³¹ sees that the boy isn’t there, he will die.^(A) Your servants^(B) will bring the gray head of our father down to the grave^(C) in sorrow. ³² Your servant guaranteed the boy’s safety to my father. I said, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, I will bear the blame before you, my father, all my life!’^(D)

³³ “Now then, please let your servant remain here as my lord’s slave^(E) in place of the boy,^(F) and let the boy return with his brothers. ³⁴ How can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? No! Do not let me see the misery^(G) that would come on my father.”^(H)

Joseph Makes Himself Known

45 Then Joseph could no longer control himself^(I) before all his attendants, and he cried out, “Have everyone leave my presence!”^(J) So there was no one with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers. ² And he wept^(K) so loudly that the Egyptians heard him, and Pharaoh’s household heard about it.^(L)

³ Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! Is my father still living?”^(M) But his brothers were not able to answer him,^(N) because they were terrified at his presence.^(O)

⁴ Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come close to me.”^(P) When they had done so, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt!^{(Q) 5} And now, do not be distressed^(R) and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here,^(S) because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.^{(T) 6} For two years now there has been famine^(U) in the land, and for the next five years there will be no plowing and reaping. ⁷ But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant^(V) on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.^[a](W)