Finally, Joseph could not keep the joke to himself any longer, and sent all his servants out of the room. After they had all left, he started crying like a little girl again and revealed that he was in fact Joseph, the guy his brothers had tried to kill and eventually sold off to slavery several chapters back. He began asking about his father, but his brothers were so stunned by the revelation (he was evidently wearing very thick makeup) that they could not answer him. So, sensing there might still be some residual guilt about the whole selling into slavery bit, Joseph told his brothers to not feel guilty about it, because it was probably God’s will, what with Joseph being such a big cheese in Egypt and saving everyone from dying of starvation and all.
Joseph told his brothers to go get their father, and tell him to move his entire family to an area of Egypt called Goshen, close to where Joseph lived, and he would take care of them there. He instructed them to take their families, but to leave the rest of their stuff, because Egypt would take care of all of their needs. He failed to mention that their entire civilization would end up being enslaved by the Egyptians, but these minor details could certainly be dealt with at a later time.
Joseph’s brothers went back to Jacob, and told him Joseph was not only alive, but was the de facto ruler over the entirety of Egypt. Jacob (aka Israel) did not believe them, but after a thorough retelling of the past few chapters, he became convinced and decided to go see Joseph as soon as possible.
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