Bible in 90 Days Plan

¹Now the famine was severe in the land.

²And when they had eaten the grain that they had brought from Egypt, their father said to them, “Go again, buy us a little food.”

³But Judah said to him, “The man solemnly warned us, saying, ‘You shall not see my face unless your brother is with you.’

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

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

⁶Israel said, “Why did you treat me so badly as to tell the man that you had another brother?”

⁷They replied, “The man questioned us carefully about ourselves and our kindred, saying, ‘Is your father still alive? Do you have another brother?’ What we told him was in answer to these questions. Could we in any way know that he would say, ‘Bring your brother down’?”

⁸And Judah said to Israel his father, “Send the boy with me, and we will arise and go, that we may live and not die, both we and you and also our little ones.

⁹I will be a pledge of his safety. From my hand you shall require him. If I do not bring him back to you and set him before you, then let me bear the blame forever.

¹⁰If we had not delayed, we would now have returned twice.”

¹¹Then their father Israel said to them, “If it must be so, then do this: take some of the choice fruits of the land in your bags, and carry a present down to the man, a little balm and a little honey, gum, myrrh, pistachio nuts, and almonds.

¹²Take double the money with you. Carry back with you the money that was returned in the mouth of your sacks. Perhaps it was an oversight.

¹³Take also your brother, and arise, go again to the man.

¹⁴May God Almighty grant you mercy before the man, and may he send back your other brother and Benjamin. And as for me, if I am bereaved of my children, I am bereaved.”

¹⁵So the men took this present, and they took double the money with them, and Benjamin. They arose and went down to Egypt and stood before Joseph.

¹⁶When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the steward of his house, “Bring the men into the house, and slaughter an animal and make ready, for the men are to dine with me at noon.”

¹⁷The man did as Joseph told him and brought the men to Joseph's house.

¹⁸And the men were afraid because they were brought to Joseph's house, and they said, “It is because of the money, which was replaced in our sacks the first time, that we are brought in, so that he may assault us and fall upon us to make us servants and seize our donkeys.”

¹⁹So they went up to the steward of Joseph's house and spoke with him at the door of the house,

²⁰and said, “Oh, my lord, we came down the first time to buy food.

²¹And when we came to the lodging place we opened our sacks, and there was each man's money in the mouth of his sack, our money in full weight. So we have brought it again with us,

²²and we have brought other money down with us to buy food. We do not know who put our money in our sacks.”

²³He replied, “Peace to you, do not be afraid. Your God and the God of your father has put treasure in your sacks for you. I received your money.” Then he brought Simeon out to them.

²⁴And when the man had brought the men into Joseph's house and given them water, and they had washed their feet, and when he had given their donkeys fodder,

²⁵they prepared the present for Joseph's coming at noon, for they heard that they should eat bread there.

²⁶When Joseph came home, they brought into the house to him the present that they had with them and bowed down to him to the ground.

²⁷And he inquired about their welfare and said, “Is your father well, the old man of whom you spoke? Is he still alive?”

²⁸They said, “Your servant our father is well; he is still alive.” And they bowed their heads and prostrated themselves.

²⁹And he lifted up his eyes and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother's son, and said, “Is this your youngest brother, of whom you spoke to me? God be gracious to you, my son!”

³⁰Then Joseph hurried out, for his compassion grew warm for his brother, and he sought a place to weep. And he entered his chamber and wept there.

³¹Then he washed his face and came out. And controlling himself he said, “Serve the food.”

³²They served him by himself, and them by themselves, and the Egyptians who ate with him by themselves, because the Egyptians could not eat with the Hebrews, for that is an abomination to the Egyptians.

³³And they sat before him, the firstborn according to his birthright and the youngest according to his youth. And the men looked at one another in amazement.

³⁴Portions were taken to them from Joseph's table, but Benjamin's portion was five times as much as any of theirs. And they drank and were merry with him.

¹Then he commanded the steward of his house, “Fill the men's sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put each man's money in the mouth of his sack,

²and put my cup, the silver cup, in the mouth of the sack of the youngest, with his money for the grain.” And he did as Joseph told him.

³As soon as the morning was light, the men were sent away with their donkeys.

⁴They had gone only a short distance from the city. Now Joseph said to his steward, “Up, follow after the men, and when you overtake them, say to them, ‘Why have you repaid evil for good?

⁵Is it not from this that my lord drinks, and by this that he practices divination? You have done evil in doing this.’”

