Genesis 45 Study Notes

45:1-4 Joseph was overwhelmed by Judah’s words. Not wishing to lose his dignity before his Egyptian attendants, he ordered everyone but his brothers out of the room. Joseph then released more than twenty years of pent-up emotions, weeping so loudly that the Egyptians outside the room heard it. Joseph’s revelation of his true identity—undoubtedly spoken in Hebrew, not Egyptian—so terrified his brothers that they could not answer his question about his father’s well-being. Violating protocol, Joseph ordered the brothers to come near to him so he could speak to them more intimately, this time explicitly identifying himself.

45:5-8 These verses stand as the theological high point of the account of Joseph’s life (chaps. 37-50) and one of the most eloquent affirmations in the Bible regarding God’s sovereignty in human events. With amazing spiritual maturity Joseph confessed that God had worked beyond the foul intentions of his older brothers to accomplish two vital things: to preserve life through Joseph’s leadership leading up to and during the seven-year famine, and to establish Israel as a remnant “on the earth” (within the land). The word remnant is an important term used to refer to Israel as the people group who would pass along God’s blessings throughout the generations (Ezr 9:8; Is 10:20; 28:5; Jr 23:3). Three times Joseph affirmed that it was God—not his brothers—who had sent him to Egypt. Therefore the brothers did not need to be grieved or angry with themselves. Indeed, God had made Joseph a father—a top-level adviser—to Pharaoh, and a ruler over all the land of Egypt.

45:9-15 Joseph, who had once presented a plan to Pharaoh to save Egypt, now offered a plan to his brothers to save Israel’s clan by moving them to Egypt to live in Goshen during the five more years of famine that were to come. Goshen was a region in the eastern portion of Egypt’s Nile Delta and was also known as “the land of Rameses” (47:11). The brothers, who were still having trouble believing that Joseph was not only alive but a ruler in Egypt, watched as Joseph threw his arms around his brother Benjamin and wept. To their amazement, he also kissed each of his brothers who had once plotted to kill him.

45:16-20 Affirming the commands Joseph had given, Pharaoh told him to have his brothers load their animals with food, go on back to Jacob in Canaan, and then return with their families. New to the set of instructions was Pharaoh’s provision of wagons from the land of Egypt to transport the weaker members of the clan down to Egypt, the promise that Joseph’s family could live in the best of the land of Egypt, and that they would be permitted to eat from the richness (“the fat”) of the land.

45:21-24 Joseph supplied his brothers with generous provisions for the journey back to Canaan, as well as items for the clan’s return to Egypt. The translation of Joseph’s final command (Don’t argue) is uncertain and may also mean “Don’t fear” or “Don’t take undue risks.”

45:25-28 Jacob experienced a storm of emotion when the group returned from Egypt. Initially he experienced relief, as all eleven brothers came back to him. His “heart went numb” (was stunned) when he was told that Joseph was still alive and he realized his other sons had maintained a deception for twenty years. Jacob agreed to go to see him before he died. God’s promise of blessing to Jacob (32:29; 35:9) had proven true.