1. Since Joseph could no longer control his feelings in front of his servants, he sent them out of the room. When he was alone with his brothers, he told them, “I am Joseph.”
2. Then he cried so loudly that the Egyptians heard him and told about it in the king's palace.
3. Joseph asked his brothers if his father was still alive, but they were too frightened to answer.
4. Joseph told them to come closer to him, and when they did, he said:Yes, I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt.
5. Don't worry or blame yourselves for what you did. God is the one who sent me ahead of you to save lives.
6. There has already been a famine for two years, and for five more years no one will plough fields or harvest grain.
7. But God sent me on ahead of you to keep your families alive and to save you in this wonderful way.
8. After all, you weren't really the ones who sent me here—it was God. He made me the highest official in the king's court and placed me over all Egypt.