Genesis 46:31

31 Yosef said to his brothers and his father's family, "I'm going up to tell Pharaoh. I'll say to him, 'My brothers and my father's family, who were in the land of Kena'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 prepared his chariot and went up to Goshen to meet Isra'el his father. He presented himself to him, embraced him and wept on his neck for a long time.

30 Then Isra'el said to Yosef, "Now I can die, because I have seen your face and seen that you are still alive."

31 Yosef said to his brothers and his father's family, "I'm going up to tell Pharaoh. I'll say to him, 'My brothers and my father's family, who were in the land of Kena'an, have come to me.

32 The men are shepherds and keepers of livestock; they have brought their flocks, their herds and all their possessions.'

33 Now when Pharaoh summons you and asks, 'What is your occupation?'