Genesis 44–50

CHAPTER 44

The Brothers Fall Before Joseph

^1aThen he commanded his house steward, saying, “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.

²“Now put my cup, the silver cup, in the mouth of the sack of the youngest, and his money for the grain.” And he did ¹as Joseph had told him.

³¹As the morning light broke, the men were sent away, they with their donkeys.

⁴Now they had just gone out of ^athe city and were not far off when Joseph said to his house steward, “Arise, pursue the men; you shall overtake them and say to them, ‘Why have you repaid evil for good?

⁵‘Is not this the one from which my lord drinks and which he indeed uses to interpret ^aomens? You have done evil in doing this.’”

⁶So he overtook them and spoke these words to them.

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

⁸“Behold, ^athe money which we found in the mouth of our sacks we have brought back to you from the land of Canaan. How then could we steal silver or gold from your lord’s house?

⁹“^aWith whomever of your servants it is found, let him die, and we also will be my lord’s ^bslaves.”

¹⁰So he said, “Now let it also be according to your words; he with whom it is found shall be my slave, but the rest of you shall be innocent.”

¹¹Then they hurried, each man brought his sack down to the ground, and each man opened his sack.

¹²So he searched, beginning with the oldest and ending with the youngest, and ^athe cup was found in Benjamin’s sack.

¹³Then they ^atore their clothes, and each man loaded his donkey and returned to ^bthe city.

¹⁴Then Judah and his brothers came to Joseph’s house, and he was still there. So ^athey fell to the ground before him.

¹⁵And Joseph said to them, “What is this deed that you have done? Do you not know that such a man as I can indeed interpret ^aomens?”

¹⁶So Judah said, “What can we say to my lord? What can we speak? And how can we justify ourselves? God has found out the iniquity of your servants; behold, we are my lord’s ^aslaves, both we and the one in whose ¹possession the cup has been found.”

¹⁷But he said, “Far be it from me to do this. The man in whose ¹possession the cup has been found, he shall be my slave; but as for you, go up in peace to your father.”

Judah Remains Instead of Benjamin

¹⁸Then Judah came near to him and said, “O my lord, may your servant please speak a word in my lord’s ears, and ^1ado not be angry with your servant; for ^byou are equal to Pharaoh.

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

²⁰“And we said to my lord, ‘We have an old father and ^aa little child of his old age. Now ^bhis brother is dead, so he alone is left of his mother, and his father loves him.’

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

²²“And we said to my lord, ‘The boy cannot leave his father; if he should leave his father, ¹his father would die.’

²³“You said to your servants, however, ‘^aIf your youngest brother does not come down with you, you will not see my face again.’

²⁴“Thus it happened that when we went up to your servant my father, we told him the words of my lord.

²⁵“^aAnd our father said, ‘Go back, buy us a little food.’

²⁶“But we said, ‘We cannot go down. If our youngest brother is with us, then we will go down; for we cannot see the man’s face if our youngest brother is not with us.’

²⁷“And your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that ^amy wife bore me two sons;

²⁸and the one went out from me, and ^aI said, “Surely he is torn to pieces,” and I have not seen him since.

²⁹‘If you take this one also from ¹me and harm befalls him, you will ^abring my gray hair down to Sheol in ²evil.’

³⁰“So now, when I come to your servant my father, and the boy is not with us—^1aand his life is bound up in the boy’s life—

³¹so it will be that when he sees that the boy is not with us, he will die. Thus your servants will ^abring the gray hair of your servant our father down to Sheol in sorrow.

³²“For your servant ^abecame a guarantee for the boy to my father, saying, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, ¹then I shall bear the sin before my father all my days.’

³³“So now, please let your servant remain instead of the boy as a slave to my lord, and let the boy go up with his brothers.

³⁴“For how shall I go up to my father if the boy is not with me, lest I see the evil that would ¹overtake my father?”

CHAPTER 45

Joseph Sends for Jacob

¹Then Joseph could not restrain himself before all those who stood by him, and he called out, “Have everyone go out from me.” So there ¹was no man with him ^awhen Joseph made himself known to his brothers.

^2aThen he ¹wept loudly. And the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it.

³Then Joseph said to his brothers, “^aI am Joseph! ^bIs my father still alive?” But his brothers could not answer him, for ^cthey were terrified at his presence.