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

⁷They said to him, “Why does my lord speak such words as these? Far be it from your servants to do such a thing!

⁸Behold, the money that we found in the mouths of our sacks we brought back to you from the land of Canaan. How then could we steal silver or gold from your lord's house?

⁹Whichever of your servants is found with it shall die, and we also will be my lord's servants.”

¹⁰He said, “Let it be as you say: he who is found with it shall be my servant, and the rest of you shall be innocent.”

¹¹Then each man quickly lowered his sack to the ground, and each man opened his sack.

¹²And he searched, beginning with the eldest and ending with the youngest. And the cup was found in Benjamin's sack.

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

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

¹⁵Joseph said to them, “What deed is this that you have done? Do you not know that a man like me can indeed practice divination?”

¹⁶And Judah said, “What shall we say to my lord? What shall we speak? Or how can we clear ourselves? God has found out the guilt of your servants; behold, we are my lord's servants, both we and he also in whose hand the cup has been found.”

¹⁷But he said, “Far be it from me that I should do so! Only the man in whose hand the cup was found shall be my servant. But as for you, go up in peace to your father.”

¹⁸Then Judah went up to him and said, “Oh, my lord, please let your servant speak a word in my lord's ears, and let not your anger burn against your servant, for you are like Pharaoh himself.

¹⁹My lord asked his servants, saying, ‘Have you a father, or a brother?’

²⁰And we said to my lord, ‘We have a father, an old man, and a young brother, the child of his old age. His brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother's children, and his father loves him.’

²¹Then you said to your servants, ‘Bring him down to me, that I may set my eyes on him.’

²²We said to my lord, ‘The boy cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father, his father would die.’

²³Then you said to your servants, ‘Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you shall not see my face again.’

²⁴“When we went back to your servant my father, we told him the words of my lord.

²⁵And when our father said, ‘Go again, buy us a little food,’

²⁶we said, ‘We cannot go down. If our youngest brother goes with us, then we will go down. For we cannot see the man's face unless our youngest brother is with us.’

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

²⁸One left me, and I said, “Surely he has been torn to pieces,” and I have never seen him since.

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

³⁰“Now therefore, as soon as I come to your servant my father, and the boy is not with us, then, as his life is bound up in the boy's life,

³¹as soon as he sees that the boy is not with us, he will die, and your servants will bring down the gray hairs of your servant our father with sorrow to Sheol.

³²For your servant became a pledge of safety for the boy to my father, saying, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, then I shall bear the blame before my father all my life.’

³³Now therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the boy as a servant to my lord, and let the boy go back with his brothers.

³⁴For how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? I fear to see the evil that would find my father.”

¹Then Joseph could not control himself before all those who stood by him. He cried, “Make everyone go out from me.” So no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers.

²And he wept aloud, so that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it.

³And Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! Is my father still alive?” But his brothers could not answer him, for they were dismayed at his presence.

⁴So Joseph said to his brothers, “Come near to me, please.” And they came near. And he said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt.

⁵And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life.

⁶For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest.

⁷And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors.

⁸So 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.

⁹Hurry 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 tarry.

¹⁰You shall dwell in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children and your children's children, and your flocks, your herds, and all that you have.

¹¹There I will provide for you, for there are yet five years of famine to come, so that you and your household, and all that you have, do not come to poverty.’

¹²And now your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see, that it is my mouth that speaks to you.

¹³You must tell my father of all my honor in Egypt, and of all that you have seen. Hurry and bring my father down here.”

¹⁴Then he fell upon his brother Benjamin's neck and wept, and Benjamin wept upon his neck.

¹⁵And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them. After that his brothers talked with him.

¹⁶When the report was heard in Pharaoh's house, “Joseph's brothers have come,” it pleased Pharaoh and his servants.

¹⁷And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Say to your brothers, ‘Do this: load your beasts and go back to the land of Canaan,

¹⁸and take your father and your households, and come to me, and I will give you the best of the land of Egypt, and you shall eat the fat of the land.’

¹⁹And you, Joseph, are commanded 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.

²⁰Have no concern for your goods, for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours.’”

²¹The sons of Israel did so: and Joseph gave them wagons, according to the command of Pharaoh, and gave them provisions for the journey.

²²To each and all of them he gave a change of clothes, but to Benjamin he gave three hundred shekels of silver and five changes of clothes.

