Joseph couldn't hold himself in any longer, keeping up a front before all his attendants. He cried out, "Leave! Clear out--everyone leave!" So there was no one with Joseph when he identified himself to his brothers.
Joseph spoke to his brothers: "I am Joseph. Is my father really still alive?" But his brothers couldn't say a word. They were speechless--they couldn't believe what they were hearing and seeing.
So you see, it wasn't you who sent me here but God. He set me in place as a father to Pharaoh, put me in charge of his personal affairs, and made me ruler of all Egypt.
I'll give you a place to live in Goshen where you'll be close to me--you, your children, your grandchildren, your flocks, your herds, and anything else you can think of.
I'll take care of you there completely. There are still five more years of famine ahead; I'll make sure all your needs are taken care of, you and everyone connected with you--you won't want for a thing.'
Tell my father all about the high position I hold in Egypt, tell him everything you've seen here, but don't take all day--hurry up and get my father down here."
"Also tell them this: 'Here's what I want you to do: Take wagons from Egypt to carry your little ones and your wives and load up your father and come back.
He sent his father these gifts: ten donkeys loaded with Egypt's best products and another ten donkeys loaded with grain and bread, provisions for his father's journey back.
But the more they talked, telling him everything that Joseph had told them and when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to carry him back, the blood started to flow again--their father Jacob's spirit revived.