Josephs Forgiveness Of His Brot

When Judah and his brothers came back to Joseph's house, Joseph was

still there; and they threw themselves before him on the ground. Joseph

said to them, "What deed is this that you have done? Do you not know

that a man like me can always tell where things are?" Judah replied,

"What shall we say to my lord? What shall we speak or how shall we clear

ourselves? God has found out the guilt of your servants. See, both we

a d he also with whom the cup was found are my lord's slaves." But

Joseph said, "Far be it from me that I should do so! The man with whom

the cup was found shall be my slave; but you yourselves go up in peace

to your father."



Then Judah came close to him and said, "Oh, my lord, let your servant, I

beg of you, speak a word in my lord's ears, and let not your anger be

aroused against your servant, for you are even as Pharaoh. My lord asked

his servants, saying, 'Have you a father or a brother?' And we said to

my lord, 'We have a father, an old man, and a child of his old age, a

little one. As his brother is dead, he is the only son of his mother who

is left; and his father loves him.' You said to your servants, 'Bring

him down to me, that I may see him.' But we said to my lord, 'The boy

cannot leave his father; for if he should leave his father, his father

would die.' Then you said to your servants, 'Unless your youngest

brother comes down with you, you shall not see me again.'



"When we went up to your servant, my father, we told him the words of my

lord; and our father said, 'Go again, buy us a little food.' But we

said, 'We cannot go down. If our youngest brother is with us, then we

will go; for we cannot see the man again unless our youngest brother is

with us.' Your servant, my father, said to us, 'You know that my wife

had two sons; and one went from me,' and I said, 'Surely he is torn in

pieces; and I have not seen him since. If you take this one also from

me, and harm come to him, you will bring down my gray hairs with sorrow

to the grave.' Now if I return to your servant, my father, and Benjamin

with whose life his heart is bound up is not with us, and he sees that

there is no boy, he will die, and your servants will bring down the gray

hairs of your servant our father with sorrow to the grave. For your

servant became responsible for the boy to my father, when I said, 'If I

do not bring him to you, then I will bear the blame before my father

forever.' Now, therefore, let me, instead of the boy, remain as a slave

to my lord, I beg of you; but let the boy go back with his brothers. For

how can I go back to my father, if the boy is not with me, lest I should

see the sorrow that would come upon my father?"



Then Joseph could not control himself before all those who were standing

by him; so he cried out, "Let every man leave me." So no Egyptian was

present while Joseph made himself known to his brothers. But he wept so

loudly that the Egyptians and Pharaoh's court heard.



And Joseph said to his brothers, "I am Joseph. Is my father still

alive?" But his brothers could not answer him, for they were too ashamed

to look him in the face. Then Joseph said to his brothers, "Come near to

me, I beg of you." So they came near. He said, "I am Joseph, your

brother, whom you sold into Egypt. Do not be troubled nor angry with

yourselves that you sold me here, for God sent me before you to save

your lives. For the famine has already been two years in the land, and

there are still five years in which there shall be neither ploughing nor

harvest. God sent me before you to save your lives through a great

deliverance and thus give you children on the earth. So now it is not

you who sent me here, but God. He has made me like a father to Pharaoh

and master of all his household and ruler over all the land of Egypt.



"Go up quickly to my father and say to him, 'Your son Joseph says: God

has made me master of all Egypt. Come down to me without delay. You

shall live in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me with your

children and your grandchildren, with your flocks and your herds and all

that you have, so that you, with your household and all that you have,

may never want. There I will provide for you, for there will be five

more years of famine.' Now you and my brother Benjamin see that it is I

who am speaking to you. Tell my father all about my honor in Egypt and

what you have seen; and you must quickly bring him down here."



Then he fell upon his brother Benjamin's neck and wept, and Benjamin

wept upon his neck. He also kissed all his brothers and wept upon them.

After that his brothers talked with him.