²³To his father he sent as follows: 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.

²⁴Then he sent his brothers away, and as they departed, he said to them, “Do not quarrel on the way.”

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

²⁶And they told him, “Joseph is still alive, and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt.” And his heart became numb, for he did not believe them.

²⁷But when they told him all the words of Joseph, which 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.

²⁸And Israel said, “It is enough; Joseph my son is still alive. I will go and see him before I die.”

¹So Israel took his journey with all that he had and came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac.

²And God spoke to Israel in visions of the night and said, “Jacob, Jacob.” And he said, “Here I am.”

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

⁴I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again, and Joseph's hand shall close your eyes.”

⁵Then Jacob set out from Beersheba. The sons of Israel carried Jacob their father, their little ones, and their wives, in the wagons that Pharaoh had sent to carry him.

⁶They also took their livestock and their goods, which they had gained in the land of Canaan, and came into Egypt, Jacob and all his offspring with him,

⁷his sons, and his sons' sons with him, his daughters, and his sons' daughters. All his offspring he brought with him into Egypt.

⁸Now these are the names of the descendants of Israel, who came into Egypt, Jacob and his sons. Reuben, Jacob's firstborn,

⁹and the sons of Reuben: Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi.

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

¹¹The sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

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

¹³The sons of Issachar: Tola, Puvah, Yob, and Shimron.

¹⁴The sons of Zebulun: Sered, Elon, and Jahleel.

¹⁵These are the sons of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob in Paddan-aram, together with his daughter Dinah; altogether his sons and his daughters numbered thirty-three.

¹⁶The sons of Gad: Ziphion, Haggi, Shuni, Ezbon, Eri, Arodi, and Areli.

¹⁷The sons of Asher: Imnah, Ishvah, Ishvi, Beriah, with Serah their sister. And the sons of Beriah: Heber and Malchiel.

¹⁸These are the sons of Zilpah, whom Laban gave to Leah his daughter; and these she bore to Jacob — sixteen persons.

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

²⁰And to Joseph in the land of Egypt were born Manasseh and Ephraim, whom Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera the priest of On, bore to him.

²¹And the sons of Benjamin: Bela, Becher, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ehi, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim, and Ard.

²²These are the sons of Rachel, who were born to Jacob — fourteen persons in all.

²³The son of Dan: Hushim.

²⁴The sons of Naphtali: Jahzeel, Guni, Jezer, and Shillem.

²⁵These are the sons of Bilhah, whom Laban gave to Rachel his daughter, and these she bore to Jacob — seven persons in all.

²⁶All the persons belonging to Jacob who came into Egypt, who were his own descendants, not including Jacob's sons' wives, were sixty-six persons in all.

²⁷And the sons 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.

²⁸He had sent Judah ahead of him to Joseph to show the way before him in Goshen, and they came into the land of Goshen.

²⁹Then Joseph prepared his chariot and went up to meet Israel his father in Goshen. He presented himself to him and fell on his neck and wept on his neck a good while.

³⁰Israel said to Joseph, “Now let me die, since I have seen your face and know that you are still alive.”

³¹Joseph 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.

³²And 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.’

³³When Pharaoh calls you and says, ‘What is your occupation?’

³⁴you shall say, ‘Your servants have been keepers of livestock from our youth even until now, both we and our fathers,’ in order that you may dwell in the land of Goshen, for every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians.”

¹So Joseph went in 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.”

²And from among his brothers he took five men and presented them to Pharaoh.

³Pharaoh said to his brothers, “What is your occupation?” And they said to Pharaoh, “Your servants are shepherds, as our fathers were.”

⁴They said to Pharaoh, “We have come to sojourn in the land, for there is no pasture for your servants' flocks, for the famine is severe in the land of Canaan. And now, please let your servants dwell in the land of Goshen.”

⁵Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Your father and your brothers have come to you.

⁶The land of Egypt is before you. Settle your father and your brothers in the best of the land. Let them settle in the land of Goshen, and if you know any able men among them, put them in charge of my livestock.”

⁷Then Joseph brought in Jacob his father and stood him before Pharaoh, and Jacob blessed Pharaoh.

⁸And Pharaoh said to Jacob, “How many are the days of the years of your life?”

⁹And Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The days of the years of my sojourning are 130 years. Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their sojourning.”

¹⁰And Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from the presence of Pharaoh.

