Pharaoh sent to prison for Joseph and ordered him to be brought to him. They led Joseph out of the stronghold: the hand of God brought him out. According to the custom of the country, they cut off his hair, changed his clothes: he appeared before the face of Pharaoh. The king of Egypt told him his dreams and complained of the wise men that they could not interpret these visions. "I have heard of you," Pharaoh said to Joseph, "that you explain dreams when they are told to you." Joseph answered, "Without God, Pharaoh cannot get a satisfactory answer." Unwittingly, Joseph reveals his spiritual state! He confesses a manifest, miraculous, essential Divine action, the action of the Holy Spirit, independent of man, visiting man according to the Higher Will and revealing mysteries to him. This invisible communion with God, this grace-filled action was felt in Joseph in his soul: his constancy in virtue, calamities, sufferings, or more correctly, the grace of the Holy Spirit, constantly overshadowing the virtuous, and especially the innocent sufferers, raised him to such a height of spiritual progress. "Both of your dreams," he said to Pharaoh, "have the same meaning; Your dreams are one dream. Seven fat cows portend seven years of fertility; seven full ears of grain portend the same. Seven lean cows and seven ears of withered corn mean seven years of hunger. God shows Pharaoh what He intended to do. Seven years will come: during them there will be abundant harvests in Egypt. The other seven years will come, and because of their poverty the abundance of the first seven years will be forgotten. Famine will afflict and destroy the earth. The very traces of the preceding abundance will be blotted out by the poverty that follows it, because the famine will be very strong. Pharaoh's dream was repeated twice: this is a confirmation of God's utterance and a sign that God will hasten the fulfillment of His decree. Tsar! look for a reasonable man among you, and entrust him with the land of Egypt. Let a fifth of the total harvest be gathered in seven fruitful years; The harvested wheat should come under the jurisdiction of the pharaoh and be stored in the cities. In this way, grain reserves will be built up for seven years of poor harvests, and the land will not perish from hunger." "Pharaoh and those around him liked Joseph's words. Pharaoh said to them, "Where can we find another man who, like this, has the Spirit of God in him?" Then, turning to Joseph, he said to him: "God reveals mysteries to you, and therefore there is no man who can compare with you in wisdom and understanding. Be thou the head of my house, let all my people obey thee. Will I be one throne higher than you? I set thee over all the land of Egypt."

Pharaoh took the ring from his hand and put it on Joseph's hand, clothed him in scarlet clothes, put a golden grivna on him {p. 26} and commanded him to be put on his second chariot: in it the new dignitary was carried through the city; a herald walked in front of the chariot, announcing to the people the dignity and authority of Joseph. Then Joseph was thirty years old. Pharaoh married his confidant to Asenech, the daughter of a priest of Heliopolis, and renamed him Psomphomphanichus. What would this name mean? It means the Savior of the world [36]. Joseph foreshadowed the descent of the God-Man to earth to the fallen and lost human race, when he was sent by his father to his brothers, who were tending cattle far from their father's tabernacle. He foreshadowed Him when He was sold by His brothers to foreigners. He foreshadowed His burial by His imprisonment in prison; by his sudden exaltation and glory he foreshadowed the glory of his resurrection. The daughter of a priest of Heliopolis, who entered into marriage with Joseph, prefigured the Church of Christ, which was composed of pagans. The salvation of the people from death foreshadowed the salvation of mankind from eternal death. The Giver of material bread was a prefiguration of the One Who came down from heaven and the Giver of this heavenly bread [37]. From the midst of the mysterious Old Testament transformations, for the first time, a consoling name was heard: the Savior of the world! Wonderfully did God's Providence foreshadow the great work of God, the redemption of mankind, with Biblical foreshadows. At what a distance of time these shadows began to appear! How vividly they depicted the truth! what mystery they were covered with for their contemporaries! How clear they became is evident when God revealed to men the understanding of His inspired Scriptures.

Joseph began to fulfill the duties to which God Himself had called him and which, according to the dispensation of God, the ruler of Egypt had entrusted to him. He undertook a journey throughout Egypt and, surveying the country, made the necessary orders. The land yielded a bountiful harvest for seven years. During these seven years, Joseph accumulated grain reserves, which he kept in the cities under reliable supervision and guards in extensive storerooms. He gathered innumerable quantities of wheat: it lay in folded places, like mountains of sand. During the same fertile seven years, Asenetha gave birth to two sons. Joseph named the firstborn Manasseh. Calling it so, he included in the name of his eldest son a profound thought: {p. 27} God has so arranged me that I have forgotten my sufferings. The second he called Ephraim, connecting with this name another deep and pious thought: God has raised me up in the land of my humility. Such thoughts contain these names in their meaning in the Hebrew language [38].

