Genesis 45:4

4 Yosef said to his brothers, "Come near to me, please." They came near. "He said, I am Yosef, your brother, whom you sold into Mitzrayim.

Genesis 45:4 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 45:4

And Joseph said unto his brethren, come near to me, I pray
you
Very probably Joseph sat in a chair of state while they were under examination, and through reverence of him they kept at a proper distance; or being frightened at what he had said, he might observe them drawing back, as Jarchi remarks, and so encourages them in a kind and tender manner to return and come nearer to him, and the rather, that they might more privately converse together without being overheard; as also that they might, by approaching him discern and call to mind some of his features still remaining, by which they might be assured he was Joseph indeed: and they came near, and he said, I [am] Joseph your brother;
not only his name was Joseph, but he was that Joseph that was their brother; he claims and owns the relation between them, which must be very affecting to them, who had used him so unkindly: whom ye sold into Egypt:
which is added, not so much to put them in mind of and upbraid them with their sin, but to assure them that he was really their brother Joseph; which he could not have related had he not been he, as well as to lead on to what he had further to say to them for their comfort.

Genesis 45:4 In-Context

2 He wept aloud. The Mitzrim heard, and the house of Par`oh heard.

3 Yosef said to his brothers, "I am Yosef! Does my father still live?" His brothers couldn't answer him; for they were terrified at his presence.

4 Yosef said to his brothers, "Come near to me, please." They came near. "He said, I am Yosef, your brother, whom you sold into Mitzrayim.

5 Now don't be grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life.

6 For these two years has the famine been in the land, and there are yet five years, in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest.