is not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me an adviser[k] to Pharaoh, lord over all his household, and ruler over all the land of Egypt. 9 Now go up to my father quickly[l] 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! 10 You will live[m] in the land of Goshen, and you will be near me—you, your children, your grandchildren, your flocks, your herds, and everything you have. 11 I will provide you with food[n] there because there will be five more years of famine. Otherwise you would become poor—you, your household, and everyone who belongs to you.”’ 12 You and my brother Benjamin can certainly see with your own eyes that I really am the one who speaks to you.[o] 13 So tell[p] my father about all my honor in Egypt and about everything you have seen. But bring my father down here quickly!”[q]

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

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

21 So the sons of Israel did as he said.[z] Joseph gave them wagons as Pharaoh had instructed,[aa] and he gave them provisions for the journey. 22 He gave sets of clothes to each one of them,[ab] but to Benjamin he gave 300 pieces of silver and five sets of clothes.[ac] 23 To his father he sent the following:[ad] ten donkeys loaded with the best products of Egypt and ten female donkeys loaded with grain, food, and provisions for his father’s journey. 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.”[ae]

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

The Family of Jacob goes to Egypt

46 So Israel began his journey, taking with him all that he had.[ai] When he came to Beer Sheba[aj] he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. 2 God spoke to Israel in a vision during the night[ak] and said, “Jacob, Jacob!” He replied, “Here I am!” 3 He said, “I am God,[al] the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there. 4 I will go down with you to Egypt and I myself will certainly bring you back from there.[am] Joseph will close your eyes.”[an]

5 Then Jacob started out[ao] from Beer Sheba, and the sons of Israel carried their father Jacob, their little children, and their wives in the wagons that Pharaoh had sent along to transport him. 6 Jacob and all his descendants took their livestock and the possessions they had acquired in the land of Canaan, and they went to Egypt.[ap] 7 He brought with him to Egypt his sons and grandsons,[aq] his daughters and granddaughters—all his descendants.

8 These are the names of the sons of Israel who went to Egypt—Jacob and his sons: Reuben, the firstborn of Jacob.

9 The sons of Reuben: Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi.
10 The sons of Simeon: Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jakin, Zohar, and Shaul (the son of a Canaanite woman).
11 The sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.
12 The sons of Judah: Er, Onan, Shelah, Perez, and Zerah (but Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan).
The sons of Perez were Hezron and Hamul.
13 The sons of Issachar: Tola, Puah,[ar] Jashub,[as] and Shimron.
14 The sons of Zebulun: Sered, Elon, and Jahleel.
15 These were the sons of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob in Paddan Aram, along with Dinah his daughter. His sons and daughters numbered thirty-three in all.[at]
16 The sons of Gad: Zephon,[au] Haggi, Shuni, Ezbon, Eri, Arodi, and Areli.
17 The sons of Asher: Imnah, Ishvah, Ishvi, Beriah, and Serah their sister.
The sons of Beriah were Heber and Malkiel.
18 These were the sons of Zilpah, whom Laban gave to Leah his daughter. She bore these to Jacob, sixteen in all.
19 The sons of Rachel the wife of Jacob: Joseph and Benjamin.
20 Manasseh and Ephraim were born to Joseph in the land of Egypt. Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On,[av] bore them to him.
21 The sons of Benjamin:[aw] Bela, Beker, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ehi, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim and Ard.
22 These were the sons of Rachel who were born to Jacob, fourteen in all.
23 The son of Dan: Hushim.[ax]
24 The sons of Naphtali: Jahziel, Guni, Jezer, and Shillem.
25 These were the sons of Bilhah, whom Laban gave to Rachel his daughter. She bore these to Jacob, seven in all.

26 All the direct descendants of Jacob who went to Egypt with him were sixty-six in number. (This number does not include the wives of Jacob’s sons.)[ay] 27 Counting the two sons[az] of Joseph who were born to him in Egypt, all the people of the household of Jacob who were in Egypt numbered seventy.[ba]

28 Jacob[bb] sent Judah before him to Joseph to accompany him to Goshen.[bc] So they came to the land of Goshen. 29 Joseph harnessed his chariot and went up to meet his father Israel in Goshen. When he met him,[bd] he hugged his neck and wept on his neck for quite some time.

