GENESIS 45
1 Then Joseph could no
longer control himself before all those who stood by him, and he cried out,
"Send everyone away from me." So no one stayed with him when Joseph
made himself known to his brothers.
2 And he wept so loudly that
the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it.
3 Joseph said to his
brothers, "I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?" But his brothers
could not answer him, so dismayed were they at his presence.
4 Then Joseph said to his
brothers, "Come closer to me." And they came closer. He said, "I
am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt.
5 And now do not be
distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me
before you to preserve life.
6 For the famine has been in
the land these two years; and there are five more years in which there will be
neither ploughing nor harvest.
7 God sent me before you to
preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many
survivors.
8 So it was not you who sent
me here, but God; he has made me a father to Pharaoh and lord of all his house
and ruler over all the land of Egypt.
9 Hurry and go up to my
father and say to him, "Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of
all Egypt; come down to me, do not delay.
10 You shall settle in the
land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children and your
children's children, as well as your flocks, your herds, and all that you
have.
11 I will provide for you
there—since there are five more years of famine to come—so that you and your
household, and all that you have, will not come to poverty.'
12 And now your eyes and the
eyes of my brother Benjamin see that it is my own mouth that speaks to
you.
13 You must tell my father
how greatly I am honoured in Egypt, and all that you have seen. Hurry and bring
my father down here."
14Then he fell upon his brother
Benjamin's neck and wept, while Benjamin wept upon his neck.
15 And he kissed all his
brothers and wept upon them; and after that his brothers talked with him.
16 When the report was heard
in Pharaoh's house, "Joseph's brothers have come," Pharaoh and his
servants were pleased.
17 Pharaoh said to Joseph,
"Say to your brothers, "Do this: load your animals and go back to the
land of Canaan.
18 Take your father and your
households and come to me, so that I may give you the best of the land of
Egypt, and you may enjoy the fat of the land.'
19 You are further charged
to say, "Do this: take wagons from the land of Egypt for your little ones
and for your wives, and bring your father, and come.
20 Give no thought to your
possessions, for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours.' "
21 The sons of Israel did
so. Joseph gave them wagons according to the instruction of Pharaoh, and he
gave them provisions for the journey.
22 To each one of them he
gave a set of garments; but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver
and five sets of garments.
23 To his father he sent the
following: ten donkeys loaded with the good things of Egypt, and ten female
donkeys loaded with grain, bread, and provision for his father on the
journey.
24 Then he sent his brothers
on their way, and as they were leaving he said to them, "Do not quarrel
along the way."
25 So they went up out of
Egypt and came to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan.
26 And they told him,
"Joseph is still alive! He is even ruler over all the land of Egypt."
He was stunned; he could not believe them.
27 But when they told him
all the words of Joseph that he had said to them, and when he saw the wagons
that Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of their father Jacob
revived.
28 Israel said,
"Enough! My son Joseph is still alive. I must go and see him before I
die."
GENESIS 46
1 When Israel set out on his
journey with all that he had and came to Beer-Sheba, he offered sacrifices to
the God of his father Isaac.
2 God spoke to Israel in
visions of the night, and said, "Jacob, Jacob." And he said,
"Here I am."
3 Then he said, "I am
God, the God of your father; do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will
make of you a great nation there.
4 I myself will go down with
you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again; and Joseph's own hand shall
close your eyes."
5 Then Jacob set out from
Beer-sheba; and the sons of Israel carried their father Jacob, their little
ones, and their wives, in the wagons that Pharaoh had sent to carry him.
6 They also took their
livestock and the goods that they had acquired in the land of Canaan, and they
came into Egypt, Jacob and all his offspring with him,
7 his sons, and his sons'
sons with him, his daughters, and his sons' daughters; all his offspring he
brought with him into Egypt.
8 Now these are the names of
the Israelites, Jacob and his offspring, who came to Egypt. Reuben, Jacob's
firstborn,
9 and the children of
Reuben: Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi.
10 The children of Simeon:
Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul, the son of a Canaanite woman.
11 The children of Levi:
Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.
12 The children of Judah:
Er, Onan, Shelah, Perez, and Zerah (but Er and Onan died in the land of
Canaan); and the children of Perez were Hezron and Hamul.
13 The children of Issachar:
Tola, Puvah, Jashub, and Shimron.
14 The children of Zebulun:
Sered, Elon, and Jahleel
15 (these are the sons of
Leah, whom she bore to Jacob in Paddan-aram, together with his daughter Dinah;
in all his sons and his daughters numbered thirty-three).
16 The children of Gad:
Ziphion, Haggi, Shuni, Ezbon, Eri, Arodi, and Areli.
17 The children of Asher:
Imnah, Ishvah, Ishvi, Beriah, and their sister Serah. The children of Beriah:
Heber and Malchiel
18 (these are the children
of Zilpah, whom Laban gave to his daughter Leah; and these she bore to
Jacob—sixteen persons).
19 The children of Jacob's
wife Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin.
20 To Joseph in the land of
Egypt were born Manasseh and Ephraim, whom Asenath daughter of Potiphera,
priest of On, bore to him.
21 The children of Benjamin:
Bela, Becher, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ehi, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim, and Ard
22 (these are the children
of Rachel, who were born to Jacob—fourteen persons in all).
23 The children of Dan:
Hashum.
24 The children of Naphtali:
Jahzeel, Guni, Jezer, and Shillem
25 (these are the children
of Bilhah, whom Laban gave to his daughter Rachel, and these she bore to
Jacob—seven persons in all).
