Grace

Genesis of Ethics: Ethics
Year C, Proper 7 - first Reading

                  Genesis 45: 1 Yosef could no longer restrain himself in the presence of all who
        were stationed around him, he called out:
        Have everyone leave me!
        So no one stood (in attendance upon) him when Yosef made himself known to his brothers.
2      He put forth his voice in weeping:
        the Egyptians heard, Pharaoh’s household heard.
3      Then Yosef said to his brothers:
        I am Yosef. Is my father still alive?
        But his brothers were not able to answer him,
        for they were confounded in his presence.
4      Yosef said to his brothers:
        Pray come close to me!
        They came close.
        He said:
        I am Yosef your brother, whom you sold into Egypt.
5      But now, do not be pained,
        and do not let upset be in your eyes that you sold me here!
        For it was to save life that God sent me on before you.
6      For it is two years now that the famine has been in the midst of the land,
        and there are still another five years in which there shall be no plowing or harvest.
7      So God sent me on before you
        to make you a remnant on earth,
        to keep you alive as a great body-of-survivors.
8      So now,
        it was not you that sent me here, but God!
        He has made me Father to Pharaoh and lord of all his household and ruler
        over all the land of Egypt.
9      Make haste, go up to my father and say to him:
        Thus says your son, Yosef:
        God has made me lord of all Egypt;
        come down to me, do not remain!
10     You shall stay in the region of Goshen, you shall be near me,
        you and your sons and the sons of your sons,
        your sheep, your oxen, and all that is yours.
11     I will sustain you there,
        for there are still five years of famine left
        —lest you be as disinherited, you and your household and all that is yours.
12     Here, your eyes see, as well as my brother Binyamin’s eyes, that it is my mouth
        that speaks to you!
13     So tell my father of all the weight I carry in Egypt, and of all that you have seen,
        and make haste, bring my father down here!
14     He flung himself upon his brother Binyamin’s neck and wept,
        and Binyamin wept upon his neck.
15     Then he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them.
        After this his brothers spoke with him.

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