Seven years of fertility have passed, as everything that is subject to time passes; The years of famine came. According to Joseph's prediction, a famine began to rage throughout the land. The people of Egypt cried out to Pharaoh, asking for bread. Pharaoh answered his subjects: "Go to Joseph and do what he tells you." "Joseph opened the spare granaries and began to sell grain to the Egyptians from there. Famine raged over the face of the earth. The inhabitants of neighboring countries, hearing that corn was sold in Egypt, and, oppressed by hunger, began to come to Egypt to buy wheat. A wise, prudent ruler prepared spare bread in an amount capable not only of feeding his own people, but also of attracting money from other peoples to the Egyptian state.

Among the other lands oppressed by famine, the land of Canaan languished. The family of the holy patriarch also suffered a lack of food. A rumor that bread was being sold in Egypt reached the elder [39]. He said to his sons, "I have heard that there is wheat in Egypt: why do you not pay attention to it? Go there, buy some bread to sustain our life; otherwise, so that we do not have to die of hunger." In obedience to their father's will, Joseph's ten brothers went to Egypt to buy bread. Jacob and his brothers did not let Benjamin go; he said: "So that nothing bad happens to him on the way."

When the sons of Jacob arrived in Egypt, they came with the rest of the buyers to the place where the corn was sold. Joseph himself was engaged in the sale of grain. When the brothers came before him, he immediately recognized them; but they did not suspect in the least that they were standing before their brother, who had been sold as a slave for twenty pieces of gold. And how could they recognize him? When they parted from him, he was barely seventeen years old; now he was approaching the age of forty. Changed over the years, it was no less changed by the grandeur and splendor of its rank, the first in the kingdom of Egypt, which outstripped almost all other states in education, power, and internal structure. Standing before Joseph, the brothers bowed low to him, with their foreheads to the ground. Joseph remembered his dreams... Wise, virtuous Joseph! He postponed until another time to declare himself to the brothers. How much power this great soul had over himself! Did not his heart be consumed with a desire to immediately give the most joyful news about himself to his aged holy father, who for more than twenty years knew nothing about him and, considering him irretrievably lost, grieved inconsolably? He does not heed the inclination of a merciful, magnanimous heart, and chooses a way of acting that is necessary for the benefit of both himself and his brethren. Joseph knew the coarse, unbridled manners of these people; they were half-savage shepherds, who had grown up on nomadic camps, who had spent their whole lives with herds, in the freedom of exuberant freedom, in the open air, in deserts. They did not know any power over themselves, they did not know any reins: they disobeyed their father; inflicted frequent insults on him; every wish, no matter how criminal, was carried out; their hands were often stained with the blood of innocents. This is how the Scripture portrays the sons of Jacob. They needed a lesson. For their own well-being, it was necessary to acquaint them with obedience, with good manners. Cruel souls, accustomed to trampling on conscience and the fear of God, could not otherwise be shaken, brought to their senses and self-knowledge, as by the torture of human fear. Foreseeing a prolonged famine, Joseph also foresaw the need to resettle the family of Jacob from Palestine to Egypt. Is it not for this reason that he called his brothers, when they first came to Egypt, spies?.. If his brothers had brought with them into the new fatherland their unbridledness, their turbulence, they would soon have incurred the indignation of the Egyptians; soon the well-being of the family of Jacob, the well-being of Joseph himself, would have fallen; this family and he would have been subjected to the greatest calamities. What was acquired through long-term suffering was supposed to protect and preserve by wise behavior.

Joseph treated his brothers seriously, severely, like a strict sovereign. "Where are you from?" he asked them. They answered: "From the land of Canaan: they have come to buy bread." He replied: "You spies: you have come to look out for our country!" Your servants have come to buy bread. We are all brothers, sons of the same elder. We have come with a peaceful disposition: your servants are not spies." He said: "No, no: you have come to look out for the land!" They answered: "We are twelve brothers. Your servants are from the land of Canaan. The youngest of us remained with my father, and one... is gone." Joseph remarked: "There is a lie in your words! I told you the truth that you were spies. By Pharaoh's immunity, you will not leave here unless your younger brother comes to me. You have to justify yourself with this. Send one from among you: let him bring a brother. But you will remain here in custody until it is clear whether your words are just or not. If they turn out to be unfair... By the inviolability of Pharaoh, you are spies!" and with these words he gave them into custody.

