God's Good Purposes
15
When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, "It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him."
16
So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, "Your father gave this command before he died,
17
'Say to Joseph, Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you.' And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of f the God of your father." Joseph wept when they spoke to him.
18
His brothers also came and g fell down before him and said, "Behold, we are your servants."
19
But Joseph said to them, "Do not fear, for h am I in the place of God?
20
As for you, you meant evil against me, but i God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.
21
So do not fear; j I will provide for you and your little ones." Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.
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Cross References
Genesis 49:25
By the God of your father who will help you, by the Almighty who will bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that crouches beneath, blessings of the breasts and of the womb.
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Cross References
Genesis 37:7
Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright. And behold, your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf.
Genesis 37:10
But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him and said to him, "What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves to the ground before you?
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Cross References
Genesis 30:2
Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel, and he said, "Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?
2 Kings 5:7
And when the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, "Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Only consider, and see how he is seeking a quarrel with me.
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Cross References
Genesis 45:5
And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life.
Genesis 45:7
And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors.
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Cross References
Genesis 45:11
There I will provide for you, for there are yet five years of famine to come, so that you and your household, and all that you have, do not come to poverty.
Genesis 47:12
And Joseph provided his father, his brothers, and all his father's household with food, according to the number of their dependents.
English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.