What does Genesis 45:13 mean?
Joseph is urging his brothers to return to Canaan and bring their father Jacob back to Egypt. He wants them to move the entire family there, under his care, to save them from the famine (Genesis 45:1–12). Now Joseph asks them to tell his father how Joseph is honored in Egypt. Joseph sounds very much like a son who longs for his father to be proud of him. Despite what Jacob has long thought (Genesis 37:31–34), Joseph is not dead. In fact, he has become a great and important man (Genesis 41:44). One can only image how much he longed to show all of his success to his father.The speech to Joseph's brothers concludes with a great sense of urgency. Joseph might have been worried that Jacob, quite old and in much distress, might not survive long enough to see him again.