Three days passed. On the third, he calls them and says: "I am one of those who fear God. This is what you should do: if you are in a peaceful disposition, then go and take the wheat you bought; one of you will be kept here in custody. Next time bring your brother to me: by this you will prove the truth of your words. But if you do not bring the younger brother, you will see my face below!" He had not yet completely dismissed them, and while he was busy with the other buyers, the sons of Jacob began to converse quietly among themselves in the Hebrew language. Could they have imagined that the formidable Egyptian nobleman understood them! And he follows every word with intense hearing and attention; His every word is caught by his soul, full of holy love, acting with holy, salvific wisdom. "Rightly," said the sons of Jacob to one another, "the sin which we have committed against our brother pursues us! We have despised his deep sorrow, we have not listened to him when he begged us, "This misfortune has come upon us for him!" Reuben said to the others: "Did I not tell you, do not offend the young man? You have not listened to me: behold, his blood is being demanded." The words of the brothers pierced Joseph's sensitive heart. He left them for a moment and relieved his burdened heart with streams of tears. Then he came to them again, chose Simeon from among them, and commanded them to put fetters on him before their eyes. In the actions of the wise Joseph everything has its reason. The Scriptures are silent about the reason why chains became the lot of the wild and ferocious Simeon, not any other of the brothers; but from the same Scripture it is clear that it was he who needed a stricter lesson. All ten brothers indulged in grave offenses, but Simeon stained himself with the terrible murder of the Shechemites, by which he exposed the entire family of the holy patriarch to a terrible danger, from which they were delivered by the special intercession of Providence. And was it not his hands that were raised to another murder, more horrible and criminal?.. Joseph gave a secret order to fill the sacks of the brothers with wheat, and to put the money given for the wheat into each of them's sack, and in addition to that, to give them food for their journey. Evidently, each of them paid separately for the wheat he took: this is a trait, one of those by which the remote customs of Biblical antiquity are depicted before us.

Having loaded the donkeys with wheat, the sons of Jacob set off on their return journey. At the first camp, one of them, with the intention of feeding the donkey, took off the sack from it, which somehow untied, and saw a bundle of his money in a sack, on top of the wheat. He shouted to his brothers: "My money has been returned to me! Here they are... in my bag." Their hearts were terrified, they were troubled, and said to one another, "What is God doing to us?" And when they came to the land of Canaan, to their father, they told all that had happened to them, saying, "My husband, the lord of the land, has treated us very harshly, and has even put us in prison as spies. We said to him: "No! Sir, we are not spies! We came with a peaceful disposition. We are twelve brethren, we are the sons of our father; one of us... is gone, and the lesser one was with his father, in the land of Canaan." The man, the lord of the earth, answered us: "This will be a proof to me that you are not spies, but people of peaceful disposition: leave one of you here with me; yourselves, having taken the wheat bought for your house, go; but bring your younger brother to me. By this I will know that you are not spies, but people of peace, and then I will give you your brother, who now remains a hostage to me, and you will trade freely in the land of Egypt." When they poured the wheat out of the sacks, each of them had a bundle with his money given for the wheat. When they saw the bundles of their money, they were frightened. Their father saw these bundles and was also afraid. "You," he said to them, "have made me childless! Joseph is gone, Simeon is gone, and do you want to take Benjamin? All these misfortunes have fallen on my head for you." Reuben answered him: "Kill my two sons, if I do not bring Benjamin back to you." The elder answered: "My son will not go with you! His brother died; he is left alone: if evil happens to him on the road on which you are going, then you will bring my old age with sorrow to hell."

The famine intensified, intensified, overcame the land [40]. Jacob's house ran out of wheat brought from Egypt, and the elder said to his sons: "Go down to Egypt again, buy us some bread." Judas answered him: "A man, the lord of the land, has told us, confirming his words with an oath, that we will not see his face unless our younger brother comes with us." Jacob remarked: "Why did you do this evil deed, why did you tell your husband that you have a brother?" He asked: is your father still alive? Do you still have a brother? We answered his questions. Did we know that he would say, "Bring your brother?" Then Judas began to persuade his father: "Let the young man go with me; we will get up, go, and get bread to feed you and ourselves, so that we may not die of hunger. I will take Benjamin upon my responsibility: from my hand you shall demand him. If I do not bring him back and set him before you, let your wrath be against me all my life. If we had not delayed so long, we would have had time to visit Egypt twice." To this the father said: "If so, then do this: take the works here and bring them to that man as a gift. Take frankincense, honey, styraxes and nuts. Take double money, so that you can return the money found in your bags: perhaps they got there due to some misunderstanding. And take your brother. Get ready for the journey and go to your husband. May my God incline the man to mercy, that he may let your brother and Benjamin go. I have completely become childless!"

