Bible in 90 Days Plan

¹Now the famine in the land was severe.

²When they had used up the grain they had brought back from Egypt, their father said to them, “Go back and buy us a little food.”

³But Judah said to him, “The man specifically warned us: ‘You will not see me again unless your brother is with you.’

⁴If you will send our brother with us, we will go down and buy food for you.

⁵But if you will not send him, we will not go, for the man said to us, ‘You will not see me again unless your brother is with you.’”

⁶“Why have you caused me so much trouble?” Israel asked. “Why did you tell the man that you had another brother?”

⁷They answered, “The man kept asking about us and our family: ‘Is your father still alive? Do you have another brother?’ And we answered him accordingly. How could we know that he would say, ‘Bring your brother here’?”

⁸Then Judah said to his father Israel, “Send the boy with me. We will be on our way so that we may live and not die — neither we, nor you, nor our dependents.

⁹I will be responsible for him. You can hold me personally accountable! If I do not bring him back to you and set him before you, I will be guilty before you forever.

¹⁰If we had not delayed, we could have come back twice by now.”

¹¹Then their father Israel said to them, “If it must be so, then do this: Put some of the best products of the land in your packs and take them down to the man as a gift — a little balsam and a little honey, aromatic gum and resin, pistachios and almonds.

¹²Take twice as much silver with you. Return the silver that was returned to you in the top of your bags. Perhaps it was a mistake.

¹³Take your brother also, and go back at once to the man.

¹⁴May God Almighty cause the man to be merciful to you so that he will release your other brother and Benjamin to you. As for me, if I am deprived of my sons, then I am deprived.”

¹⁵The men took this gift, double the amount of silver, and Benjamin. They immediately went down to Egypt and stood before Joseph.

¹⁶When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to his steward, “Take the men to my house. Slaughter an animal and prepare it, for they will eat with me at noon.”

¹⁷The man did as Joseph had said and brought them to Joseph’s house.

¹⁸But the men were afraid because they were taken to Joseph’s house. They said, “We have been brought here because of the silver that was returned in our bags the first time. They intend to overpower us, seize us, make us slaves, and take our donkeys.”

¹⁹So they approached Joseph’s steward and spoke to him at the doorway of the house.

²⁰They said, “My lord, we really did come down here the first time only to buy food.

²¹When we came to the place where we lodged for the night and opened our bags of grain, each one’s silver was at the top of his bag! It was the full amount of our silver, and we have brought it back with us.

²²We have brought additional silver with us to buy food. We don’t know who put our silver in the bags.”

²³Then the steward said, “May you be well. Don’t be afraid. Your God and the God of your father must have put treasure in your bags. I received your silver.” Then he brought Simeon out to them.

²⁴The steward brought the men into Joseph’s house, gave them water to wash their feet, and got feed for their donkeys.

²⁵Since the men had heard that they were going to eat a meal there, they prepared their gift for Joseph’s arrival at noon.

²⁶When Joseph came home, they brought him the gift they had carried into the house, and they bowed to the ground before him.

²⁷He asked if they were well, and he said, “How is your elderly father that you told me about? Is he still alive?”

²⁸They answered, “Your servant our father is well. He is still alive.” And they knelt low and paid homage to him.

²⁹When he looked up and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother’s son, he asked, “Is this your youngest brother that you told me about?” Then he said, “May God be gracious to you, my son.”

³⁰Joseph hurried out because he was overcome with emotion for his brother, and he was about to weep. He went into an inner room and wept there.

³¹Then he washed his face and came out. Regaining his composure, he said, “Serve the meal.”

³²They served him by himself, his brothers by themselves, and the Egyptians who were eating with him by themselves, because Egyptians could not eat with Hebrews, since that is detestable to them.

³³They were seated before him in order by age, from the firstborn to the youngest. The men looked at each other in astonishment.

³⁴Portions were served to them from Joseph’s table, and Benjamin’s portion was five times larger than any of theirs. They drank and became drunk with Joseph.

¹Joseph commanded his steward, “Fill the men’s bags with as much food as they can carry, and put each one’s silver at the top of his bag.

²Put my cup, the silver one, at the top of the youngest one’s bag, along with the silver for his grain.” So he did as Joseph told him.

³At morning light, the men were sent off with their donkeys.

⁴They had not gone very far from the city when Joseph said to his steward, “Get up. Pursue the men, and when you overtake them, say to them, ‘Why have you repaid evil for good?

⁵Isn’t this the cup that my master drinks from and uses for divination? What you have done is wrong! ’”

⁶When he overtook them, he said these words to them.

⁷They said to him, “Why does my lord say these things? Your servants could not possibly do such a thing.

⁸We even brought back to you from the land of Canaan the silver we found at the top of our bags. How could we steal silver or gold from your master’s house?

⁹If it is found with one of us, your servants, he must die, and the rest of us will become my lord’s slaves.”

¹⁰The steward replied, “What you have said is right, but only the one who is found to have it will be my slave, and the rest of you will be blameless.”

¹¹So each one quickly lowered his sack to the ground and opened it.

¹²The steward searched, beginning with the oldest and ending with the youngest, and the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack.

