When the news reaches the palace, Pharaoh is delighted — and the Targum hears the reason under the delight.
"A voice was heard in the royal house of Pharaoh, saying, The brothers of Joseph are come. And the thing was pleasing in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of his servants" (Genesis 45:16). Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves the palace report. The Aramaic shapir be-einei Pharoh — good in Pharaoh's eyes — does work the Hebrew alone does not quite do.
Why is Pharaoh so pleased? Not merely because his vizier's family has arrived. The midrash on this verse suggests a darker subtext. Egypt's court had always wondered about Joseph's past. He had been sold out of a caravan. He had sat in prison. Was he really a prince, or was he some runaway slave with an improbable story?
Now eleven weathered, bearded brothers arrive from Canaan and confirm, in public, that Joseph is the son of a wealthy patriarch, the grandson of Isaac and great-grandson of Abraham. Pharaoh is relieved. His second-in-command is who he said he was. The embarrassment of a slave rising to the throne is lifted.
The Targum and Pharaoh find different things good about the same event. The Torah quietly allows both. Joseph is restored to his family. Pharaoh is restored to his dignity. The house of Jacob is about to be restored to food and shelter. Even kings, in the tradition, can be glad for the right reasons at the right moments, even if their reasons are shallower than the reasons of the righteous.
It will not last. Another Pharaoh "who knew not Joseph" (Exodus 1:8) will arise. But today, at this moment, the palace rejoices, and the brothers of Joseph are welcomed in.