It’s a Southern expression to evince surprise, the kind Jacob’s sons felt at meeting Joseph!
Having been reunited with his long-alienated brethren, Joseph says there will be another five years of famine. Why not retrieve their old father, Jacob, and bring the whole family to Egypt? Sheep herding was a despised occupation there, so with his sweeping authority, Joseph ceded the Land of Goshen to them. Some of the richest grassland anywhere, it occupies the southeastern part of the fertile Nile Delta. Joseph continues, “You shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt, and of all that you have seen; and you shall hurry and bring my father down here” (Gen 45:13). Interesting, isn’t it? In chapter 42, when Jacob intoned, “All these things are against me” (v 36), things were never more FOR Jacob than they were then. He didn’t know it yet, but God was moving heaven and earth to bring about His plan. Christian, do you know you’re a vital part of God’s plan? He is working for you at this very moment! Don’t lose heart; look up! Well, anyway, Pharaoh was pleased with the news, and told Joseph to provide them donkeys, carts, clothes, money, bread, and grain. Imagine Jacob seeing his boys return, no doubt with some whooping and hollering included! Listen: “They told him, saying, ‘Joseph is still alive, and he is governor over all the land of Egypt.’ And Jacob’s heart stood still, because he did not believe them” (45:26). It didn’t take them long to pack, and soon they headed south. At Beersheba, the southernmost town in Canaan, they paused to offer a sacrifice of gratitude to the Lord, and that night God spoke to Jacob for the seventh and final recorded time, saying, “I will go down with you to Egypt” (46:4), promising that the nation to come would eventually be led back to the Promised Land. And so into Goshen they came!