¹³Then they tore their clothes, and each one loaded his donkey and returned to the city.

¹⁴When Judah and his brothers reached Joseph’s house, he was still there. They fell to the ground before him.

¹⁵“What is this you have done?” Joseph said to them. “Didn’t you know that a man like me could uncover the truth by divination?”

¹⁶“What can we say to my lord?” Judah replied. “How can we plead? How can we justify ourselves? God has exposed your servants’ iniquity. We are now my lord’s slaves — both we and the one in whose possession the cup was found.”

¹⁷Then Joseph said, “I swear that I will not do this. The man in whose possession the cup was found will be my slave. The rest of you can go in peace to your father.”

¹⁸But Judah approached him and said, “My lord, please let your servant speak personally to my lord. Do not be angry with your servant, for you are like Pharaoh.

¹⁹My lord asked his servants, ‘Do you have a father or a brother?’

²⁰and we answered my lord, ‘We have an elderly father and a younger brother, the child of his old age. The boy’s brother is dead. He is the only one of his mother’s sons left, and his father loves him.’

²¹Then you said to your servants, ‘Bring him to me so that I can see him.’

²²But we said to my lord, ‘The boy cannot leave his father. If he were to leave, his father would die.’

²³Then you said to your servants, ‘If your younger brother does not come down with you, you will not see me again.’

²⁴“This is what happened when we went back to your servant my father: We reported to him the words of my lord.

²⁵But our father said, ‘Go again, and buy us a little food.’

²⁶We told him, ‘We cannot go down unless our younger brother goes with us. If our younger brother isn’t with us, we cannot see the man.’

²⁷Your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons.

²⁸One is gone from me — I said he must have been torn to pieces — and I have never seen him again.

²⁹If you also take this one from me and anything happens to him, you will bring my gray hairs down to Sheol in sorrow.’

³⁰“So if I come to your servant my father and the boy is not with us — his life is wrapped up with the boy’s life —

³¹when he sees that the boy is not with us, he will die. Then your servants will have brought the gray hairs of your servant our father down to Sheol in sorrow.

³²Your servant became accountable to my father for the boy, saying, ‘If I do not return him to you, I will always bear the guilt for sinning against you, my father.’

³³Now please let your servant remain here as my lord’s slave, in place of the boy. Let him go back with his brothers.

³⁴For how can I go back to my father without the boy? I could not bear to see the grief that would overwhelm my father.”

¹Joseph could no longer keep his composure in front of all his attendants, so he called out, “Send everyone away from me!” No one was with him when he revealed his identity to his brothers.

²But he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it, and also Pharaoh’s household heard it.

³Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! Is my father still living?” But they could not answer him because they were terrified in his presence.

⁴Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Please, come near me,” and they came near. “I am Joseph, your brother,” he said, “the one you sold into Egypt.

⁵And now don’t be grieved or angry with yourselves for selling me here, because God sent me ahead of you to preserve life.

⁶For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there will be five more years without plowing or harvesting.

⁷God sent me ahead of you to establish you as a remnant within the land and to keep you alive by a great deliverance.

⁸Therefore it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household, and ruler over all the land of Egypt.

⁹“Return quickly to my father and say to him, ‘This is what your son Joseph says: “God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me without delay.

¹⁰You can settle in the land of Goshen and be near me — you, your children, and your grandchildren, your flocks, your herds, and all you have.

¹¹There I will sustain you, for there will be five more years of famine. Otherwise, you, your household, and everything you have will become destitute.”’

¹²Look! Your eyes and the eyes of my brother Benjamin can see that I’m the one speaking to you.

¹³Tell my father about all my glory in Egypt and about all you have seen. And bring my father here quickly.”

¹⁴Then Joseph threw his arms around his brother Benjamin and wept, and Benjamin wept on his shoulder.

¹⁵Joseph kissed each of his brothers as he wept, and afterward his brothers talked with him.

¹⁶When the news reached Pharaoh’s palace, “Joseph’s brothers have come,” Pharaoh and his servants were pleased.

¹⁷Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Tell your brothers, ‘Do this: Load your animals and go on back to the land of Canaan.

¹⁸Get your father and your families, and come back to me. I will give you the best of the land of Egypt, and you can eat from the richness of the land.’

¹⁹You are also commanded to tell them, ‘Do this: Take wagons from the land of Egypt for your dependents and your wives and bring your father here.

²⁰Do not be concerned about your belongings, for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours.’”

²¹The sons of Israel did this. Joseph gave them wagons as Pharaoh had commanded, and he gave them provisions for the journey.

²²He gave each of the brothers changes of clothes, but he gave Benjamin three hundred pieces of silver and five changes of clothes.

²³He sent his father the following: ten donkeys carrying the best products of Egypt and ten female donkeys carrying grain, food, and provisions for his father on the journey.

²⁴So Joseph sent his brothers on their way, and as they were leaving, he said to them, “Don’t argue on the way.”

²⁵So they went up from Egypt and came to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan.

²⁶They said, “Joseph is still alive, and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt!” Jacob was stunned, for he did not believe them.

²⁷But when they told Jacob all that Joseph had said to them, and when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to transport him, the spirit of their father Jacob revived.

