Genesis 45–46

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, Eri and ³Arodi and Areli.

¹⁷The ^asons of Asher: Imnah and Ishvah and Ishvi and Beriah and their sister Serah. And the ^bsons of Beriah: Heber and Malchiel.

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

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

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

²¹The ^asons of Benjamin: Bela and Becher and Ashbel, Gera and Naaman, ¹Ehi and Rosh, ²Muppim and ³Huppim and Ard.

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

²³The sons of Dan: ¹Hushim.

²⁴The sons of Naphtali: ¹Jahzeel and Guni and Jezer and ²Shillem.

²⁵These are the ^asons of Bilhah, whom ^bLaban gave to his daughter Rachel, and she bore these to Jacob; there were seven persons in all.

^26aAll the persons belonging to Jacob, who came to Egypt, ¹his direct descendants, not including the wives of Jacob’s sons, were sixty-six persons in all,

²⁷and the sons of Joseph, who were born to him in Egypt were ¹two; ^aall the persons of the house of Jacob, who came to Egypt, were seventy.

²⁸Now he sent Judah before him to Joseph, to point out the way before him to ^aGoshen; and they came into the land of Goshen.

²⁹Joseph ¹prepared his chariot and went up to Goshen to meet his father Israel; as soon as he appeared ²before him, he fell on his neck and ^awept on his neck a long time.

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

³¹Joseph said to his brothers and to his father’s household, “^aI 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 ¹keepers of livestock; and they have brought their flocks and their herds and all that they have.’

³³“When Pharaoh calls you and says, ‘^aWhat is your occupation?’

³⁴you shall say, ‘Your servants have been ^1akeepers of livestock from our youth even until now, both we and our fathers,’ that you may ²live in the land of ^bGoshen; for every shepherd is ^3cloathsome to the Egyptians.”