Genesis 45:3

I am Joseph. The effect of this announcement is easier to imagine than to describe. Hitherto Joseph had been known to his brothers as Zaphnath-paaneah, a man who spoke to them through an interpreter (ch. 42:23). Now this august lord of Egypt suddenly spoke to them in their own language. The voice and the likeness of their long-lost brother rushed upon their minds at the sound of the familiar name and filled them with amazement and apprehension.

Doth my father yet live? Perhaps Joseph was impelled to ask this question so abruptly upon seeing alarm in their faces. Now he no longer refers to Jacob as the “old man of whom ye spake” (ch. 43:27), but as his own beloved and revered father. That he was still living, Joseph had not only been informed previously (ch. 43:27, 28), but had just been told again (ch. 44:34). His heart yearned to hear more of his father.

They were troubled. This new turn in events was too much; the men were speechless. They were terrified, not only because of Joseph’s greatness, but by the recollection of their former crime against him. So far, they had been conscious only of divine retribution for that act, and had not feared human punishment, inasmuch as their crime was not known to anyone outside of their own small circle. Now, however, they stood in the presence of the one whom they had so deeply wronged. Little wonder that they cringed in alarm before him, thinking that now the hour of recompense for the deeds of Dothan had arrived.