The sons of Jacob took with them gifts and double money, and went to Egypt. Arriving there, they presented themselves to Joseph. Joseph saw Benjamin, his brother on his mother's side, and his soul was troubled. He called the steward of his house and said to him: "Bring these people to my house and prepare a good dinner: at noon they will dine with me." The steward fulfilled Joseph's command, and led the brothers to his house. Seeing that they were being led to Joseph's house, they said to one another: "We are brought here on account of the money found in our sacks, to slander us, to accuse us, to take us as slaves, and to take possession of our asses." Therefore, at the gate of the house, without entering it, they approached the steward and said to him: "We beseech you, hear us. When we came for the first time to buy bread and, taking our sacks piled up, set off on our way back, at the first camp we untied our sacks and suddenly saw our money, each in his own bag; We have now brought this money back, in weight. And to buy new bread, they brought other money. Who put the silver we gave for the first bread into our sacks, we do not know." "Calm down," replied the steward, "fear nothing. Your God, the God of your fathers, has sent you riches into your sacks. And the money you contributed is listed in my parish and is counted among the received." He brought Simeon to them. Then water was brought, their feet were washed, and the donkeys were given food. They laid out the gifts, and having prepared them, they waited for Joseph to come out by noon.

When Joseph returned to the house, the brothers brought him gifts and bowed their foreheads to the ground. He asked them, "Are you well? Then he added: "Is the elder, your father, about whom you told me, alive?" Is he still alive?" They answered: "Your servant, our father, is still alive and well." "Blessed is this man in the sight of God!" said Joseph. They bowed low to him. Finding Benjamin among them, Joseph asked: "Is this your younger brother, whom you promised to bring to me?" And to their affirmative answer he said: "May God have mercy on you, my child!" his heart beat violently; tears poured from her eyes. He hastily went to his bedroom, where he was satiated with tears; then he washed his face, went out to the brothers and, restraining himself, said: "Offer a meal." It was prepared separately for him, and separately for the sons of Jacob, and separately for the Egyptians, who dined with the nobleman that day. The Egyptians, the Scriptures relate, could not be at the same table with the Hebrews; They, according to their belief, abhorred any shepherd-sheep breeder. The sons of Jacob were seated directly opposite Joseph, according to their years. They were surprised to see themselves seated according to seniority. They were served food, each separately a part of it: Joseph himself laid down the parts, and Benjamin was given more than the rest of the brethren. Wine was also served. The hearts of the sons of Jacob were at ease at a sumptuous and friendly meal. Unaccustomed to embarrassing themselves, the desert shepherds ate their fill, and drank plentifully. This meal prefigured the spiritual meal of Christ the Savior, offered to Christians at the Divine Liturgy. The Lord was pleased to become our brother, He acquired dominion over the world — the mysterious Egypt — and to His brethren, who suffer under the burden of sin, He prepared a table and a reverent sovereign chalice,[41] His Most Holy Body and His Most Holy Blood. Christians, partaking of this Divine Food, partake of eternal life, are freed from sins and, in the ecstasy of spiritual delight, forget the sorrows that oppress them during their wanderings in Egypt – in a foreign country, in the land of exile: this country, full of sorrows and calamities, visible and invisible, is earthly life.

