Yoseph Became the Person He Was Meant to Be Because He Went to Egypt
Yoseph was sold in Egypt as a slave. But the Elohim of his father was with him and did not abandon him as his brothers did. Now raised to the highest rank in Egypt, only second to Pharaoh himself, Yoseph could set his thought on his family in the land of Kana’an. On account of the famine that was throughout the whole land, his brothers came down to Egypt to buy grain, for grain could be found only in Egypt. Yoseph was expecting them to come for the famine was very great. And when they came, Yoseph put them in the same situation to commit the same sin, this time against their father’s favorite son: Binyamin. We will explore this in the context of the story of Binyamin, a story that poses significant challenges for the careful reader.
We will now turn to continue what we commenced to explain in the article “New reading of who sold Yoseph to slavery in Egypt”, which we suggest the reader review before proceeding here. In the following, we would like to posit another way to look at the story of fall and rise of Yoseph, this time from his perspectives. It all began with the hardship the family of Ya’akov had on account of the famine, to which we now turn.
Israel and his sons going down to Egypt.
So, when the brothers came down to Egypt to seek grain, first Yoseph accused his brothers of being spies, a crime they had not committed, and had them imprisoned for three days. Then, holding Shimon as a hostage (the one who wanted to kill him), he told them that they must bring their youngest brother Binyamin to prove that they were those they claimed to be. Thus, Yoseph forced them to re-enact the earlier situation, when they return to their father without him. The brothers came back to Egypt with Binyamin, but Yoseph prepared another test for them. When he sold them the grain they paid for, he had his special silver cup planted in Binyamin’s sack. Then, accusing Binyamin of stealing his precious cup, he had their youngest brother detained as a slave. The brothers’ reaction is recorded in Gen 44:16. They confessed their sin against their brother Yoseph and admitted full responsibility. The irony is that Yehudah, who offered to sell Yoseph as a slave, now offered himself as a slave to the very one he conspired to sell, so that his brother Binyamin could return to his father (Gen 37:26-27).
Yoseph learned much about his brothers through the tests he made them go through. He learned that his brothers did not have jealousy toward the son of their father’s wife, when he tested them with Binyamin. Now he can forgive. But Yoseph was unable to restrain himself. He ordered everyone to leave so that he could remain alone with his brothers. Now convinced that his brothers had truly repented of their animosity toward him, he made himself known to his brothers and wept aloud. He wept so aloud that the Egyptians of the house of Pharaoh heard him. He ordered everyone to leave, but perhaps he let the interpreter stay. The interpreter was his son Menasheh. When he said to them, “see that it is my mouth that speaks to you” (Gen 45:12), the meaning was: I speak directly to you in Hebrew without the use of an interpreter. Now that the brothers heard him speaking in Hebrew, they should not doubt that it was him, Yoseph, the viceroy of Egypt speaking. And indeed, what other Hebrew would be in Egypt at that time but their brother Yoseph?
And Yoseph said to his brothers, “I am Yoseph, is my father still alive?” But his brothers remained silent, for they trembled before him (Gen 45:1-3). Yoseph asked them, “Is my father still alive?”. We may recall that when the brothers returned with Binyamin, he already inquired whether his father was well and alive, and the brothers gave Yoseph a clear answer at that time (Gen 43:27-28). So, why did he ask them again? A careful reading of the text shows a subtle, yet important, variation in Yoseph’s questions. Note how the careful use of words throughout this whole narrative helps tell the story of Yoseph and his brothers. In Gen 43:27-28, he asked, “Is your father well”, while now he asked them, “Is my father alive?” We may also recall that when the brothers returned home (after they abandoned Yoseph in the desert), they did not refer to him speaking to their father as “our brother” but as “your son”. Furthermore, while Yoseph was in Egypt, his brothers referred to him not as “Yoseph our brother” but simply the impersonal: “the man”. The choice of words by the narrator comes to show that there was some alienation between the brothers and Yoseph. Likewise, during the same time, the narrator describes the brothers simply as “the men” thus indicating that there was some alienation between the brothers as well. We are also noticing now that the rift between the brothers was healed, which enabled Yoseph to say to his brothers,
Please come near to me. And when they came near, he said, I am Yoseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. (Gen 45:4)
At this point in the discussion, it is necessary to understand why Yoseph felt the necessity to say, “I am Yoseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt”. With these words, it appears that Yoseph wanted to comfort his brothers, for he saw them horrified at the revelation of his identity. But it does not appear to us to be correct, because his words seem to have just the opposite effect, as they might have sounded to the brothers as a severe rebuke: “I am Yoseph your brother whom you sold into Egypt”. How could they become comforted with those words, since he made it clear to them that they were the ones who committed injustice to him? If Yoseph were sold into slavery by his own brothers, he had every reason to feel wronged and even bitter. Here is the place to recall what we studied in the foresaid article, namely that in his mind Yoseph indeed believed that they were those who sold him to the traders. What Yoseph knew all those years in exile was what he witnessed, namely, their conversation to kill him. And when Yehudah suggested to sell him instead, they threw him into the pit. What followed in the story, Yoseph did not witness until the traders came. He did not know that while the brothers were eating (refer to the source for the full explanation), the traders had found him in the pit and pulled him out. The brothers indeed wanted to sell him, but as we argued, they did not. They had nothing to do with the actual sale of Yoseph in Egypt.