30 Israel said to Joseph, “Now let me die since I have seen your face and know that you are still alive.”[be] 31 Then Joseph said to his brothers and his father’s household, “I will go up and tell Pharaoh,[bf] ‘My brothers and my father’s household who were in the land of Canaan have come to me. 32 The men are shepherds;[bg] they take care of livestock.[bh] They have brought their flocks and their herds and all that they have.’ 33 Pharaoh will summon you and say, ‘What is your occupation?’ 34 Tell him, ‘Your servants have taken care of cattle[bi] from our youth until now, both we and our fathers,’ so that you may live in the land of Goshen,[bj] for everyone who takes care of sheep is disgusting[bk] to the Egyptians.”

Footnotes

  1. Genesis 45:1 tn Heb “all the ones standing beside him.”
  2. Genesis 45:1 tn Heb “stood.”
  3. Genesis 45:2 tn Heb “and he gave his voice in weeping,” meaning that Joseph could not restrain himself and wept out loud.
  4. Genesis 45:2 tn Heb “and the Egyptians heard and the household of Pharaoh heard.” Presumably in the latter case this was by means of a report.
  5. Genesis 45:5 tn Heb “let there not be anger in your eyes.”
  6. Genesis 45:5 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.
  7. Genesis 45:6 tn Heb “the famine [has been] in the midst of.”
  8. Genesis 45:7 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).
  9. Genesis 45:7 tn Heb “to make you a remnant.” The verb, followed here by the preposition ל (lamed), means “to make.”
  10. Genesis 45:7 tn The infinitive gives a second purpose for God’s action.
  11. Genesis 45:8 tn Heb “a father.” The term is used here figuratively of one who gives advice, as a father would to his children.
  12. Genesis 45:9 tn Heb “hurry and go up.”
  13. Genesis 45:10 tn The perfect verbal form with vav consecutive here expresses instruction.
  14. Genesis 45:11 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. Genesis 45:12 tn Heb “And, look, your eyes see and the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that my mouth is the one speaking to you.”
  16. Genesis 45:13 tn The perfect verbal form with the vav consecutive here expresses instruction.
  17. Genesis 45:13 tn Heb “and hurry and bring down my father to here.”
  18. Genesis 45:16 tn Heb “and the sound was heard.”
  19. Genesis 45:16 tn Heb “was good in the eyes of.”
  20. Genesis 45:17 tn Heb “and go! Enter!”
  21. Genesis 45:18 tn After the imperatives in vv. 17-18a, the cohortative with vav indicates result.
  22. Genesis 45:18 tn After the cohortative the imperative with vav states the ultimate goal.
  23. Genesis 45:18 tn Heb “fat.”
  24. Genesis 45:19 tn The words “to say” have been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
  25. Genesis 45:20 tn Heb “let not your eye regard.”
  26. Genesis 45:21 tn Heb “and the sons of Israel did so.”
  27. Genesis 45:21 tn Heb “according to the mouth of Pharaoh.”
  28. Genesis 45:22 tn Heb “to all of them he gave, to each one, changes of outer garments.”
  29. Genesis 45:22 tn Heb “changes of outer garments.”
  30. Genesis 45:23 tn Heb “according to this.”
  31. Genesis 45:24 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.
  32. Genesis 45:25 tn Heb “and they entered the land of Canaan to their father.”
  33. Genesis 45:26 tn Heb “and his heart was numb.” Jacob was stunned by the unbelievable news and was unable to respond.
  34. Genesis 45:27 tn Heb “and they spoke to him all the words of Joseph which he had spoke to them.”
  35. Genesis 46:1 tn Heb “and Israel journeyed, and all that was his.”
  36. Genesis 46:1 sn Beer Sheba. See Gen 21:31; 28:10.
  37. Genesis 46:2 tn Heb “in visions of the night.” The plural form has the singular meaning, probably as a plural of intensity.
  38. Genesis 46:3 tn Heb “the God.”
  39. Genesis 46:4 tn Heb “and I, I will bring you up, also bringing up.” The independent personal pronoun before the first person imperfect verbal form draws attention to the speaker/subject, while the infinitive absolute after the imperfect strongly emphasizes the statement: “I myself will certainly bring you up.”
