Genesis 46:31

31 Yosef said to his brothers, and to his father's house, "I will go up, and speak with Par`oh, and will tell him, 'My brothers, and my father's house, who were in the land of Kana`an, have come to me.

Genesis 46:31 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 46:31

And Joseph said unto his brethren, and to his father's house,
&c.] To them and their families, after he had paid his filial respects to his father, in honour, reverence, and affection:

I will go up and shew Pharaoh;
acquaint him that his father and all his family were come to Egypt; he says, "I will go up"; which same phrase is used of him, ( Genesis 46:29 ) ; when he came, and carries some difficulty in it how to account for it, that he should be said to go up when he came, and to go up when he returned. Some have thought of upper Egypt, others of the upper part of the Nile, and others, that Pharaoh's palace was situated on an eminence; but then, as it is to be supposed he went the same road he came, it would have been said, that when he came, he came down; what Ben Melech suggests seems most agreeable, I will go up to my chariot, mount that, and return to Pharaoh, and give him an account of his father's arrival, which it was very proper, prudent, and politic to do:

and say unto him, my brethren, and my father's house, which [were] in
the land of Canaan, are come unto me;
not merely to pay him a visit, but to continue there.

Genesis 46:31 In-Context

29 Yosef made ready his chariot, and went up to meet Yisra'el, his father, in Goshen. He presented himself to him, and fell on his neck, and wept on his neck a good while.

30 Yisra'el said to Yosef, "Now let me die, since I have seen your face, that you are still alive."

31 Yosef said to his brothers, and to his father's house, "I will go up, and speak with Par`oh, and will tell him, 'My brothers, and my father's house, who were in the land of Kana`an, have come to me.

32 These men are shepherds, for they have been keepers of cattle, and they have brought their flocks, and their herds, and all that they have.'

33 It will happen, when Par`oh summons you, and will say, 'What is your occupation?'