So, why did he rebuke them now, and even worse, in the presence of Binyamin, when Yoseph was attempting to comfort them? Especially considering that Binyamin did not know what they had done to him, for he was too young to know. And now he ashamed them in front of Binyamin?! Besides, why was there the need to identify himself again, saying “I am Yoseph, your brother”, since he had already said to them, “I am Yoseph” in verse 3? And again “I am Yoseph” in verse 4. What is even worse, did he think that they had forgotten what they had done to him? And even if he wanted to use this as evidence to prove that he was indeed Yoseph their brother, why did he say the way he said it? Was there someone else who would know their story and speak Hebrew, for he now was speaking to them directly without the interpreter? This is why.
The phrase “whom you sold” is grammatically fair enough, but it does not fall in with the context. The choice of words by the Torah teaches that there is something else in the context. This is hinted at in the apparently extraneous words: “whom you sold”. Did the brothers forget whom they had sold? If the Torah had only written ” I am Yoseph your brother”, would we not have known that Yoseph was sold in Egypt? A closer examination of the text will show that the Torah is not merely being informative here, but that it evidently tries to tell us something beyond what is immediately obvious, because some details of the language employed here suggest that the passage carries an alternative charge. But in order to make this clear to the reader, the Torah says, “whom you sold”. The reason why this line is necessary, although the passage would have been understood without it, is because the words, “I am Yoseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt” in the Hebrew can also be translated as, “I am Yoseph your brother, because (אֲשֶׁר) you sold me into Egypt”. This translation address and resolve the two questions raised above. The Hebrew word אֲשֶׁר asher, which does mean “whom”, can also mean “because”. We can cite several examples where the Hebrew word for אֲשֶׁר asher is used with the same expression, but these suffice Gen 22:16, Gen 30:18, Gen 34:13, and Gen 34:27.
By Myself I have sworn, declares the Eternal, because (asher) you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, (Gen 22:16)
If this was what Yoseph meant to say, then he told his brothers something deep. He said: “I became the person today because you sent me into slavery”. How are we to understand “because you sent me”? We learn something new from the case of Binyamin. The brothers had changed, but Yoseph had changed too. He was not the spoiled youth who was reporting them to his father; the brother whom they wanted to sell. Yoseph became a new person in Egypt because of what he had gone through. And the brothers were not the same either. They were not the bitter men, who out of jealousy on account of their father’s favoritism, hated him. They all changed and came to reconciliation after long years of separation. Their mistake, by having abandoned him in the pit, which led to his enslavement in Egypt, made Yoseph the new person he was now speaking to them. In addition to this, perhaps his intent was to bring to their minds the dreams he had; not to scare them, but to make them recall the decree that the descendants of Avraham were to go in exile for four hundred years. The language of the verse thus translated and interpreted fits in well with our explanation, for translation is well grounded in the Hebrew text.
And Yoseph went on to say further,
And now, do not be grieved nor displeased with yourselves because you sold me here, for Elohim sent me before you to preserve life. For two years now the scarcity of food has been in the land, and there are still five years in which there is neither ploughing nor harvesting. And Elohim sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth and to give life to you by a great escape. So then, you did not send me here, but Elohim. And He has set me for an instructor to Pharaoh, and master of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt. (Gen 45:5-8)
When finally reunited with them, three times Yoseph told his brothers that they were not responsible for what he had gone through. It was Elohim who had sent him in Egypt. Even if they had sold him into slavery, but they did not, Yoseph indicated very clearly to them that it was Elohim who sent him there, not they. Later in the narrative, in Gen 50:20, Yoseph said that although his brothers had evil intention to sell him for money, Elohim intended it for good, because it had already been decreed. And He reversed their evil intention at the end to preserve Yoseph’s life and save them from committing even greater sin (verse 5). Again, what it means is that perhaps he did not know they had not sold him, yet they had an evil intention.
