Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

45 At last Yosef could no longer control his feelings in front of his attendants and cried, “Get everybody away from me!” So no one else was with him when Yosef revealed to his brothers who he was. ² He wept aloud, and the Egyptians heard, and Pharaoh’s household heard. ³ Yosef said to his brothers, “I am Yosef! Is it true that my father is still alive?” His brothers couldn’t answer him, they were so dumbfounded at seeing him. ⁴ Yosef said to his brothers, “Please! Come closer.” And they came closer. He said, “I am Yosef, your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. ⁵ But don’t be sad that you sold me into slavery here or angry at yourselves, because it was God who sent me ahead of you to preserve life. ⁶ The famine has been over the land for the last two years, and for yet another five years there will be neither plowing nor harvest. ⁷ God sent me ahead of you to ensure that you will have descendants on earth and to save your lives in a great deliverance. (iii) ⁸ So it was not you who sent me here, but God; and he has made me a father to Pharaoh, lord of all his household and ruler over the whole land of Egypt. ⁹ Hurry, go up to my father, and tell him, ‘Here is what your son Yosef says: “God has made me lord of all Egypt! Come down to me, don’t delay! ¹⁰ You will live in the land of Goshen and be near me — you, your children, your grandchildren, flocks, herds, everything you own. ¹¹ I will provide for you there, so that you won’t become poverty-stricken, you, your household and all that you have; because five years of famine are yet to come.”’ ¹² Here! Your own eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Binyamin, that it is my own mouth speaking to you. ¹³ Tell my father how honored I am in Egypt and everything you have seen, and quickly bring my father down here!” ¹⁴ Then he embraced his brother Binyamin and wept, and Binyamin wept on his neck, ¹⁵ and he kissed all his brothers and wept on them. After that, his brothers talked with him.

⁹ “Now the Patriarchs grew jealous of Yosef and sold him into slavery in Egypt. But Adonai was with him;^{[a] 10} he rescued him from all his troubles and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who appointed him chief administrator over Egypt and over all his household.^{[b] 11} Now there came a famine that caused much suffering throughout Egypt and Kena‘an^{[c] 12} But when Ya‘akov heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers there the first time. ¹³ The second time, Yosef revealed his identity to his brothers,^[d] and Yosef’s family became known to Pharaoh. ¹⁴ Yosef then sent for his father Ya‘akov and all his relatives, seventy-five people. ¹⁵ And Ya‘akov went down to Egypt; there he died, as did our other ancestors. ¹⁶ Their bodies were removed to Sh’khem and buried in the tomb Avraham had bought from the family of Hamor in Sh’khem for a certain sum of money.