³ Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! Is my father still alive?”

His brothers could not answer him, because they were terrified by his presence. ⁴ Joseph said to his brothers, “Come closer to me, please.”

They came closer. He said, “I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. ⁵ Now do not be upset or angry with yourselves for selling me to this place, since God sent me ahead of you to preserve life. ⁶ For two years now the famine has been in the land, and there are still five more years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. ⁷ God sent me ahead of you to preserve you as survivors on the earth, and to keep you alive by a great act of deliverance. ⁸ So it was not you who sent me here, but God, and he has made me a father to Pharaoh, lord over his entire household, and ruler over the whole land of Egypt.

¹⁵ He kissed all his brothers and wept over them. After that his brothers talked with him.