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

¹²And Joseph provided his father, his brothers, and all his father's household with food, according to the number of their dependents.

¹³Now there was no food in all the land, for the famine was very severe, so that the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan languished by reason of the famine.

¹⁴And Joseph gathered up all the money that was 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.

¹⁵And when the money was all spent in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came to Joseph and said, “Give us food. Why should we die before your eyes? For our money is gone.”

¹⁶And Joseph answered, “Give your livestock, and I will give you food in exchange for your livestock, if your money is gone.”

¹⁷So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and Joseph gave them food in exchange for the horses, the flocks, the herds, and the donkeys. He supplied them with food in exchange for all their livestock that year.

¹⁸And when that year was ended, they came to him the following year and said to him, “We will not hide from my lord that our money is all spent. The herds of livestock are my lord's. There is nothing left in the sight of my lord but our bodies and our land.

¹⁹Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land for food, and we with our land will be servants to Pharaoh. And give us seed that we may live and not die, and that the land may not be desolate.”

²⁰So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh, for all the Egyptians sold their fields, because the famine was severe on them. The land became Pharaoh's.

²¹As for the people, he made servants of them from one end of Egypt to the other.

²²Only 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.

²³Then Joseph said to the people, “Behold, I have this day bought you and your land for Pharaoh. Now here is seed for you, and you shall sow the land.

²⁴And at the harvests you shall give a 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.”

²⁵And they said, “You have saved our lives; may it please my lord, we will be servants to Pharaoh.”

²⁶So 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.

²⁷Thus Israel settled in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen. And they gained possessions in it, and were fruitful and multiplied greatly.

²⁸And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years. So the days of Jacob, the years of his life, were 147 years.

²⁹And when the time drew near that Israel must die, he called his son Joseph and said to him, “If now I have found favor in your sight, put your hand under my thigh and promise to deal kindly and truly with me. Do not bury me in Egypt,

³⁰but let me lie with my fathers. Carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burying place.” He answered, “I will do as you have said.”

³¹And he said, “Swear to me”; and he swore to him. Then Israel bowed himself upon the head of his bed.

¹After this, Joseph was told, “Behold, your father is ill.” So he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.

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

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

⁴and said to me, ‘Behold, I will make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will make of you a company of peoples and will give this land to your offspring after you for an everlasting possession.’

⁵And now your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, are mine; Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine, as Reuben and Simeon are.

⁶And the children that you fathered after them shall be yours. They shall be called by the name of their brothers in their inheritance.

⁷As for me, when I came from Paddan, to my sorrow Rachel died in the land of Canaan on the way, when there was still some distance to go to Ephrath, and I buried her there on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).”

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

⁹Joseph said to his father, “They are my sons, whom God has given me here.” And he said, “Bring them to me, please, that I may bless them.”

¹⁰Now the eyes of Israel were dim with age, so that he could not see. So Joseph brought them near him, and he kissed them and embraced them.

¹¹And Israel said to Joseph, “I never expected to see your face; and behold, God has let me see your offspring also.”

¹²Then Joseph removed them from his knees, and he bowed himself with his face to the earth.

¹³And Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel's left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel's right hand, and brought them near him.

¹⁴And Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on the head of Ephraim, who was the younger, and his left hand on the head of Manasseh, crossing his hands (for Manasseh was the firstborn).

¹⁵And 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 long to this day,

¹⁶the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the boys; and in them let my name be carried on, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.”

¹⁷When Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim, it displeased him, and he took his father's hand to move it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's head.

¹⁸And Joseph said to his father, “Not this way, my father; since 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 also shall become a people, and he also shall be great. Nevertheless, his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his offspring shall become a multitude of nations.”

²⁰So he blessed them that day, saying, “By you Israel will pronounce blessings, saying, ‘God make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh.’” Thus he put Ephraim before Manasseh.

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

²²Moreover, I have given to you rather than to your brothers one mountain slope that I took from the hand of the Amorites with my sword and with my bow.”

¹Then Jacob called his sons and said, “Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you what shall happen to you in days to come.

²“Assemble and listen, O sons of Jacob, listen to Israel your father.

³“Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, and the firstfruits of my strength, preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power.

⁴Unstable as water, you shall not have preeminence, because you went up to your father's bed; then you defiled it — he went up to my couch!

⁵“Simeon and Levi are brothers; weapons of violence are their swords.

