Genesis 45:5

5 and now, be not grieved, nor let it be displeasing in your eyes that ye sold me hither, for to preserve life hath God sent me before you.

Genesis 45:5 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 45:5

Now therefore be not grieved
To an excess, so as to be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow; otherwise it became them to be grieved for their sin, and to show a godly sorrow and true repentance for it: nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither;
reflect upon themselves, and afflict themselves in an immoderate way; or break forth into anger and wrath with one another, upbraiding and blaming each other for their conduct in that affair, and so foment contentions and quarrels among themselves: for God did send me before you to preserve life;
the life of thousands of persons in Egypt, Canaan, and other countries; and particularly to preserve their lives was he sent before them into Egypt; where, by interpretation Pharaoh's dreams, by which he understood and did foretell the seven years of plenty and seven years of famine, he was to great honour and trust, and laid up a sufficiency of corn in the time of plenty to answer the exigencies of various countries in the time of famine, and, among the rest, of his own family; and therefore would have this attributed by them to the wise disposing providence of God.

Genesis 45:5 In-Context

3 And Joseph saith unto his brethren, `I [am] Joseph, is my father yet alive?' and his brethren have not been able to answer him, for they have been troubled at his presence.

4 And Joseph saith unto his brethren, `Come nigh unto me, I pray you,' and they come nigh; and he saith, `I [am] Joseph, your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt;

5 and now, be not grieved, nor let it be displeasing in your eyes that ye sold me hither, for to preserve life hath God sent me before you.

6 `Because these two years the famine [is] in the heart of the land, and yet [are] five years, [in] which there is neither ploughing nor harvest;

7 and God sendeth me before you, to place of you a remnant in the land, and to give life to you by a great escape;