  40. Genesis 46:4 tn Heb “and Joseph will put his hand upon your eyes.” This is a promise of peaceful death in Egypt with Joseph present to close his eyes.
  41. Genesis 46:5 tn Heb “arose.”
  42. Genesis 46:6 tn Heb “and they took their livestock and their possessions which they had acquired in the land of Canaan and they went to Egypt, Jacob and all his offspring with him.” The order of the clauses has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.
  43. Genesis 46:7 tn The Hebrew text adds “with him” here. This is omitted in the translation because it is redundant in English style (note the same phrase earlier in the verse).
  44. Genesis 46:13 tc The MT reads “Puvah” (cf. Num 26:23); Smr and Syriac read “Puah” (cf. 1 Chr 7:1).
  45. Genesis 46:13 tc The MT reads יוֹב (yov, “Job,”) but Smr, supported by the LXX, reads יָשׁוּב (yashuv, “Jashub”) (see Num 26:24; 1 Chr 7:1).
  46. Genesis 46:15 tn Heb “all the lives of his sons and his daughters, thirty-three.”
  47. Genesis 46:16 tc The MT reads “Ziphion,” but see Num 26:15, Smr and the LXX, all of which read “Zephon.”
  48. Genesis 46:20 sn On is another name for the city of Heliopolis.
  49. Genesis 46:21 sn The sons of Benjamin. It is questionable whether youthful Benjamin had ten sons by the time he went into Egypt, but it is not impossible. If Benjamin was born when Joseph was six or seven, he was ten when Joseph was sold into Egypt, and would have been thirty-two at this point. Some suggest that the list originally served another purpose and included the names of all who were in the immediate family of the sons, whether born in Canaan or later in Egypt.
  50. Genesis 46:23 tn This name appears as “Shuham” in Num 26:42. The LXX reads “Hashum” here.
  51. Genesis 46:26 tn Heb “All the people who went with Jacob to Egypt, the ones who came out of his body, apart from the wives of the sons of Jacob, all the people were sixty-six.”sn The number sixty-six includes the seventy-one descendants (including Dinah) listed in vv. 8-25 minus Er and Onan (deceased), and Joseph, Manasseh, and Ephraim (already in Egypt).
  52. Genesis 46:27 tn The LXX reads “nine sons,” probably counting the grandsons of Joseph born to Ephraim and Manasseh (cf. 1 Chr 7:14-20).
  53. Genesis 46:27 tn Heb “And the sons of Joseph who were born to him in Egypt were two people; all the people belonging to the house of Jacob who came to Egypt were seventy.”sn The number seventy includes Jacob himself and the seventy-one descendants (including Dinah, Joseph, Manasseh, and Ephraim) listed in vv. 8-25, minus Er and Onan (deceased). The LXX gives the number as “seventy-five” (cf. Acts 7:14).
  54. Genesis 46:28 tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  55. Genesis 46:28 tn Heb “to direct before him to Goshen.”
  56. Genesis 46:29 tn Heb “and he appeared to him.”
  57. Genesis 46:30 tn Heb “after my seeing your face that you are still alive.”
  58. Genesis 46:31 tn Heb “tell Pharaoh and say to him.”
  59. Genesis 46:32 tn Heb “feeders of sheep.”
  60. Genesis 46:32 tn Heb “for men of livestock they are.”
  61. Genesis 46:34 tn Heb “your servants are men of cattle.”
  62. Genesis 46:34 sn So that you may live in the land of Goshen. Joseph is apparently trying to stress to Pharaoh that his family is self-sufficient, that they will not be a drain on the economy of Egypt. But they will need land for their animals and so Goshen, located on the edge of Egypt, would be a suitable place for them to live. The settled Egyptians were uneasy with nomadic people, but if Jacob and his family settled in Goshen they would represent no threat.
  63. Genesis 46:34 tn Heb “is an abomination.” The Hebrew word תּוֹעֵבָה (toʿevah, “abomination”) describes something that is loathsome or off-limits. For other practices the Egyptians considered disgusting, see Gen 43:32 and Exod 8:22.
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