Literary Devices – Bereshit 45

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Clothes are an important symbol in the Yosef story, with their bestowal and removal perhaps reflecting a change in status. In Chapter 37, Yosef is given a coat that represents Yaakov’s love, but his brothers later strip him of it and use it to deceive Yaakov. Yosef later again loses his clothes when Potiphar’s wife pulls them off of him. He is given new clothes when he is taken from prison to appear before Paroh, and again when he becomes Paroh’s viceroy. In our chapter, gives gifts of clothing to his brothers.

Articles – For analysis of the meaning of clothing in the Yosef story, see Joseph and the Imagery of Clothing by Samuel Borodach, who suggests that in these stories clothing might reflect not just a change in status but also a change in character.

Tanakh Lab demonstrates that the most frequently occurring words in Bereshit 45 are “brother” (appearing 12 times) and "father" (appearing11 times), which underscore the theme of the family's reunion.¹

Tanakh is artful in identifying people by their relationships to others in the story.

The verses in which Yosef reveals his identity to his brothers (45:1,3), in a first step toward reconciliation with them, is the first time that they are identified as “his brothers” since they first encountered him in Egypt in Chapter 42. They are repeatedly referred to in this manner in the continuation of the chapter (45:4,15, 16, and 17) underscoring the incredible fact of the reunification of the family.²