And when Yoseph said, “to preserve for you a remnant in the earth and to give life to you by a great escape”, was the Exodus Yoseph had foreseen perhaps in another dream, or it was a logical expectation that the descendants of Avraham one day would return to the land according to the promise? And Yoseph urged them with the words,
Hurry and go up to my father, and say to him, “Thus says your son Yoseph, ‘Elohim has made me master of all Egypt. Come down to me, do not delay’”. (Gen 45:9)
And indeed, every additional moment his father would spend mourning his son’s death could prove fatal. Ya’akov was well advanced in years. When Yoseph realized that he and his father had been separated from one another for exactly twenty-two years, as Ya’akov was separated from Yitschak for the same course of time, it became clear to him that this was decreed in heaven to rectify his father’s failure to honor his parents during the twenty-two years Ya’akov was in Charan. Now that the twenty-two years had passed, and the first dream was fulfilled, all ten brothers and Binyamin fell to the ground. This was the realization of Yoseph’s dream in which eleven stars bowed down to him (Gen 37:9). Yoseph urged his brothers to bring his father to Egypt quickly, so that his punishment of separation could end without delay.
Despite all assurance Yoseph gave to his brothers that he was their brother, they were so horrified that they could not respond. Perhaps, what horrified the brothers was not only a sense of fear of retribution but the inner remorse and brokenness for what they had caused to Yoseph. The pain was far deeper than the possible and well-deserved punishment that might come as a result. It was more than guilt. It was the feeling of the tragic error they had made, or even worse: they could have lost him forever.
And Yoseph gave each brother clothes, for they had torn their clothes over the goblet. And he sent to his father in the land of Kana’an ten donkeys loaded with the best of Egypt, and ten female donkeys loaded with grain, and bread, and food for his father for the journey to Egypt (Gen 45:23). A close reading of the text should make us notice that Yoseph did not send eleven donkeys, for eleven brothers came to Egypt, but ten. Who remained in Egypt with Yoseph, because if all brothers had to return to Kana’an, Yoseph had to give them eleven donkeys? It was Binyamin whom Yoseph held back with him. If Binyamin had also returned to Kana’an with them, Yoseph had to give him a donkey too. But his great concern was that something bad might happened to him on the way to Kana’an and back, and to minimize the risk, he kept him in Egypt until father’s arrival. The other brothers were old enough to protect themselves against robbers and bandits, but to Ya’akov Binyamin was the son of his old age.
And they went up out of Egypt and came to the land of Kana’an to Ya’akov their father. And when they arrived, they told their father,
Yoseph is still alive, and he is governor over all the land of Egypt. And Ya’akov’s heart ceased, for he did not believe them. (Gen 45:25-26)
When they spoke to him all the words which Yoseph had spoken to them, and when he saw the wagons which Yoseph had sent to transport him, the soul of Ya’akov revived (Gen 45:27). Ya’akov’s soul revived for he saw hope. When his sons told him that Yoseph was alive, and it was him who had sent the wagons, he must have reasoned: “Why would an Egyptian had to send me all this food for the family and wagons for my journey to Egypt? He must be my son, Yoseph”. And Israel said,
Enough! My son Yoseph is still alive. Let me go and see him before I die. (Gen 45:28)
Israel was felt satisfied to have heard that his son Yoseph was still alive, seeing what his sons told him and all provision before him. Perhaps, the fact that Yoseph was a ruler in Egypt was not impressive but the joy that he was alive was great enough to make him take the journey to Egypt without delay.
And when Ya’akov and all his posterity came down to Egypt, the family reunited in order to fulfill the second dream. Yoseph settled them in the land of Goshen, the most fertile part of the country, to dwell there and be near to him, his father, his brothers with their children and children’s children, and their flocks and herds, all Hebrews in Egypt as it was decreed. The land of Goshen was close to the capital of Egypt, and therefore close to him, yet it was Yoseph’s attempt to keep them separate from the Egyptians and the Egyptian culture and pagan traditions. “And he provided for them there, lest they come to poverty, because five years of scarcity of food were still to come. But why did Yoseph not send provisions for his father and family in the land of Kana’an but told him to come down to Egypt? Undoubtedly, Yoseph had his second dream in mind as well. The explanation, therefore, is that Yoseph believed that the dreams he had dreamed were from heaven, and if the first dream had come to fulfillment, the second one must as well. Furthermore, because Yoseph was a man of integrity, he did not want to be accused by the Egyptians of robbing Egypt’s wealth and planning to return to his land.
One final thought. In the article “The secret Yoseph kept all his life”, we explained that it was never told to Ya’akov all his life that the brothers had wronged Yoseph in some way. Rather the brothers told him that a beast must have killed him, and now when he saw Yoseph alive, he must have thought or told that Yoseph had strayed off the road and became lost in the field, and those who had found him kidnapped him and sold him into Egypt. As the reader may expect, the brothers did not want to tell him of their sin, being afraid of eighter being rejected by their father and cursed, as Reuven, Shimon and Levi were cursed, or being afraid for his life and wellbeing, if he had learned the truth. Who told him that we do not know; Torah is silent, and Yoseph in his good ethical conduct remained silent and did not want to tell him. And we will leave the outcome of the story like that: silent in a good ethical conduct.
Suggested reading: “Did the brothers exile Yehudah for selling Yoseph?” It would be advantageous for the readers to study the matter in its entirety, as it is explained in our commentary.
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