Genesis 41:51

Manasseh. Literally, “causing to forget.” This name Joseph gave his first-born in gratitude that God had caused him to forget his former state of servitude and the intense longing he had felt for his father’s home. He was grateful that God had built him a home, though it be in the land of his exile. Erstwhile misery could not embitter his present state of happiness, for adversity had been transformed into prosperity.

The question has been asked, Why did not Joseph, upon reaching so exalted a position, communicate at once with his father? Had he really forgotten his father’s affections, and did he feel no obligation to let the aged man know that he was still alive? That he had not actually ceased to care is clear not alone from the tender meeting with his brothers and his father, soon to be described, but also from the statement he made at the birth of Ephraim, characterizing Egypt as the land of his affliction. That he did not at once declare his parentage and send a message home to Canaan may be attributed to hesitation to reveal to his father the wickedness of which his brothers had been guilty, or perhaps a divine impulse warning him that the time for disclosing the fact had not yet arrived. At all events, Joseph’s conduct in this matter reveals nothing inconsistent with the piety so conspicuously permeating his life. If God chose to place him in Egypt, in Egypt he would remain.