⁶Let my soul come not into their council; O my glory, be not joined to their company. For in their anger they killed men, and in their willfulness they hamstrung oxen.

⁷Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce, and their wrath, for it is cruel! I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel.

⁸“Judah, your brothers shall praise you; your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; your father's sons shall bow down before you.

⁹Judah is a lion's cub; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down; he crouched as a lion and as a lioness; who dares rouse him?

¹⁰The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.

¹¹Binding his foal to the vine and his donkey's colt to the choice vine, he has washed his garments in wine and his vesture in the blood of grapes.

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

¹³“Zebulun shall dwell at the shore of the sea; he shall become a haven for ships, and his border shall be at Sidon.

¹⁴“Issachar is a strong donkey, crouching between the sheepfolds.

¹⁵He saw that a resting place was good, and that the land was pleasant, so he bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant at forced labor.

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

¹⁷Dan shall be a serpent in the way, a viper by the path, that bites the horse's heels so that his rider falls backward.

¹⁸I wait for your salvation, O LORD.

¹⁹“Raiders shall raid Gad, but he shall raid at their heels.

²⁰“Asher's food shall be rich, and he shall yield royal delicacies.

²¹“Naphtali is a doe let loose that bears beautiful fawns.

²²“Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a spring; his branches run over the wall.

²³The archers bitterly attacked him, shot at him, and harassed him severely,

²⁴yet his bow remained unmoved; his arms were made agile by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob (from there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel),

²⁵by the God of your father who will help you, by the Almighty who will bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that crouches beneath, blessings of the breasts and of the womb.

²⁶The blessings of your father are mighty beyond the blessings of my parents, up to the bounties of the everlasting hills. May they be on the head of Joseph, and on the brow of him who was set apart from his brothers.

²⁷“Benjamin is a ravenous wolf, in the morning devouring the prey and at evening dividing the spoil.”

²⁸All these are the twelve tribes of Israel. This is what their father said to them as he blessed them, blessing each with the blessing suitable to him.

²⁹Then he commanded them and said to them, “I am to be gathered to my people; bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite,

³⁰in the cave that is in the field at Machpelah, to the east of Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite to possess as a burying place.

³¹There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife. There they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife, and there I buried Leah —

³²the field and the cave that is in it were bought from the Hittites.”

³³When Jacob finished commanding his sons, he drew up his feet into the bed and breathed his last and was gathered to his people.

¹Then Joseph fell on his father's face and wept over him and kissed him.

²And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel.

³Forty days were required for it, for that is how many are required for embalming. And the Egyptians wept for him seventy days.

⁴And when the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh, saying, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, please speak in the ears of Pharaoh, saying,

⁵‘My father made me swear, saying, “I am about to die: in my tomb that I hewed out for myself in the land of Canaan, there shall you bury me.” Now therefore, let me please go up and bury my father. Then I will return.’”

⁶And Pharaoh answered, “Go up, and bury your father, as he made you swear.”

⁷So Joseph went up to bury his father. With him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his household, and all the elders of the land of Egypt,

⁸as well as all the household of Joseph, his brothers, and his father's household. Only their children, their flocks, and their herds were left in the land of Goshen.

⁹And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen. It was a very great company.

¹⁰When they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, they lamented there with a very great and grievous lamentation, and he made a mourning for his father seven days.

¹¹When the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning on the threshing floor of Atad, they said, “This is a grievous mourning by the Egyptians.” Therefore the place was named Abel-mizraim; it is beyond the Jordan.

¹²Thus his sons did for him as he had commanded them,

¹³for his sons carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field at Machpelah, to the east of Mamre, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite to possess as a burying place.

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

¹⁵When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him.”

¹⁶So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, “Your father gave this command before he died:

¹⁷‘Say to Joseph, “Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you.”’ And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.” Joseph wept when they spoke to him.

¹⁸His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, “Behold, we are your servants.”

¹⁹But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God?

²⁰As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.

²¹So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.” Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.

²²So Joseph remained in Egypt, he and his father's house. Joseph lived 110 years.

²³And Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third generation. The children also of Machir the son of Manasseh were counted as Joseph's own.

²⁴And Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.”

²⁵Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.”

²⁶So Joseph died, being 110 years old. They embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.

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

²Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah,

³Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin,

⁴Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher.

⁵All the descendants of Jacob were seventy persons; Joseph was already in Egypt.

⁶Then Joseph died, and all his brothers and all that generation.

⁷But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them.

