Genesis 44–50

Chapter 44

The Brothers Are Brought Back

^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“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 soon as it was light, the men were sent away, they with their donkeys.

⁴They had just gone out of ^athe city, and were not far off, when Joseph said to his house steward, “Up, follow the men; and when you overtake them, 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 for ^adivination? You have done wrong in doing this.’ ”

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

⁷They 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, and the rest of you shall be innocent.”

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

¹²He 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 when each man loaded his donkey, they returned to ^bthe city.

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

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

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.”

¹⁸Then Judah approached him, and said, “Oh 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“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“But we said to my lord, ‘The lad cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father, ¹his father would die.’

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

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

²⁵“^aOur 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 unless our youngest brother is with us.’

²⁷“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 in 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 ²sorrow.’

³⁰“Now, therefore, when I come to your servant my father, and the lad is not with us, since ^1ahis life is bound up in the lad’s life,

³¹when he sees that the lad 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 surety for the lad to my father, saying, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, then ¹let me bear the blame before my father forever.’

³³“Now, therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the lad a slave to my lord, and let the lad go up with his brothers.

³⁴“For how shall I go up to my father if the lad is not with me—for fear that I see the evil that would ¹overtake my father?”

Chapter 45

Joseph Deals Kindly with His Brothers

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

^2aHe ¹wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard of 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 dismayed at his presence.

⁴Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Please come ¹closer to me.” And they came closer. And he said, “I am your brother Joseph, whom you ^asold into Egypt.

⁵“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“^aGod sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth, and to keep you alive by a great ¹deliverance.

⁸“Now, therefore, it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me 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 made me lord of all Egypt; come down to me, do not delay.

¹⁰“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, and you and your household and all that you have would be impoverished.” ’

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

¹³“Now you must tell my father of all my splendor 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 when ^athe ¹news was heard in Pharaoh’s house ²that Joseph’s brothers had come, it ³pleased Pharaoh and 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 ordered, ‘Do this: ¹take ^awagons from the land of Egypt for your little ones and for your wives, and bring your father and come.

²⁰‘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 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.

²³To 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 ¹as they departed, he said to them, “Do not ²quarrel on the journey.”

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

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

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

²⁸Then 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.

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

³He 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 will go down with you to Egypt, and ^bI will also surely bring you up again; and ^cJoseph will ¹close your eyes.”

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.

⁶They took their livestock and their property, which they had acquired in the land of Canaan, and ^acame to Egypt, Jacob and all his ¹descendants with him:

⁷his sons and his grandsons with him, his daughters and his granddaughters, and all his ¹descendants he brought with him to Egypt.

Those Who Came to Egypt

⁸Now these are the ^anames of the sons of Israel, Jacob and his sons, who went 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 Paddan-aram, with his daughter Dinah; ¹all his sons and his daughters numbered thirty-three.

¹⁶The ^asons of Gad: ¹Ziphion and Haggi, Shuni and ²Ezbon,…