To make a long story short, the famine came and the whole world1 was starving to death, including Israel and his household. So Israel sent his sons down to Egypt to buy some food.
The brothers ended up in front of Joseph but didn’t recognize him. After all, it had been almost 20 years and Joseph was all dressed up like Pharaoh. Why some foreigners looking to buy a little grain would end up in front of the second-most powerful guy in the country seems strange, but let’s not quibble.
After tormenting them awhile, Joseph finally relented and made himself known. The brothers liked to have shit themselves but Joseph put them at ease. No hard feelings. After all, if they hadn’t sold him into slavery he never would have been able to save the world. So it all worked out, right?
Joseph told them to go get dad and bring him and all his household to Egypt. Pharaoh was into it and said his father and his entire household could live in the best part of the country and enjoy the fruits of the land.
That’s the short version of how the Israelites ended up in Egypt.
Next time we’ll see how they got out.
1] In the Old Testament, the Middle East is basically the whole world