⁸Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.

⁹And he said to his people, “Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us.

¹⁰Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and, if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.”

¹¹Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens. They built for Pharaoh store cities, Pithom and Raamses.

¹²But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad. And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel.

¹³So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves

¹⁴and made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field. In all their work they ruthlessly made them work as slaves.

¹⁵Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah,

¹⁶“When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live.”

¹⁷But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live.

¹⁸So the king of Egypt called the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this, and let the male children live?”

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

²⁰So God dealt well with the midwives. And the people multiplied and grew very strong.

²¹And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families.

²²Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.”

¹Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman.

²The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months.

³When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank.

⁴And his sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him.

⁵Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her young women walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant woman, and she took it.

⁶When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby was crying. She took pity on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews' children.”

⁷Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, “Shall I go and call you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?”

⁸And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, “Go.” So the girl went and called the child's mother.

⁹And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, “Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child 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.”

¹¹One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people.

¹²He looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.

¹³When he went out the next day, behold, two Hebrews were struggling together. And he said to the man in the wrong, “Why do you strike your companion?”

¹⁴He answered, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid, and thought, “Surely the thing is known.”

¹⁵When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian. And he sat down by a well.

¹⁶Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came and drew water and filled the troughs to water their father's flock.

¹⁷The shepherds came and drove them away, but Moses stood up and saved them, and watered their flock.

¹⁸When they came home to their father Reuel, he said, “How is it that you have come home so soon today?”

¹⁹They said, “An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds and even drew water for us and watered the flock.”

²⁰He said to his daughters, “Then where is he? Why have you left the man? Call him, that he may eat bread.”

²¹And Moses was content to dwell with the man, and he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah.

²²She gave birth to a son, and he called his name Gershom, for he said, “I have been a sojourner in a foreign land.”

²³During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God.

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

²⁵God saw the people of Israel — and God knew.

¹Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

²And the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed.

³And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.”

⁴When the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.”

⁵Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”

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

⁷Then the LORD said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings,

⁸and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

⁹And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.

¹⁰Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”

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

¹²He said, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”

¹³Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?”

¹⁴God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”

¹⁵God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘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, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.

¹⁶Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, “I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt,

¹⁷and I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.”’

¹⁸And they will listen to your voice, and you and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us; and now, please let us go a three days' journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God.’

¹⁹But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand.

²⁰So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it; after that he will let you go.

²¹And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians; and when you go, you shall not go empty,

²²but each woman shall ask of her neighbor, and any woman who lives in her house, for silver and gold jewelry, and for clothing. You shall put them on your sons and on your daughters. So you shall plunder the Egyptians.”

¹Then Moses answered, “But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, ‘The LORD did not appear to you.’”

²The LORD said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A staff.”

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

⁴But the LORD said to Moses, “Put out your hand and catch it by the tail” — so he put out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand —

⁵“that they may 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.”

⁶Again, the LORD said to him, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” And he put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous like snow.

⁷Then God said, “Put your hand back inside your cloak.” So he put his hand back inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, it was restored like the rest of his flesh.

⁸“If they will not believe you,” God said, “or listen to the first sign, they may believe the latter sign.

⁹If they will not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground, and the water that you shall take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground.”

¹⁰But Moses said to the LORD, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.”

¹¹Then the LORD said to him, “Who has made man's mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?

¹²Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.”

¹³But he said, “Oh, my Lord, please send someone else.”

¹⁴Then the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses and he said, “Is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak well. Behold, he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart.

¹⁵You shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth, and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth and will teach you both what to do.

¹⁶He shall speak for you to the people, and he shall be your mouth, and you shall be as God to him.

¹⁷And take in your hand this staff, with which you shall do the signs.”

¹⁸Moses went back to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, “Please let me go back to my brothers in Egypt to see whether they are still alive.” And Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.”

¹⁹And the LORD said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for all the men who were seeking your life are dead.”

²⁰So Moses took his wife and his sons and had them ride on a donkey, and went back to the land of Egypt. And Moses took the staff of God in his hand.

²¹And the LORD said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the miracles that I have put in your power. But I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go.

²²Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the LORD, Israel is my firstborn son,

²³and I say to you, “Let my son go that he may serve me.” If you refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son.’”

²⁴At a lodging place on the way the LORD met him and sought to put him to death.

²⁵Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son's foreskin and touched Moses' feet with it and said, “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me!”

