Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all his attendants, and he cried out, 'Send everyone away from me!' So none of them were with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers. But he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard him, and Pharaoh's household soon heard of it. Joseph said to his brothers, 'I am Joseph! Is my father still alive?' But they were unable to answer him, because they were terrified in his presence. Then Joseph said to his brothers, 'Please come near me.' And they did so. 'I am Joseph, your brother,' he said, 'the one you sold into Egypt! And now, do not be distressed or angry with yourselves that you sold me into this place, because it was to save lives that God sent me before you. For the famine has covered the land these two years, and there will be five more years without plowing or harvesting. God sent me before you to preserve you as a remnant on the earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. Therefore it was not you who sent me here, but God, who has made me a father to Pharaoh—lord of all his household and ruler over all the land of Egypt.'