²⁸Then Israel said, “Enough! My son Joseph is still alive. I will go to see him before I die.”

¹Israel set out with all that he had and came to Beer-sheba, and he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac.

²That night God spoke to Israel in a vision: “Jacob, Jacob!” he said. And Jacob replied, “Here I am.”

³God said, “I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there.

⁴I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you back. Joseph will close your eyes when you die.”

⁵Jacob left Beer-sheba. The sons of Israel took their father Jacob in the wagons Pharaoh had sent to carry him, along with their dependents and their wives.

⁶They also took their cattle and possessions they had acquired in the land of Canaan. Then Jacob and all his offspring with him came to Egypt.

⁷His sons and grandsons, his daughters and granddaughters, indeed all his offspring, he brought with him to Egypt.

⁸These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt  — Jacob and his sons: Jacob’s firstborn: Reuben.

⁹Reuben’s sons: Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi.

¹⁰Simeon’s sons: Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul, the son of a Canaanite woman.

¹¹Levi’s sons: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

¹²Judah’s sons: Er, Onan, Shelah, Perez, and Zerah; but Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan. The sons of Perez were Hezron and Hamul.

¹³Issachar’s sons: Tola, Puvah, Jashub, and Shimron.

¹⁴Zebulun’s sons: Sered, Elon, and Jahleel.

¹⁵These were Leah’s sons born to Jacob in Paddan-aram, as well as his daughter Dinah. The total number of persons: thirty-three.

¹⁶Gad’s sons: Ziphion, Haggi, Shuni, Ezbon, Eri, Arodi, and Areli.

¹⁷Asher’s sons: Imnah, Ishvah, Ishvi, Beriah, and their sister Serah. Beriah’s sons were Heber and Malchiel.

¹⁸These were the sons of Zilpah — whom Laban gave to his daughter Leah — that she bore to Jacob: sixteen persons.

¹⁹The sons of Jacob’s wife Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin.

²⁰Manasseh and Ephraim were born to Joseph in the land of Egypt. They were born to him by Asenath daughter of Potiphera, a priest at On.

²¹Benjamin’s sons: Bela, Becher, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ehi, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim, and Ard.

²²These were Rachel’s sons who were born to Jacob: fourteen persons.

²³Dan’s son: Hushim.

²⁴Naphtali’s sons: Jahzeel, Guni, Jezer, and Shillem.

²⁵These were the sons of Bilhah, whom Laban gave to his daughter Rachel. She bore to Jacob: seven persons.

²⁶The total number of persons belonging to Jacob — his direct descendants, not including the wives of Jacob’s sons — who came to Egypt: sixty-six.

²⁷And Joseph’s sons who were born to him in Egypt: two persons. All those of Jacob’s household who came to Egypt: seventy persons.

²⁸Now Jacob had sent Judah ahead of him to Joseph to prepare for his arrival at Goshen. When they came to the land of Goshen,

²⁹Joseph hitched the horses to his chariot and went up to Goshen to meet his father Israel. Joseph presented himself to him, threw his arms around him, and wept for a long time.

³⁰Then Israel said to Joseph, “I’m ready to die now because I have seen your face and you are still alive!”

³¹Joseph said to his brothers and to his father’s family, “I will go up and inform Pharaoh, telling him, ‘My brothers and my father’s family, who were in the land of Canaan, have come to me.

³²The men are shepherds; they also raise livestock. They have brought their flocks and herds and all that they have.’

³³When Pharaoh addresses you and asks, ‘What is your occupation?’

³⁴you are to say, ‘Your servants, both we and our fathers, have raised livestock from our youth until now.’ Then you will be allowed to settle in the land of Goshen, since all shepherds are detestable to Egyptians.”

¹So Joseph went and informed Pharaoh: “My father and my brothers, with their flocks and herds and all that they own, have come from the land of Canaan and are now in the land of Goshen.”

²He took five of his brothers and presented them to Pharaoh.

³And Pharaoh asked his brothers, “What is your occupation?” They said to Pharaoh, “Your servants, both we and our fathers, are shepherds.”

⁴And they said to Pharaoh, “We have come to stay in the land for a while because there is no grazing land for your servants’ sheep, since the famine in the land of Canaan has been severe. So now, please let your servants settle in the land of Goshen.”

⁵Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Now that your father and brothers have come to you,

⁶the land of Egypt is open before you; settle your father and brothers in the best part of the land. They can live in the land of Goshen. If you know of any capable men among them, put them in charge of my livestock.”

⁷Joseph then brought his father Jacob and presented him to Pharaoh, and Jacob blessed Pharaoh.

⁸Pharaoh said to Jacob, “How many years have you lived?”

⁹Jacob said to Pharaoh, “My pilgrimage has lasted 130 years. My years have been few and hard, and they have not reached the years of my fathers during their pilgrimages.”

¹⁰So Jacob blessed Pharaoh and departed from Pharaoh’s presence.

¹¹Then Joseph settled his father and brothers in the land of Egypt and gave them property in the best part of the land, the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded.

¹²And Joseph provided his father, his brothers, and all his father’s family with food for their dependents.

¹³But there was no food in the entire region, for the famine was very severe. The land of Egypt and the land of Canaan were exhausted by the famine.

