Josephus, Antiquitatum, rehearseth more piteously, and saith moreover
that the cause why he did do hide the cup in Benjamin's sack, was to
know whether they loved Benjamin or hated him as they did him, what time
they sold him to the Ishmaelites.

Then this request made, Joseph might no longer forbear, but commanded
them that stood by to withdraw them, and when all men were gone out sauf
he and his brethren, he began to say to them weeping: I am Joseph your
brother, liveth yet my father? The brethren were so afeard that they
could not speak ne answer to him. Then he debonairly said to them: Come
hither to me; and when they came near him he said: I am Joseph your
brother that ye sold into Egypt; be ye not afeard nor think not hard
unto you that ye sold me into these regions. God hath sent me tofore you
into Egypt for your health. It is two years since the famine began, and
yet been five years to come in which men may not ear, sow, ne reap. God
hath sent me tofore you that ye should be reserved on the earth, and
that ye may have meat to live by. It is not by your counsel that I was
sent hither, but by the will of God, which hath ordained me father of
Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and prince in all the land of Egypt.
Hie you, and go to my father, and say ye to him: This word sendeth thee
thy son Joseph: God hath made me lord of the universal land of Egypt,
come to me lest thou die, and thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen.
Thou shalt be next me, thou and thy sons and the sons of thy sons, and I
shall feed thy sheep, thy beasts and all that thou hast in possession.
Yet rest five year to come of famine, therefore come lest thou perish,
thy house, and all that thou owest. Lo! your eyes and the eyes of my
brother Benjamin see that my mouth speaketh these words to you. Show ye
to my father all my glory and all that ye have seen in Egypt. Hie ye and
bring him to me. This said, he embraced his brother Benjamin about his
neck and wept upon each of them. After this they durst better speak to