ALL the eleven sons of Jacob turned back in grief, and fear, and dismay, when Benjamin, the youngest brother, whom Judah had promised to bring safely back to their father, was found to have the silver cup of the lord of the land in his sack. How it came there they could not guess, but they knew that their father's heart would break if they came home and left Benjamin to be a slave.
So they all came to the lord of the land; and Judah stood up before the strange, stern, princely man, and told him how much their old father loved this youngest son, and he would be sure to die if the lad did not come home safe. And then Judah begged to stay and be a slave in Egypt, instead of his brother Benjamin, for he said if mischief befell the lad his father would die, and that he could not bear to see.
JOSEPH MAKES HIMSELF KNOWN TO HIS BRETHREN.—Gen. 45:2.
But when Judah so spake, the lord of the land sent all the lookers-on away, and wept aloud, and said that he was their own brother Joseph, whom they had sold so long ago. He would not let them be afraid; he embraced them all and wept for joy, and asked for his father. Then he told them not to grieve for what had gone before; for God had turned it all to good, and made him be the means of saving all their lives, by storing up the corn in Egypt.
JOSEPH MEETING HIS FATHER.—Gen. 46:29, 30.
And now they were to go home, and tell Jacob, their father, that Joseph was still alive, and was a great and powerful man; and they were to fetch old Jacob, their father, and their wives and their children, and all they had, and come to live with Joseph in Egypt, where he would take care of them.
That was the way Joseph forgot all the ill his brothers had done to him, and forgave them, and loved them with all his heart. When the brothers came home, their father Jacob could scarcely believe such good news; but at last he said, "Joseph my son is yet alive, I will go to see him before I die."