Joseph, meanwhile, gave a secret order to his subordinates [42]: "Fill the sacks of these people with wheat, pour in more, if only they are able to carry them away. Put everyone's money in a bag on top of the wheat. In a sack of lesser things, besides money, put my silver cup." Everything was done by order of Joseph. Morning came: the sons of Jacob set out with donkeys loaded with grain. When they left the city and were not far away, Joseph said to his steward: "Go quickly in pursuit of these people, overtake them, and say, What is this? Have you repaid my good with evil? Why did you steal my silver cup? Is this not the cup from which my lord drinks? and in it he sorcerers." The steward, overtaking them, repeated word for word what Joseph had commanded. They answered: "In vain does the lord say so! No, your servants did not do this. If the money we found in our sacks we brought again from the land of Canaan, why should we steal silver and gold from your master's house? Whoever you find a cup from, let him be executed, and we will give ourselves up as slaves to our master." The steward answered: "Let it be according to your word: whoever has a cup, let him become a slave to my master." They hurriedly took the sacks from the donkeys, and each untied his sack. The steward began to search from the eldest, reached the youngest; the cup was found in Benjamin's bag. In despair, they tore their clothes, put the sacks on the donkeys, and returned to the city. And Joseph was in his house, and they came to him, and fell down before him to the ground. "What did you do? "Did you not know that there is no diviner like me on earth?" We have nothing to answer you, nothing to say, nothing to justify ourselves with! God punishes the secret transgression of your servants. We give ourselves as slaves to our master. Let us be your servants, we and the one who has the cup." "Why should I," said Joseph, "be unjust? Whoever has the cup, let him be my servant, and you go freely to your father." Then Judas came to him and said: "Lord! I beseech thee, let me speak a few words before thee, and be not angry with thy servant: I know that thou art second in Pharaoh. Mister! Thou hast asked thy servants, Have ye a father or a brother? And we said to the master, "We have an aged father and a younger brother, born when the father was already in old age." My mother had two of them: the eldest... Died; this one was left alone, and his father loved him. Thou hast said unto thy servants, Bring him unto me, for I desire to see him. We said to the lord, "It is impossible for a young man to leave his father; If he leaves his father, his father will die. And thou hast said unto thy servants, Except thy younger brother come, ye shall see my face no more. When we came to thy servant our father, we told him the words of our master. Father told us: "Go again, buy bread." We answered: "We can't go! If our younger brother goes with us, then let us go: for without him we will not be allowed before a man." Your servant, our father, said to us: "You know that my wife bore me two. One went from me to you: you said that he was eaten by a beast; from that time until now I have not seen him. If you take this and some evil happens to him, you will bring my old age with sorrow to hell." Therefore, if I go now to your servant our father, and the young man is not with me, for his soul is attached to his soul... This! "And when my father sees that the young man is not with us, he will die." And your servants will bring the old age of your servant our father with sorrow to hell. I, thy servant, took the young man from his father, and said unto him, Unless I bring him unto thee, and set him before thee, let thy wrath be upon me all the days of my life. Let me be your servant instead of a young man... Yes! a slave to the master... And let the young man go with his brothers. How can I go to my father without a young man? I cannot bear the sorrow that will strike my father." Joseph could no longer restrain and conceal himself [43]. He ordered all those present {p. 35} to come out; There was not even one from his retinue and family when he revealed himself to his brothers. Everyone left; then Joseph cried out to his brethren with weeping and wailing, "I am Joseph.. Is my father still alive?" Joseph said to them, "Draw near to me." They approached him. "I am Joseph," he repeated to them, "I am your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. Do not grieve that you sold me here... So that it does not disturb you, does not torment you! God, Who provides for your salvation, has sent me here. This is the second year of famine on the earth, and there are still five years left, in which the land will be ploughed in vain, in which there will be no harvest. God has sent me before you to prepare for you a shelter on earth and to feed our large family. It was not you who sold me here: God sent me hither, and made me as a father to Pharaoh, lord over all his house, and lord of all the land of Egypt. Hasten to return to my father, and say to him, This is what your son Joseph says to you: God has made me lord of Egypt: come to me, do not tarry. Thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen, thou shalt be near me, thou and thy sons, and thy sons' sons, and thy sheep, and thy oxen, and all thy flocks. I will provide you with food, because there will be a famine in the land for another five years. Your eyes see, and the eyes of Benjamin my brother see that I speak these things to you through my mouth. Tell my father all the glory and power that was given to me in Egypt, which you saw with your own eyes. Make haste, bring my father here." He threw himself on the neck of Benjamin, and having embraced him, he wept, and Benjamin embraced him, and wept also. Then with tears he embraced all his brothers. Then their lips, hitherto sealed with fear and perplexity, were opened: they entered into conversation with Joseph.

A rumor reached the house of Pharaoh about the arrival of Joseph's brothers; Pharaoh and his court rejoiced. Pharaoh said to Joseph: "Say to your brethren, 'Do this, fill your sacks with bread, go to the land of Canaan, and take your father, and go to me with all your possessions. The riches of Egypt are open to you." Joseph gave his brothers, each of them, two changes of clothes, and Benjamin five changes and three hundred gold coins. To his father he sent many gifts on ten donkeys, and gave ten mules of bread for the journey. Having thus gifted his brethren, he sent them away; dismissing, he said: "On the way, do not quarrel among yourselves." The free pets of the desert needed such an instruction: of course, now they gave him the weight he deserved, remembered and preserved him.