Commentaire sur La Genèse 46:31

'ואמרה אליו אחי וגו AND I WILL SAY TO HIM— “MY BRETHREN … have come unto me” and further I will say to him, והאנשים רעי צאן 'וגו AND THE MEN ARE SHEPHERDS etc.

אעלה ואגידה, that your vocation is the raising of sheep and goats. I will not ask Pharaoh to give you the land of Goshen. The reason I will not ask for this is to make sure that he will believe you when you say that you raise sheep. i.e. that basically, you are nomads. If I were to mention the land of Goshen he would think that you ask for this because it is good grazing land.

ויאמר יוסף אל אחיו, there can be no question that he did not say what follows before first having secured his father’s consent. [What was under discussion was a matter of major importance, i.e. how to preserve the integrity of Yaakov’s family as a clan, and how to minimize assimilation with the local population through voluntary ghettoisation. Pharaoh’s offer of the brothers participating in the political life of Egypt, something Joseph anticipated, had to be declined without giving offence to him. Ed.] The reason the Torah only mentions Joseph speaking to the brothers was that it was the brothers to whom the above-mentioned offer would be made.