²⁶So he let him alone. It was then that she said, “A bridegroom of blood,” because of the circumcision.

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

²⁸And Moses told Aaron all the words of the LORD with which he had sent him to speak, and all the signs that he had commanded him to do.

²⁹Then Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the people of Israel.

³⁰Aaron spoke all the words that the LORD had spoken to Moses and did the signs in the sight of the people.

³¹And the people believed; and when they heard that the LORD had visited the people of Israel and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshiped.

¹Afterward Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.’”

²But Pharaoh said, “Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, and moreover, I will not let Israel go.”

³Then they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go a three days' journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God, lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword.”

⁴But the king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people away from their work? Get back to your burdens.”

⁵And Pharaoh said, “Behold, the people of the land are now many, and you make them rest from their burdens!”

⁶The same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their foremen,

⁷“You shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks, as in the past; let them go and gather straw for themselves.

⁸But the number of bricks that they made in the past you shall impose on them, you shall by no means reduce it, for they are idle. Therefore they cry, ‘Let us go and offer sacrifice to our God.’

⁹Let heavier work be laid on the men that they may labor at it and pay no regard to lying words.”

¹⁰So the taskmasters and the foremen of the people went out and said to the people, “Thus says Pharaoh, ‘I will not give you straw.

¹¹Go and get your straw yourselves wherever you can find it, but your work will not be reduced in the least.’”

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

¹³The taskmasters were urgent, saying, “Complete your work, your daily task each day, as when there was straw.”

¹⁴And the foremen of the people of Israel, whom Pharaoh's taskmasters had set over them, were beaten and were asked, “Why have you not done all your task of making bricks today and yesterday, as in the past?”

¹⁵Then the foremen of the people of Israel came and cried to Pharaoh, “Why do you treat your servants like this?

¹⁶No straw is given to your servants, yet they say to us, ‘Make bricks!’ And behold, your servants are beaten; but the fault is in your own people.”

¹⁷But he said, “You are idle, you are idle; that is why you say, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the LORD.’

¹⁸Go now and work. No straw will be given you, but you must still deliver the same number of bricks.”

¹⁹The foremen of the people of Israel saw that they were in trouble when they said, “You shall by no means reduce your number of bricks, your daily task each day.”

²⁰They met Moses and Aaron, who were waiting for them, as they came out from Pharaoh;

²¹and they said to them, “The LORD look on you and judge, because you have made us stink in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants, and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.”

²²Then Moses turned to the LORD and said, “O Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Why did you ever send me?

²³For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people, and you have not delivered your people at all.”

¹But the LORD said to Moses, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh; for with a strong hand he will send them out, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land.”

²God spoke to Moses and said to him, “I am the LORD.

³I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name the LORD I did not make myself known to them.

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

⁵Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant.

⁶Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment.

⁷I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.

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

⁹Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery.

¹⁰So the LORD said to Moses,

¹¹“Go in, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the people of Israel go out of his land.”

¹²But Moses said to the LORD, “Behold, the people of Israel have not listened to me. How then shall Pharaoh listen to me, for I am of uncircumcised lips?”

¹³But the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them a charge about the people of Israel and about Pharaoh king of Egypt: to bring the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt.

¹⁴These are the heads of their fathers' houses: the sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel: Hanoch, 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 generations: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari, the years of the life of Levi being 137 years.

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

¹⁸The sons of Kohath: Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel, the years of the life of Kohath being 133 years.

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

²⁰Amram took as his wife Jochebed his father's sister, and she bore him Aaron and Moses, the years of the life of Amram being 137 years.

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

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

²³Aaron took as his wife Elisheba, the daughter of Amminadab and the sister of Nahshon, and she bore him Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar.

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

²⁵Eleazar, Aaron's son, took as his wife one of the daughters of Putiel, and she bore him Phinehas. These are the heads of the fathers' houses of the Levites by their clans.

²⁶These are the Aaron and Moses to whom the LORD said: “Bring out the people of Israel from the land of Egypt by their hosts.”

²⁷It was they who spoke to Pharaoh king of Egypt about bringing out the people of Israel from Egypt, this Moses and this Aaron.

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

²⁹the LORD said to Moses, “I am the LORD; tell Pharaoh king of Egypt all that I say to you.”

³⁰But Moses said to the LORD, “Behold, I am of uncircumcised lips. How will Pharaoh listen to me?”