¹⁴Joseph collected all the silver to be found in the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan in exchange for the grain they were purchasing, and he brought the silver to Pharaoh’s palace.

¹⁵When the silver from the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan was gone, all the Egyptians came to Joseph and said, “Give us food. Why should we die here in front of you? The silver is gone!”

¹⁶But Joseph said, “Give me your livestock. Since the silver is gone, I will give you food in exchange for your livestock.”

¹⁷So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and he gave them food in exchange for the horses, the flocks of sheep, the herds of cattle, and the donkeys. That year he provided them with food in exchange for all their livestock.

¹⁸When that year was over, they came the next year and said to him, “We cannot hide from our lord that the silver is gone and that all our livestock belongs to our lord. There is nothing left for our lord except our bodies and our land.

¹⁹Why should we die here in front of you — both us and our land? Buy us and our land in exchange for food. Then we with our land will become Pharaoh’s slaves. Give us seed so that we can live and not die, and so that the land won’t become desolate.”

²⁰In this way, Joseph acquired all the land in Egypt for Pharaoh, because every Egyptian sold his field since the famine was so severe for them. The land became Pharaoh’s,

²¹and Joseph moved the people to the cities from one end of Egypt to the other.

²²The only land he did not acquire belonged to the priests, for they had an allowance from Pharaoh. They ate from their allowance that Pharaoh gave them; therefore they did not sell their land.

²³Joseph said to the people, “Understand today that I have acquired you and your land for Pharaoh. Here is seed for you. Sow it in the land.

²⁴At harvest, you are to give a fifth of it to Pharaoh, and four-fifths will be yours as seed for the field and as food for yourselves, your households, and your dependents.”

²⁵“You have saved our lives,” they said. “We have found favor with our lord and will be Pharaoh’s slaves.”

²⁶So Joseph made it a law, still in effect today in the land of Egypt, that a fifth of the produce belongs to Pharaoh. Only the priests’ land does not belong to Pharaoh.

²⁷Israel settled in the land of Egypt, in the region of Goshen. They acquired property in it and became fruitful and very numerous.

²⁸Now Jacob lived in the land of Egypt 17 years, and his life span was 147 years.

²⁹When the time approached for him to die, he called his son Joseph and said to him, “If I have found favor with you, put your hand under my thigh and promise me that you will deal with me in kindness and faithfulness. Do not bury me in Egypt.

³⁰When I rest with my fathers, carry me away from Egypt and bury me in their burial place.” Joseph answered, “I will do what you have asked.”

³¹And Jacob said, “Swear to me.” So Joseph swore to him. Then Israel bowed in thanks at the head of his bed.

¹Some time after this, Joseph was told, “Your father is weaker.” So he set out with his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.

²When Jacob was told, “Your son Joseph has come to you,” Israel summoned his strength and sat up in bed.

³Jacob said to Joseph, “God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me.

⁴He said to me, ‘I will make you fruitful and numerous; I will make many nations come from you, and I will give this land as a permanent possession to your future descendants.’

⁵Your two sons born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt are now mine. Ephraim and Manasseh belong to me just as Reuben and Simeon do.

⁶Children born to you after them will be yours and will be recorded under the names of their brothers with regard to their inheritance.

⁷When I was returning from Paddan, to my sorrow Rachel died along the way, some distance from Ephrath in the land of Canaan. I buried her there along the way to Ephrath” (that is, Bethlehem).

⁸When Israel saw Joseph’s sons, he said, “Who are these?”

⁹And Joseph said to his father, “They are my sons God has given me here.” So Israel said, “Bring them to me and I will bless them.”

¹⁰Now his eyesight was poor because of old age; he could hardly see. Joseph brought them to him, and he kissed and embraced them.

¹¹Israel said to Joseph, “I never expected to see your face again, but now God has even let me see your offspring.”

¹²Then Joseph took them from his father’s knees and bowed with his face to the ground.

¹³Then Joseph took them both — with his right hand Ephraim toward Israel’s left, and with his left hand Manasseh toward Israel’s right — and brought them to Israel.

¹⁴But Israel stretched out his right hand and put it on the head of Ephraim, the younger, and crossing his hands, put his left on Manasseh’s head, although Manasseh was the firstborn.

¹⁵Then he blessed Joseph and said: The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day,

¹⁶the angel who has redeemed me from all harm  — may he bless these boys. And may they be called by my name and the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, and may they grow to be numerous within the land.

¹⁷When Joseph saw that his father had placed his right hand on Ephraim’s head, he thought it was a mistake and took his father’s hand to move it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s.

¹⁸Joseph said to his father, “Not that way, my father! This one is the firstborn. Put your right hand on his head.”

¹⁹But his father refused and said, “I know, my son, I know! He too will become a tribe, and he too will be great; nevertheless, his younger brother will be greater than he, and his offspring will become a populous nation.”

²⁰So he blessed them that day, putting Ephraim before Manasseh when he said, “The nation Israel will invoke blessings by you, saying, ‘May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.’”

²¹Israel said to Joseph, “Look, I am about to die, but God will be with you and will bring you back to the land of your fathers.