26 All the persons belonging
to Jacob who came into Egypt, who were his own offspring, not including the
wives of his sons, were sixty-six persons in all.
27 The children of Joseph,
who were born to him in Egypt, were two; all the persons of the house of Jacob
who came into Egypt were seventy.
28 Israel sent Judah ahead
to Joseph to lead the way before him into Goshen. When they came to the land of
Goshen,
29 Joseph made ready his
chariot and went up to meet his father Israel in Goshen. He presented himself
to him, fell on his neck, and wept on his neck a good while.
30 Israel said to Joseph,
"I can die now, having seen for myself that you are still
alive."
31 Joseph said to his
brothers and to his father's household, "I will go up and tell Pharaoh,
and will say to him, "My brothers and my father's household, who were in
the land of Canaan, have come to me.
32 The men are shepherds,
for they have been keepers of livestock; and they have brought their flocks,
and their herds, and all that they have.'
33 When Pharaoh calls you,
and says, "What is your occupation?'
34 you shall say, "Your
servants have been keepers of livestock from our youth even until now, both we
and our ancestors'—in order that you may settle in the land of Goshen, because
all shepherds are abhorrent to the Egyptians."
GENESIS 47
1 So Joseph went and told
Pharaoh, "My father and my brothers, with their flocks and herds and all
that they possess, have come from the land of Canaan; they are now in the land
of Goshen."
2 From among his brothers he
took five men and presented them to Pharaoh.
3 Pharaoh said to his
brothers, "What is your occupation?" And they said to Pharaoh,
"Your servants are shepherds, as our ancestors were."
4 They said to Pharaoh,
"We have come to reside as aliens in the land; for there is no pasture for
your servants' flocks because the famine is severe in the land of Canaan. Now,
we ask you, let your servants settle in the land of Goshen."
5 Then Pharaoh said to
Joseph, "Your father and your brothers have come to you.
6 The land of Egypt is
before you; settle your father and your brothers in the best part of the land;
let them live in the land of Goshen; and if you know that there are capable men
among them, put them in charge of my livestock."
7 Then Joseph brought in his
father Jacob, and presented him before Pharaoh, and Jacob blessed
Pharaoh.
8 Pharaoh said to Jacob,
"How many are the years of your life?"
9 Jacob said to Pharaoh,
"The years of my earthly sojourn are one hundred thirty; few and hard have
been the years of my life. They do not compare with the years of the life of my
ancestors during their long sojourn."
10 Then Jacob blessed
Pharaoh, and went out from the presence of Pharaoh.
11 Joseph settled his father
and his brothers, and granted them a holding in the land of Egypt, in the best
part of the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had instructed.
12 And Joseph provided his
father, his brothers, and all his father's household with food, according to
the number of their dependents.
13 Now there was no food in
all the land, for the famine was very severe. The land of Egypt and the land of
Canaan languished because of the famine.
14 Joseph collected all the
money to be found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, in exchange
for the grain that they bought; and Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh's
house.
15 When the money from the
land of Egypt and from the land of Canaan was spent, all the Egyptians came to
Joseph, and said, "Give us food! Why should we die before your eyes? For
our money is gone."
16 And Joseph answered,
"Give me your livestock, and I will give you food in exchange for your
livestock, if your money is gone."
17 So they brought their
livestock to Joseph; and Joseph gave them food in exchange for the horses, the
flocks, the herds, and the donkeys. That year he supplied them with food in
exchange for all their livestock.
18 When that year was ended,
they came to him the following year, and said to him, "We cannot hide from
my lord that our money is all spent; and the herds of cattle are my lord's.
There is nothing left in the sight of my lord but our bodies and our
lands.
19 Shall we die before your
eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land in exchange for food. We with
our land will become slaves to Pharaoh; just give us seed, so that we may live
and not die, and that the land may not become desolate."
20 So Joseph bought all the
land of Egypt for Pharaoh. All the Egyptians sold their fields, because the
famine was severe upon them; and the land became Pharaoh's.
21 As for the people, he
made slaves of them from one end of Egypt to the other.
22 Only the land of the
priests he did not buy; for the priests had a fixed allowance from Pharaoh, and
lived on the allowance that Pharaoh gave them; therefore they did not sell
their land.
23 Then Joseph said to the people,
"Now that I have this day bought you and your land for Pharaoh, here is
seed for you; sow the land.
24 And at the harvests you
shall give one-fifth to Pharaoh, and four-fifths shall be your own, as seed for
the field and as food for yourselves and your households, and as food for your
little ones."
25 They said, "You have
saved our lives; may it please my lord, we will be slaves to Pharaoh."
26 So Joseph made it a
statute concerning the land of Egypt and it stands to this day, that Pharaoh
should have the fifth. The land of the priests alone did not become
Pharaoh's.
27 Thus Israel settled in
the land of Egypt, in the region of Goshen; and they gained possessions in it,
and were fruitful and multiplied exceedingly.
28 Jacob lived in the land
of Egypt seventeen years; so the days of Jacob, the years of his life, were one
hundred forty-seven years.
29 When the time of Israel's
death drew near, he called his son Joseph and said to him, "If I have
found favour with you, put your hand under my thigh and promise to deal loyally
and truly with me. Do not bury me in Egypt.
30 When I lie down with my
ancestors, carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burial place." He
answered, "I will do as you have said."
31 And he said, "Swear
to me"; and he swore to him. Then Israel bowed himself on the head of his
bed.
No comments:
Post a Comment