⁴Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Please come near to me.” And they came near. And he said, “I am Joseph, your brother, whom you ^asold into Egypt.

⁵“So now do not be grieved or angry ¹with yourselves because ^ayou sold me here, for ^bGod sent me before you to preserve life.

⁶“For the famine has been in the land ^athese two years, and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting.

⁷“^aSo God sent me before you to establish for you a remnant in the earth and to keep you alive for a great remnant of survivors.

⁸“So now, it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has set me as a ^afather to Pharaoh and lord of all his household and ruler over all the land of Egypt.

⁹“Hurry and go up to my father, and ^asay to him, ‘Thus says your son Joseph, “God has set me as lord of all Egypt; come down to me, do not delay.

¹⁰“And you shall ¹live in the land of ^aGoshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children and your children’s children and your flocks and your herds and all that you have.

¹¹“There I will also ^aprovide for you, for there are still five years of famine to come, lest you and your household and all that you have be impoverished.” ’

¹²“And behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see, that it is my mouth which is speaking to you.

¹³“So you must tell my father of all my glory in Egypt and all that you have seen; and you must hurry and ^abring my father down here.”

¹⁴Then he fell on his brother Benjamin’s neck and ^awept, and Benjamin wept on his neck.

¹⁵He kissed all his brothers and wept on them, and afterward his brothers talked with him.

¹⁶Now ^athe ¹news was heard in Pharaoh’s house, saying, “Joseph’s brothers have come.” And it was good in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants.

¹⁷Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Say to your brothers, ‘Do this: load your beasts and ¹go to the land of Canaan,

¹⁸and take your father and your households and come to me, and ^aI will give you the ¹best of the land of Egypt, and you will eat the fat of the land.’

¹⁹“Now you are commanded, ‘Do this: ¹take ^awagons from the land of Egypt for your little ones and for your wives, and bring your father and come.

²⁰‘Now do not ¹concern yourselves with your goods, for the ²best of all the land of Egypt is yours.’”

²¹Then the sons of Israel did so; and Joseph gave them ^awagons according to the ¹command of Pharaoh, and he gave them provisions for the journey.

²²To ¹each of them he gave ^achanges of garments, but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver and ^bfive changes of garments.

²³Now to his father he sent ¹as follows: ten donkeys loaded with the ²best things of Egypt and ten female donkeys loaded with grain and bread and sustenance for his father ³on the journey.

²⁴So he sent his brothers away, and they departed. And he said to them, “Do not be stirred up on the journey.”

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

²⁶And they told him, saying, “Joseph is still alive, and indeed he is ruler over all the land of Egypt.” But ¹his heart was stunned, for ^ahe did not believe them.

²⁷Yet they told him all the words of Joseph that he had spoken to them, and he saw the ^awagons that Joseph had sent to carry him. Then the spirit of their father Jacob revived.

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

CHAPTER 46

Jacob Moves to Egypt

¹So Israel set out with all that he had and came to ^aBeersheba and offered sacrifices to the ^bGod of his father Isaac.

^2aAnd God spoke to Israel ¹in visions of the night and said, “^bJacob, Jacob.” And he said, “Here I am.”

³And He said, “^aI am God, the God of your father; do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will ^bmake you a great nation there.

⁴“^aI Myself will go down with you to Egypt, and ^bI Myself will also bring you up again; and ^cJoseph will ¹close your eyes with his hand.”

⁵Then Jacob arose from Beersheba; and the sons of Israel carried their father Jacob and their little ones and their wives in the ^awagons which Pharaoh had sent to carry him.

⁶And they took their livestock and their possessions, which they had accumulated in the land of Canaan, and they ^acame to Egypt, Jacob and all his seed with him:

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

⁸Now these are the ^anames of the sons of Israel—of Jacob and his sons—who were coming to Egypt: Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn.

⁹The sons of Reuben: Hanoch and Pallu and Hezron and Carmi.

¹⁰The ^asons of Simeon: ¹Jemuel and Jamin and Ohad and ²Jachin and ³Zohar and Shaul the son of a Canaanite woman.

¹¹The sons of Levi: ¹Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

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

¹³The sons of Issachar: Tola and ¹Puvvah and ²Iob and Shimron.

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

¹⁵These are the sons of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob in…