World English Bible · The patriarchs
Genesis 45
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Then couldn't control himself before all those who stood before him, and he called out, "Cause everyone to go out from me!" No one else stood with him, while made himself known to his brothers. He wept aloud. The heard, and the house of heard. said to his brothers, "I am ! Does still live?" His brothers couldn't answer him; for they were terrified at his . said to his brothers, "Come near to me, please." They came near. He said, "I am , your brother, whom you sold into . Now don't be grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that you sold me here, for sent me before you to preserve life. For these two years the has been in the land, and there are yet five years, in which there will be no plowing and no harvest. sent me before you to preserve for you a in the earth, and to you alive by a great . So now it wasn't you who sent me here, but , and he has made me a to , of all his house, and ruler over all the land of . Hurry, and go up to , and tell him, 'This is what your son says, " has made me of all . Come down to me. Don't wait. You shall in the land of , and you will be near to me, you, your children, your children's children, your flocks, your herds, and all that you have. There I will provide for you; for there are yet five years of ; lest you come to , you, and your household, and all that you have."' Behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother , that it is my that speaks to you. You shall tell of all my in , and of all that you have seen. You shall hurry and bring down here." He fell on his brother neck and wept, and wept on his neck. He kissed all his brothers, and wept on them. After that his brothers talked with him. The report of it was heard in house, saying, " brothers have come." It pleased well, and his servants. said to , "Tell your brothers, 'Do this: Load your animals, and go, travel to the land of . Take your and your households, and come to me, and I will give you the good of the land of , and you will eat the land.' Now you are commanded to do this: Take wagons out of the land of for your little ones, and for your wives, and bring your , and come. Also, don't concern yourselves about your belongings, for the good of all the land of is yours." The did so. gave them wagons, according to the of , and gave them provision for . He gave each one of them changes of clothing, but to he gave three hundred pieces of silver and five changes of clothing. He sent the following to his : ten donkeys loaded with the good things of , and ten female donkeys loaded with grain and bread and provision for his by . So he sent his brothers away, and they departed. He said to them, "See that you don't quarrel on ." 25They went up out of , and came into the land of , to their . They told him, saying, " is still alive, and he is ruler over all the land of ." fainted, for he didn't them. They told him all the words of , which he had said to them. When he saw the wagons which had sent to carry him, of , their , revived. Israel said, "It is enough. my son is still alive. I will go and see him before I ."
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The world at this moment · The patriarchs, 2000 BC to 1600 BC ›
Abraham's family as herdsmen among settled Canaanite city-states, in a world where Egypt and Mesopotamia are the great powers and Canaan is the corridor between them.
- Mesopotamia
- Abraham's own century is Hammurabi's. The great empire of Ur has already fallen, and Babylon rises under a king who published a law code on a stone pillar for everyone to see. Reading Genesis alongside Hammurabi's laws is illuminating in both directions: some provisions are strikingly similar, and the places where Israel's later law diverges are the places worth stopping at.
- Egypt
- The Middle Kingdom, wealthy, bureaucratic, and organised around the Nile flood. Egyptian tomb paintings from this period show Semitic traders arriving with donkeys and striped cloaks, which is more or less the picture Genesis gives of a family going down to Egypt in a famine. Toward the end of the era the Hyksos, rulers of Semitic origin, take the delta.
- Anatolia and the Aegean
- Assyrian merchants run a long-distance trading colony at Kanesh in Anatolia, leaving thousands of clay letters about copper, tin, and debt. On Crete the Minoan palaces are at their height, with plumbing, frescoes, and a script nobody has yet read.
- Further afield
- The Indus Valley cities are in decline after centuries of grid-planned streets and drains. In China the Erlitou culture is building the first palace complexes. Stonehenge is standing and already old.
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