1. Joseph could no longer restrain himself in the presence of all his attendants, so he cried out, “Have everyone withdraw from me!” So no one attended him when he made himself known to his brothers.
2. But his sobs were so loud that the Egyptians heard him, and so the news reached Pharaoh’s house.
3. “I am Joseph,” he said to his brothers. “Is my father still alive?” But his brothers could give him no answer, so dumbfounded were they at him.
4. “Come closer to me,” Joseph told his brothers. When they had done so, he said: “I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt.
5. But now do not be distressed, and do not be angry with yourselves for having sold me here. It was really for the sake of saving lives that God sent me here ahead of you.
6. The famine has been in the land for two years now, and for five more years cultivation will yield no harvest.
7. God, therefore, sent me on ahead of you to ensure for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives in an extraordinary deliverance.
8. So it was not really you but God who had me come here; and he has made me a father to Pharaoh, lord of all his household, and ruler over the whole land of Egypt.
9. “Hurry back, then, to my father and tell him: ‘Thus says your son Joseph: God has made me lord of all Egypt; come down to me without delay.
10. You can settle in the region of Goshen, where you will be near me—you and your children and children’s children, your flocks and herds, and everything that you own.
11. I will provide for you there in the five years of famine that lie ahead, so that you and your household and all that are yours will not suffer want.’
12. Surely, you can see for yourselves, and Benjamin can see for himself, that it is I who am speaking to you.
13. Tell my father all about my high position in Egypt and all that you have seen. But hurry and bring my father down here.”
14. Then he threw his arms around his brother Benjamin and wept on his shoulder.
15. Joseph then kissed all his brothers and wept over them; and only then were his brothers able to talk with him.