Vayigash

Judah steps forward and pleads — the longest speech in Genesis — retelling the whole story: the old father, the lost brother, the surety he pledged, and what Benjamin's loss would do to Jacob. He asks to remain as a slave in the boy's place. At this Joseph can no longer restrain himself; clearing the room, he weeps aloud and says, "I am Joseph — is my father still alive?" He calms his terrified brothers: you sold me, but God sent me ahead of you to preserve life; five years of famine remain. He sends them home with wagons and provisions to bring Jacob down.

The news — "Joseph is still alive, and he is ruler over all Egypt" — stuns Jacob, then revives him. At Beersheba God speaks to Israel in a night vision: do not fear to go down to Egypt, for I will make you a great nation there, and I will surely bring you up again. The company is counted, seventy persons in all, and the names are listed. Judah is sent ahead to Goshen, and Joseph rides up to meet his father and weeps on his neck a long time.

Joseph presents five brothers, and then his father, to Pharaoh; Jacob, a hundred and thirty, blesses the king. The family settles in Goshen with the best of the land. As the famine deepens, Joseph gathers all Egypt's money, then livestock, then land in exchange for bread, moving the people to the cities and setting a permanent fifth of the harvest for Pharaoh — only the priests' land exempt. Israel takes hold in Goshen, and they multiply greatly.