Joseph cried, “Clear out everyone around me!” And no man stood with him when he made himself known to his brothers. Why did Joseph send everyone out of the room? Often it’s thought that he did so to protect himself: he did not want everyone to see him cry. Ramban argues that he did so to protect his brothers. Joseph worried that if people knew the sort of men his brothers were, they would never permit them to immigrate to Egypt. The internal dispute – airing their dirty laundry publicly – could only hurt the brothers and so Joseph sends everyone out of the room to guarantee his family’s emigration to Egypt.