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Genesis 45

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1 Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood by him; and he cried, Cause every man to go out from me: and there stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known to his brethren.

2 And he wept aloud; and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard.

3 And Joseph said to his brethren, I am Joseph; doth my father yet live? And his brethren could not answer him; for they were troubled at his presence.

4 And Joseph said to his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you: and they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt.

5 Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither; for God sent me before you to preserve life.

6 For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in which there shall neither be tillage nor harvest.

7 And God sent me before you, to preserve for you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.

8 So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.

9 Haste ye, and return to my father, and say to him, Thus saith thy son Joseph, God hath made me lord of all Egypt; come down to me; delay not:

10 And thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen, and thou shalt be near to me, thou, and thy children, and thy children's children, and thy flocks, and thy herds, and all that thou hast:

11 And there will I nourish thee, (for yet there are five years of famine,) lest thou, and thy household, and all that thou hast, should come to poverty.

12 And behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that it is my mouth that speaketh to you.

13 And ye shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt, and of all that ye have seen: and ye shall haste, and bring down my father hither.

14 And he fell upon his brother Benjamin's neck, and wept; and Benjamin wept upon his neck.

15 Moreover, he kissed all his brethren, and wept upon them: and after that his brethren talked with him.

16 And the fame of this was heard in Pharaoh's house, saying, Joseph's brethren are come: and it pleased Pharaoh well, and his servants.

17 And Pharaoh said to Joseph, Say to thy brethren, This do ye; load your beasts, and go, return to the land of Canaan;

18 And take your father, and your households, and come to me: and I will give you the good of the land of Egypt, and ye shall eat the fat of the land.

19 Now thou art commanded, this do ye; take for yourselves wagons from the land of Egypt for your little ones, and for your wives, and bring your father, and come.

20 Also regard not your furniture; for the good of all the land of Egypt is yours.

21 And the children of Israel did so: and Joseph gave them wagons, according to the commandment of Pharaoh, and gave them provision for the way.

22 To all of them he gave each man changes of raiment: but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver, and five changes of raiment.

23 And to his father he sent after this manner; ten asses laden with the good things of Egypt, and ten she-asses laden with corn and bread and meat, for his father by the way.

24 So he sent his brethren away, and they departed: and he said to them, See that ye contend not by the way.

25 And they went up from Egypt, and came into the land of Canaan, to Jacob their father,

26 And told him, saying, Joseph is yet alive, and he is governor over all the land of Egypt. And Jacob's heart fainted, for he believed them not.

27 And they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said to them: and when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father revived:

28 And Israel said, It is enough; Joseph my son is yet alive: I will go and see him before I die.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 5764

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5764. 'And you will be innocent' means that each of the rest will be his own master since they are not involved in the blame. This is clear from the meaning of' him who is innocent', when compared to a slave, as one who is his own master since, it follows, he is not involved in the blame. Among gentiles in former times it was customary, when one person sinned, to consider his companions too to be blameworthy; indeed it was customary to punish an entire household for a crime committed by an individual member. But such a law is derived from hell, for in that place all companions band together, intent on evil. Indeed the communities there have been established in such a way that they act as a united whole against what is good; thus they are held in association with one another even though each individual harbours deadly hatred against another. Their unity and friendship are those of thieves. As a consequence, since companions in hell band together intent on evil, when they do perform evil all of them are punished. But to mete out that kind of punishment in the world as well is utterly contrary to Divine order, for in the world good people live in association with evil ones since one person does not know what another is like interiorly, and for most of the time is. not concerned to know. The Divine law for people in the world therefore is that each should pay for his own iniquity, referred to in Moses as follows,

Fathers shall not die because of sons, and sons shall not die because of fathers; they shall be put to death, each for his own sin. Deuteronomy 24:16.

And in Ezekiel,

The soul that has sinned shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, nor shall the father bear the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself. Ezekiel 18:20.

From all this one may see the implication of the following: Jacob's sons said, 'With whomever of your servants it is found, let him die, and we also will be slaves to my lord'; but the one sent by Joseph amended that judgement, saying, 'He with whom it is found will be my slave, and you will be innocent'. Something similar occurs in what follows below, where Judah speaks to Joseph, in verses 16-17, 'Behold, we are my lord's slaves, even ourselves, even he in whose hand the cup was found'. And Joseph said, 'Far be it from me to do this; the man in whose hand the cup was found, he will be my slave, and you, go up in peace to your father'.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.