Commentary on Genesis 45:1-15

Old Testament stories generally don’t describe the characters’ feelings, which is part of the artistry of the text. Because we are not explicitly told, we are invited to imagine biblical characters’ thoughts, feelings, and emotions. However, this section of Joseph’s story does share the inner life of Joseph as well as that of his brothers, when Joseph reveals to them that he is still alive, approximately 22 years after they sold him into slavery, and that he does not blame them for the past. This is a good reveal, an unexpected turn of events, and a reminder that God’s desire to sustain and bless God’s people will be fulfilled.

The story picks up in verse 1 after the previous chapter, when Judah’s lengthy speech includes details about the brothers’ remorse for what they had done to Joseph, and evidence that those brothers have changed over the ensuing years. Joseph, no longer able to control himself before those who are attending him, sends them away so that he is all alone when he makes himself known to his brothers. 

Before he is able to say anything, he weeps so loudly that he is heard by the Egyptians standing outside, and all Pharaoh’s household. The latter could refer to the location or to those who are associated with Pharaoh’s household. This loud, public weeping is the third time Joseph has wept since his brothers came to find food in Egypt (see also Genesis 42:24; 43:30), but on the previous two occasions he turned away from others to weep in private. 

Eventually—or amid the crying?—Joseph manages to speak in verse 3: “I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?” Notably, Joseph uses the first-person singular possessive, “my,” instead of the plural, “our.” It could be that Joseph is not quite ready yet to share the connection with his brothers, but it could also be that the Hebrew word ʾāḇî, “my father,” is more like a familiar name similar to “daddy” or the Aramaic abba. 

We can assume Joseph’s intense feelings because of his loud crying; verse 3 tells us the brothers’ intense feelings through their silence, and that they were “dismayed” at his presence. The Hebrew word here, bahal, has the sense of amazement, but without positive connotations, so it can also be translated as “terrified, troubled, anxious.” 

But next, Joseph bridges the distance between himself and them, commanding them to come closer to him. After they do, Joseph speaks further, saying again, “I am Joseph,” but now adding, “your brother, whom you sold into Egypt” (Genesis 45:4). At these words, their hearts must have sunk. But immediately, Joseph tells them not to be distressed or angry with themselves that they had sold him, because God sent Joseph before them to Egypt in order to preserve life. That “God sent” Joseph is repeated three times in Joseph’s speech in verses 5–8, and in verse 8 Joseph clarifies, “It was not you who sent me, but God.” In Joseph’s own words, his brothers may have sold him, but God sent him. 

This language fits well with the narrator’s previous repeated affirmations that “the Lord was with Joseph” (Genesis 39:2, 3, 21, 23) and with Joseph’s own willingness to see God at work in his ability to interpret dreams (see also 40:8; 41:16, 25, 28). But it is noteworthy that Joseph is the one saying that God sent him; Joseph himself is putting his terrible experiences into the larger framework of God’s plan. 

Genesis 45:5–8 is similar to how Joseph will say, in the remarkable concluding section of the Joseph cycle, when he forgives his brothers and breaks generational cycles of sibling resentment, “Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people, as he is doing today” (Genesis 50:20). There, too, it is Joseph who says this about his own life, and not other (well-meaning?) people who are telling him that his suffering is for a greater good or that it “happened for a reason.” 

Again, Joseph does not pretend that his brothers did not sell him (Genesis 45:4) or intend to harm him (Genesis 50:20). But God used the cruel actions and harmful intents in God’s work to “preserve life,” that latter phrase also being repeated twice in Joseph’s speech in this lectionary text (verses 5, 7). 

Joseph also uses a phrase that has puzzled some, saying in verse 8 that God “has made me a father to Pharaoh,” but that can be explained as an idiom for authority, as are the subsequent descriptions in the verse, “lord of all his house and ruler of all the land of Egypt.” Joseph then switches back to talking about his literal father, urging his brothers to go to him and tell him to come to Egypt without delay. 

Joseph explains that the family can settle in Goshen, near him. This pastureland of the Nile delta, close to the border, was a place where, historically, nomads from Sinai were given permission by the Egyptian government to graze their flocks. There, Joseph explains, he will provide for them during the five remaining years of famine, “so that you and your household and all that you have will not come to poverty” (Genesis 29:11). The Hebrew could be more literally translated as “lest you legally lose all that you have.” 

Joseph tells his brothers that they can see that he is speaking to them directly—“It is my own mouth that speaks to you” (Genesis 29:12)—a reminder to us that the earlier communications took place through an interpreter (see Genesis 42:23), but at this point Joseph is speaking to them in their own language. 

The text concludes with more weeping, but this time it is mutual. Joseph weeps “on the neck of” his full brother Benjamin, who in turn weeps on Joseph’s “neck,” which suggests a close embrace where heads rest on each other’s shoulder; it also signifies deep emotion. And then, Joseph kisses all (the rest of) his brothers and weeps on them. 

Finally, after this, the brothers can speak with him, though what exactly they say is not mentioned (Genesis 45:15). But neither may their words be all that important. When Joseph first spoke, the brothers were silent because of their overwhelming feelings. It is only when Joseph kisses and weeps on all of them that the words are unlocked. Joseph’s sharing of his tears and feelings seems to be what enables the brothers to feel even more, and communicate back.