²²Over and above what I am giving your brothers, I am giving you the one mountain slope that I took from the Amorites with my sword and bow.”

¹Then Jacob called his sons and said, “Gather around, and I will tell you what will happen to you in the days to come.

²Come together and listen, sons of Jacob; listen to your father Israel:

³Reuben, you are my firstborn, my strength and the firstfruits of my virility, excelling in prominence, excelling in power.

⁴Turbulent as water, you will not excel, because you got into your father’s bed and you defiled it — he got into my bed.

⁵Simeon and Levi are brothers; their knives are vicious weapons.

⁶May I never enter their council; may I never join their assembly. For in their anger they kill men, and on a whim they hamstring oxen.

⁷Their anger is cursed, for it is strong, and their fury, for it is cruel! I will disperse them throughout Jacob and scatter them throughout Israel.

⁸Judah, your brothers will praise you. Your hand will be on the necks of your enemies; your father’s sons will bow down to you.

⁹Judah is a young lion  — my son, you return from the kill. He crouches; he lies down like a lion or a lioness — who dares to rouse him?

¹⁰The scepter will not depart from Judah or the staff from between his feet until he whose right it is comes and the obedience of the peoples belongs to him.

¹¹He ties his donkey to a vine, and the colt of his donkey to the choice vine. He washes his clothes in wine and his robes in the blood of grapes.

¹²His eyes are darker than wine, and his teeth are whiter than milk.

¹³Zebulun will live by the seashore and will be a harbor for ships, and his territory will be next to Sidon.

¹⁴Issachar is a strong donkey lying down between the saddlebags.

¹⁵He saw that his resting place was good and that the land was pleasant, so he leaned his shoulder to bear a load and became a forced laborer.

¹⁶Dan will judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel.

¹⁷Dan will be a snake by the road, a viper beside the path, that bites the horses’ heels so that its rider falls backward.

¹⁸I wait for your salvation, LORD.

¹⁹Gad will be attacked by raiders, but he will attack their heels.

²⁰Asher’s food will be rich, and he will produce royal delicacies.

²¹Naphtali is a doe set free that bears beautiful fawns.

²²Joseph is a fruitful vine, a fruitful vine beside a spring; its branches climb over the wall.

²³The archers attacked him, shot at him, and were hostile toward him.

²⁴Yet his bow remained steady, and his strong arms were made agile by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob, by the name of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel,

²⁵by the God of your father who helps you, and by the Almighty who blesses you with blessings of the heavens above, blessings of the deep that lies below, and blessings of the breasts and the womb.

²⁶The blessings of your father excel the blessings of my ancestors and the bounty of the ancient hills. May they rest on the head of Joseph, on the brow of the prince of his brothers.

²⁷Benjamin is a wolf; he tears his prey. In the morning he devours the prey, and in the evening he divides the plunder.”

²⁸These are the tribes of Israel, twelve in all, and this is what their father said to them. He blessed them, and he blessed each one with a suitable blessing.

²⁹Then he commanded them: “I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hethite.

³⁰The cave is in the field of Machpelah near Mamre, in the land of Canaan. This is the field Abraham purchased from Ephron the Hethite as burial property.

³¹Abraham and his wife Sarah are buried there, Isaac and his wife Rebekah are buried there, and I buried Leah there.

³²The field and the cave in it were purchased from the Hethites.”

³³When Jacob had finished giving charges to his sons, he drew his feet into the bed, took his last breath, and was gathered to his people.

¹Then Joseph, leaning over his father’s face, wept and kissed him.

²He commanded his servants who were physicians to embalm his father. So they embalmed Israel.

³They took forty days to complete this, for embalming takes that long, and the Egyptians mourned for him seventy days.

⁴When the days of mourning were over, Joseph said to Pharaoh’s household, “If I have found favor with you, please tell Pharaoh that

⁵my father made me take an oath, saying, ‘I am about to die. You must bury me there in the tomb that I made for myself in the land of Canaan.’ Now let me go and bury my father. Then I will return.”

⁶So Pharaoh said, “Go and bury your father in keeping with your oath.”

⁷Then Joseph went to bury his father, and all Pharaoh’s servants, the elders of his household, and all the elders of the land of Egypt went with him,

⁸along with all Joseph’s family, his brothers, and his father’s family. Only their dependents, their flocks, and their herds were left in the land of Goshen.

⁹Horses and chariots went up with him; it was a very impressive procession.

¹⁰When they reached the threshing floor of Atad, which is across the Jordan, they lamented and wept loudly, and Joseph mourned seven days for his father.

¹¹When the Canaanite inhabitants of the land saw the mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, they said, “This is a solemn mourning on the part of the Egyptians.” Therefore the place is named Abel-mizraim. It is across the Jordan.

¹²So Jacob’s sons did for him what he had commanded them.

¹³They carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave at Machpelah in the field near Mamre, which Abraham had purchased as burial property from Ephron the Hethite.

¹⁴After Joseph buried his father, he returned to Egypt with his brothers and all who had gone with him to bury his father.

¹⁵When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said to one another, “If Joseph is holding a grudge against us, he will certainly repay us for all the suffering we caused him.”

