Genesis 45:17

Genesis 45:17, in plain English

Pharaoh himself tells Joseph to instruct his brothers to load their animals and return immediately to Canaan to get their family.

Why it's here

Pharaoh isn't just permitting this—he's actively supporting it and speeding it up. He's giving Joseph authority to send his brothers back home. This shows the complete trust and respect Pharaoh has for Joseph.

Who's speaking

Pharaoh, giving official approval and command

Where it sits in the story

This detail shows how God sometimes uses our relationships with those in authority to accomplish His purposes. Pharaoh becomes a tool for executing God's plan to bring Joseph's family to safety.

The scholarly reading

Pharaoh formally authorizes Joseph's family to return to Canaan to collect their father Jacob and bring him to Egypt.

Language and setting

Pharaoh's directive is framed as a command ('Tell your brothers, 'Do as follows'), giving it official weight. The instruction to 'Load your animals and return to the land of Canaan' reflects the practical logistics of a family migration across the Sinai Peninsula—they will need beasts of burden for supplies. The fact that Pharaoh frames this as Joseph's directive to communicate ('Tell your brothers') indicates that authority is mediated through Joseph; Joseph is the pharaoh's voice to his own family. This echoes how Moses will later mediate God's word to Pharaoh.

Voice

Pharaoh (via the narrator)

Significance

Pharaoh's authorization becomes a turning point in the patriarchal narrative. The movement of the family to Egypt, which might have seemed like a descent into exile, is now framed as a sanctioned migration with the backing of ancient Egypt's most powerful authority. It sets the stage for the family's growth into a nation—the four-hundred-year sojourn that will culminate in the exodus.

15Joseph kissed each of his brothers as he wept over them. And afterward his brothers talked with him.

16When the news reached Pharaoh’s house that Joseph’s brothers had come, Pharaoh and his servants were pleased.

17Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Tell your brothers, ‘Do as follows: Load your animals and return to the land of Canaan.

18Then bring your father and your families and return to me. I will give you the best of the land of Egypt, and you shall eat from the fat of the land.’

19You are also directed to tell them: ‘Take wagons from the land of Egypt for your young children and your wives, and bring your father and come back.

Read all of Genesis 45 — Three words that shatter twenty years of silence. Joseph weeps, forgives, and reframes every betrayal as providence.