Scriptures

New Living Translation (NLT)

Genesis 44
³⁰ “And now, my lord, I cannot go back to my father without the boy. Our father’s life is bound up in the boy’s life.
³¹ If he sees that the boy is not with us, our father will die. We, your servants, will indeed be responsible for sending that grieving, white-haired man to his grave.
³² My lord, I guaranteed to my father that I would take care of the boy. I told him, ‘If I don’t bring him back to you, I will bear the blame forever.’
³³ “So please, my lord, let me stay here as a slave instead of the boy, and let the boy return with his brothers.
³⁴ For how can I return to my father if the boy is not with me? I couldn’t bear to see the anguish this would cause my father!”
Genesis 45
¹ Joseph could stand it no longer. There were many people in the room, and he said to his attendants, “Out, all of you!” So he was alone with his brothers when he told them who he was.
² Then he broke down and wept. He wept so loudly the Egyptians could hear him, and word of it quickly carried to Pharaoh’s palace.
³ “I am Joseph!” he said to his brothers. “Is my father still alive?” But his brothers were speechless! They were stunned to realize that Joseph was standing there in front of them.
⁴ “Please, come closer,” he said to them. So they came closer. And he said again, “I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into slavery in Egypt.
⁵ But don’t be upset, and don’t be angry with yourselves for selling me to this place. It was God who sent me here ahead of you to preserve your lives.
⁶ This famine that has ravaged the land for two years will last five more years, and there will be neither plowing nor harvesting.