¹⁶So they sent this message to Joseph, “Before he died your father gave a command:

¹⁷‘Say this to Joseph: Please forgive your brothers’ transgression and their sin — the suffering they caused you.’ Therefore, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.” Joseph wept when their message came to him.

¹⁸His brothers also came to him, bowed down before him, and said, “We are your slaves!”

¹⁹But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God?

²⁰You planned evil against me; God planned it for good to bring about the present result — the survival of many people.

²¹Therefore don’t be afraid. I will take care of you and your children.” And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.

²²Joseph and his father’s family remained in Egypt. Joseph lived 110 years.

²³He saw Ephraim’s sons to the third generation; the sons of Manasseh’s son Machir were recognized by Joseph.

²⁴Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die, but God will certainly come to your aid and bring you up from this land to the land he swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

²⁵So Joseph made the sons of Israel take an oath: “When God comes to your aid, you are to carry my bones up from here.”

²⁶Joseph died at the age of 110. They embalmed him and placed him in a coffin in Egypt.

¹These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob; each came with his family:

²Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah;

³Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin;

⁴Dan and Naphtali; Gad and Asher.

⁵The total number of Jacob’s descendants was seventy; Joseph was already in Egypt.

⁶Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation eventually died.

⁷But the Israelites were fruitful, increased rapidly, multiplied, and became extremely numerous so that the land was filled with them.

⁸A new king, who did not know about Joseph, came to power in Egypt.

⁹He said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and powerful than we are.

¹⁰Come, let’s deal shrewdly with them; otherwise they will multiply further, and when war breaks out, they will join our enemies, fight against us, and leave the country.”

¹¹So the Egyptians assigned taskmasters over the Israelites to oppress them with forced labor. They built Pithom and Rameses as supply cities for Pharaoh.

¹²But the more they oppressed them, the more they multiplied and spread so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites.

¹³They worked the Israelites ruthlessly

¹⁴and made their lives bitter with difficult labor in brick and mortar and in all kinds of fieldwork. They ruthlessly imposed all this work on them.

¹⁵The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives — the first whose name was Shiphrah and the second whose name was Puah —

¹⁶“When you help the Hebrew women give birth, observe them as they deliver. If the child is a son, kill him, but if it’s a daughter, she may live.”

¹⁷The midwives, however, feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt had told them; they let the boys live.

¹⁸So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this and let the boys live?”

¹⁹The midwives said to Pharaoh, “The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife can get to them.”

²⁰So God was good to the midwives, and the people multiplied and became very numerous.

²¹Since the midwives feared God, he gave them families.

²²Pharaoh then commanded all his people: “You must throw every son born to the Hebrews into the Nile, but let every daughter live.”

¹Now a man from the family of Levi married a Levite woman.

²The woman became pregnant and gave birth to a son; when she saw that he was beautiful, she hid him for three months.

³But when she could no longer hide him, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with asphalt and pitch. She placed the child in it and set it among the reeds by the bank of the Nile.

⁴Then his sister stood at a distance in order to see what would happen to him.

⁵Pharaoh’s daughter went down to bathe at the Nile while her servant girls walked along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds, sent her slave girl, took it,

⁶opened it, and saw him, the child — and there he was, a little boy, crying. She felt sorry for him and said, “This is one of the Hebrew boys.”

⁷Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Should I go and call a Hebrew woman who is nursing to nurse the boy for you?”

⁸“Go,” Pharaoh’s daughter told her. So the girl went and called the boy’s mother.

⁹Then Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse him for me, and I will pay your wages.” So the woman took the boy and nursed him.

¹⁰When the child grew older, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, “Because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”

¹¹Years later, after Moses had grown up, he went out to his own people and observed their forced labor. He saw an Egyptian striking a Hebrew, one of his people.

¹²Looking all around and seeing no one, he struck the Egyptian dead and hid him in the sand.

¹³The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you attacking your neighbor?”

¹⁴“Who made you a commander and judge over us?” the man replied. “Are you planning to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses became afraid and thought, “What I did is certainly known.”

¹⁵When Pharaoh heard about this, he tried to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in the land of Midian, and sat down by a well.

¹⁶Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came to draw water and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock.

¹⁷Then some shepherds arrived and drove them away, but Moses came to their rescue and watered their flock.

¹⁸When they returned to their father Reuel, he asked, “Why have you come back so quickly today?”

¹⁹They answered, “An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock.”

²⁰“So where is he?” he asked his daughters. “Why then did you leave the man behind? Invite him to eat dinner.”

²¹Moses agreed to stay with the man, and he gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage.

²²She gave birth to a son whom he named Gershom, for he said, “I have been a resident alien in a foreign land.”

²³After a long time, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned because of their difficult labor; and they cried out; and their cry for help because of the difficult labor ascended to God.

²⁴And God heard their groaning; and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob;

²⁵and God saw the Israelites; and God knew.

¹Meanwhile, Moses was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

²Then the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire within a bush. As Moses looked, he saw that the bush was on fire but was not consumed.

³So Moses thought, “I must go over and look at this remarkable sight. Why isn’t the bush burning up?”

⁴When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called out to him from the bush, “Moses, Moses!” “Here I am,” he answered.

