⁴ So Joseph said to his brothers, “Come near to me, please.” And they came near. And he said, “I am your brother, Joseph, ^(A)whom you sold into Egypt. ⁵ And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, ^(B)for God sent me before you to preserve life. ⁶ For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are ^(C)yet five years in which there will be neither ^(D)plowing nor harvest. ⁷ And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. ⁸ So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ^(E)ruler over all the land of Egypt. ⁹ Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, ‘Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me; do not tarry. ^10 (F)You shall dwell in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children and your children's children, and your flocks, your herds, and all that you have. ^11 (G)There I will provide for you, for there are yet five years of famine to come, so that you and your household, and all that you have, do not come to poverty.’ ¹² And now your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see, that it is ^(H)my mouth that speaks to you. ¹³ You must tell my father of all my honor in Egypt, and of all that you have seen. Hurry and ^(I)bring my father down here.” ¹⁴ Then he fell upon his brother Benjamin's neck and wept, and Benjamin wept upon his neck. ¹⁵ And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them. After that his brothers talked with him.

God's Good Purposes

¹⁵ When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him.” ¹⁶ So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, “Your father gave this command before he died: ¹⁷ ‘Say to Joseph, “Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you.”’ And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of ^(A)the God of your father.” Joseph wept when they spoke to him. ¹⁸ His brothers also came and ^(B)fell down before him and said, “Behold, we are your servants.” ¹⁹ But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for ^(C)am I in the place of God? ²⁰ As for you, you meant evil against me, but ^(D)God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people^[a] should be kept alive, as they are today. ²¹ So do not fear; ^(E)I will provide for you and your little ones.” Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.

Forgive the Sinner

⁵ Now ^(A)if anyone has caused pain, ^(B)he has caused it not to me, but ^(C)in some measure—not to put it too severely—to all of you. ⁶ For such a one, ^(D)this punishment by the majority is enough, ⁷ so ^(E)you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. ⁸ So I beg you to reaffirm your love for him. ⁹ For this is why I wrote, that I might ^(F)test you and know ^(G)whether you are obedient in everything. ¹⁰ Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. Indeed, what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ, ¹¹ so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for ^(H)we are not ignorant of his designs.