⁵“Do not come closer,” he said. “Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”

⁶Then he continued, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God.

⁷Then the LORD said, “I have observed the misery of my people in Egypt, and have heard them crying out because of their oppressors. I know about their sufferings,

⁸and I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and to bring them from that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey  — the territory of the Canaanites, Hethites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.

⁹So because the Israelites’ cry for help has come to me, and I have also seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them,

¹⁰therefore, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh so that you may lead my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.”

¹¹But Moses asked God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”

¹²He answered, “I will certainly be with you, and this will be the sign to you that I am the one who sent you: when you bring the people out of Egypt, you will all worship God at this mountain.”

¹³Then Moses asked God, “If I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what should I tell them?”

¹⁴God replied to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you.”

¹⁵God also said to Moses, “Say this to the Israelites: The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is my name forever; this is how I am to be remembered in every generation.

¹⁶“Go and assemble the elders of Israel and say to them: The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, has appeared to me and said: I have paid close attention to you and to what has been done to you in Egypt.

¹⁷And I have promised you that I will bring you up from the misery of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, Hethites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites — a land flowing with milk and honey.

¹⁸They will listen to what you say. Then you, along with the elders of Israel, must go to the king of Egypt and say to him: The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Now please let us go on a three-day trip into the wilderness so that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God.

¹⁹“However, I know that the king of Egypt will not allow you to go, even under force from a strong hand.

²⁰But when I stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all my miracles that I will perform in it, after that, he will let you go.

²¹And I will give these people such favor with the Egyptians that when you go, you will not go empty-handed.

²²Each woman will ask her neighbor and any woman staying in her house for silver and gold jewelry, and clothing, and you will put them on your sons and daughters. So you will plunder the Egyptians.”

¹Moses answered, “What if they won’t believe me and will not obey me but say, ‘The LORD did not appear to you’?”

²The LORD asked him, “What is that in your hand?” “A staff,” he replied.

³“Throw it on the ground,” he said. So Moses threw it on the ground, it became a snake, and he ran from it.

⁴The LORD told Moses, “Stretch out your hand and grab it by the tail.” So he stretched out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand.

⁵“This will take place,” he continued, “so that they will believe that the LORD, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.”

⁶In addition the LORD said to him, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” So he put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, his hand was diseased, resembling snow.

⁷“Put your hand back inside your cloak,” he said. So he put his hand back inside his cloak, and when he took it out, it had again become like the rest of his skin.

⁸“If they will not believe you and will not respond to the evidence of the first sign, they may believe the evidence of the second sign.

⁹And if they don’t believe even these two signs or listen to what you say, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the Nile will become blood on the ground.”

¹⁰But Moses replied to the LORD, “Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent — either in the past or recently or since you have been speaking to your servant — because my mouth and my tongue are sluggish.”

¹¹The LORD said to him, “Who placed a mouth on humans? Who makes a person mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?

¹²Now go! I will help you speak and I will teach you what to say.”

¹³Moses said, “Please, Lord, send someone else.”

¹⁴Then the LORD’s anger burned against Moses, and he said, “Isn’t Aaron the Levite your brother? I know that he can speak well. And also, he is on his way now to meet you. He will rejoice when he sees you.

¹⁵You will speak with him and tell him what to say. I will help both you and him to speak and will teach you both what to do.

¹⁶He will speak to the people for you. He will serve as a mouth for you, and you will serve as God to him.

¹⁷And take this staff in your hand that you will perform the signs with.”

¹⁸Then Moses went back to his father-in-law Jethro and said to him, “Please let me return to my relatives in Egypt and see if they are still living.” Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.”

¹⁹Now in Midian the LORD told Moses, “Return to Egypt, for all the men who wanted to kill you are dead.”

²⁰So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey, and returned to the land of Egypt. And Moses took God’s staff in his hand.

²¹The LORD instructed Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, make sure you do before Pharaoh all the wonders that I have put within your power. But I will harden his heart so that he won’t let the people go.

²²And you will say to Pharaoh: This is what the LORD says: Israel is my firstborn son.

²³I told you: Let my son go so that he may worship me, but you refused to let him go. Look, I am about to kill your firstborn son!”

²⁴On the trip, at an overnight campsite, it happened that the LORD confronted him and intended to put him to death.

²⁵So Zipporah took a flint, cut off her son’s foreskin, threw it at Moses’s feet, and said, “You are a bridegroom of blood to me!”

²⁶So he let him alone. At that time she said, “You are a bridegroom of blood,” referring to the circumcision.

²⁷Now the LORD had said to Aaron, “Go and meet Moses in the wilderness.” So he went and met him at the mountain of God and kissed him.

²⁸Moses told Aaron everything the LORD had sent him to say, and about all the signs he had commanded him to do.

²⁹Then Moses and Aaron went and assembled all the elders of the Israelites.

³⁰Aaron repeated everything the LORD had said to Moses and performed the signs before the people.

³¹The people believed, and when they heard that the LORD had paid attention to them and that he had seen their misery, they knelt low and worshiped.

¹Later, Moses and Aaron went in and said to Pharaoh, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival for me in the wilderness.”

²But Pharaoh responded, “Who is the LORD that I should obey him by letting Israel go? I don’t know the LORD, and besides, I will not let Israel go.”

³They answered, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go on a three-day trip into the wilderness so that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God, or else he may strike us with plague or sword.”

⁴The king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why are you causing the people to neglect their work? Get to your labor!”

⁵Pharaoh also said, “Look, the people of the land are so numerous, and you would stop them from their labor.”

⁶That day Pharaoh commanded the overseers of the people as well as their foremen:

⁷“Don’t continue to supply the people with straw for making bricks, as before. They must go and gather straw for themselves.

⁸But require the same quota of bricks from them as they were making before; do not reduce it. For they are slackers — that is why they are crying out, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’

⁹Impose heavier work on the men. Then they will be occupied with it and not pay attention to deceptive words.”

¹⁰So the overseers and foremen of the people went out and said to them, “This is what Pharaoh says: ‘I am not giving you straw.

¹¹Go get straw yourselves wherever you can find it, but there will be no reduction at all in your workload.’”

¹²So the people scattered throughout the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw.

¹³The overseers insisted, “Finish your assigned work each day, just as you did when straw was provided.”

¹⁴Then the Israelite foremen, whom Pharaoh’s slave drivers had set over the people, were beaten and asked, “Why haven’t you finished making your prescribed number of bricks yesterday or today, as you did before?”

¹⁵So the Israelite foremen went in and cried for help to Pharaoh: “Why are you treating your servants this way?

¹⁶No straw has been given to your servants, yet they say to us, ‘Make bricks!’ Look, your servants are being beaten, but it is your own people who are at fault.”

¹⁷But he said, “You are slackers. Slackers! That is why you are saying, ‘Let us go sacrifice to the LORD.’

¹⁸Now get to work. No straw will be given to you, but you must produce the same quantity of bricks.”

¹⁹The Israelite foremen saw that they were in trouble when they were told, “You cannot reduce your daily quota of bricks.”

²⁰When they left Pharaoh, they confronted Moses and Aaron, who stood waiting to meet them.

²¹“May the LORD take note of you and judge,” they said to them, “because you have made us reek to Pharaoh and his officials — putting a sword in their hand to kill us!”

²²So Moses went back to the LORD and asked, “Lord, why have you caused trouble for this people? And why did you ever send me?

²³Ever since I went in to Pharaoh to speak in your name he has caused trouble for this people, and you haven’t rescued your people at all.”

¹But the LORD replied to Moses, “Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh: because of a strong hand he will let them go, and because of a strong hand he will drive them from his land.”

²Then God spoke to Moses, telling him, “I am the LORD.

³I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty, but I was not known to them by my name ‘the LORD.’

⁴I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land they lived in as aliens.

⁵Furthermore, I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are forcing to work as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant.

⁶“Therefore tell the Israelites: I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from the forced labor of the Egyptians and rescue you from slavery to them. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and great acts of judgment.

⁷I will take you as my people, and I will be your God. You will know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from the forced labor of the Egyptians.

⁸I will bring you to the land that I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and I will give it to you as a possession. I am the LORD.”

⁹Moses told this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their broken spirit and hard labor.

¹⁰Then the LORD spoke to Moses,

¹¹“Go and tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the Israelites go from his land.”

¹²But Moses said in the LORD’s presence: “If the Israelites will not listen to me, then how will Pharaoh listen to me, since I am such a poor speaker?”

¹³Then the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them commands concerning both the Israelites and Pharaoh king of Egypt to bring the Israelites out of the land of Egypt.

¹⁴These are the heads of their fathers’ families: The sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel: Hanoch and Pallu, Hezron and Carmi. These are the clans of Reuben.

¹⁵The sons of Simeon: Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul, the son of a Canaanite woman. These are the clans of Simeon.

¹⁶These are the names of the sons of Levi according to their family records; Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. Levi lived 137 years.

¹⁷The sons of Gershon: Libni and Shimei, by their clans.

¹⁸The sons of Kohath: Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel. Kohath lived 133 years.

¹⁹The sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi. These are the clans of the Levites according to their family records.

²⁰Amram married his father’s sister Jochebed, and she bore him Aaron and Moses. Amram lived 137 years.

²¹The sons of Izhar: Korah, Nepheg, and Zichri.

²²The sons of Uzziel: Mishael, Elzaphan, and Sithri.

²³Aaron married Elisheba, daughter of Amminadab and sister of Nahshon. She bore him Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.

²⁴The sons of Korah: Assir, Elkanah, and Abiasaph. These are the clans of the Korahites.

²⁵Aaron’s son Eleazar married one of the daughters of Putiel, and she bore him Phinehas. These are the heads of the Levite families by their clans.

²⁶It was this Aaron and Moses whom the LORD told, “Bring the Israelites out of the land of Egypt according to their military divisions.”

²⁷Moses and Aaron were the ones who spoke to Pharaoh king of Egypt in order to bring the Israelites out of Egypt.

²⁸On the day the LORD spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt,

²⁹he said to him, “I am the LORD; tell Pharaoh king of Egypt everything I am telling you.”

³⁰But Moses replied in the LORD’s presence, “Since I am such a poor speaker, how will Pharaoh listen to me?”