Chapter 45

Joseph Deals Kindly with His Brothers

1 Then 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.

2 aHe 1wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard of it.

3 Then 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.

4 Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Please come 1closer to me.” And they came 1closer. 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.”

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

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

16 Now when athe 1news was heard in Pharaoh’s house 2that Joseph’s brothers had come, it 3pleased Pharaoh and his servants.

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

18 and 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.’ ”

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

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

23 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.

24 So he sent his brothers away, and 1as they departed, he said to them, “Do not 2quarrel on the journey.”

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

26 They 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.

27 When 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.

28 Then 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

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

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

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

5 Then 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.

6 They 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:

7 his 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

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

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

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

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

12 The 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.

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

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

15 These 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.

16 The asons of Gad: 1Ziphion and Haggi, Shuni and 2Ezbon, Eri and 3Arodi and Areli.

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

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

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

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

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

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

23 The sons of Dan: 1Hushim.

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

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

26 aAll 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,

27 and 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.

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

29 Joseph 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.

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

31 Joseph 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;

32 and 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?’

34 you 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.”

Chapter 47

Jacob’s Family Settles in Goshen

1 Then aJoseph went in and told Pharaoh, and said, “My father and my brothers and their flocks and their herds and all that they have, have come out of the land of Canaan; and behold, they are in the land of bGoshen.”

2 He took five men from among his brothers and apresented them to Pharaoh.

3 Then Pharaoh said to his brothers, “aWhat is your occupation?” So they said to Pharaoh, “Your servants are bshepherds, both we and our fathers.”

4 They said to Pharaoh, “aWe have come to sojourn in the land, for there is no pasture for your servants’ flocks, for bthe famine is severe in the land of Canaan. Now, therefore, please let your servants 1clive in the land of Goshen.”

5 Then Pharaoh said to 1Joseph, “Your father and your brothers have come to you.

6 “The land of Egypt is 1at your disposal; 2settle your father and your brothers in athe best of the land, let them 3live in the land of Goshen; and if you know any bcapable men among them, then 4put them in charge of my livestock.”

7 Then Joseph brought his father Jacob and 1presented him to Pharaoh; and Jacob ablessed Pharaoh.

8 Pharaoh said to Jacob, “How many 1years have you lived?”

9 So Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The 1ayears of my sojourning are one hundred and 2thirty; few and 3unpleasant have been the 1years of my life, nor have they 4attained bthe 1years 5that my fathers lived during the days of their sojourning.”

10 And Jacob ablessed Pharaoh, and went out from 1his presence.

11 So Joseph 1settled his father and his brothers and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in athe best of the land, in the land of bRameses, as Pharaoh had ordered.

12 Joseph aprovided his father and his brothers and all his father’s household with 1food, according to their little ones.

13 Now there was no 1food in all the land, because the famine was very severe, so that athe land of Egypt and the land of Canaan languished because of the famine.

14 aJoseph gathered all the money that was found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan for the grain which they bought, and Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh’s house.

15 When the money was all spent in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came to Joseph 1and said, “Give us 2food, for awhy should we die in your presence? For our money 3is gone.”

16 Then Joseph said, “Give up your livestock, and I will give you food for your livestock, since your money 1is gone.”

17 So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and Joseph gave them 1food in exchange for the horses and the 2flocks and the herds and the donkeys; and he 3fed them with 1food in exchange for all their livestock 4that year.

18 When that year was ended, they came to him the 1next year and said to him, “We will not hide from my lord that our money is all spent, and the 2cattle are my lord’s. There is nothing left 3for my lord except our bodies and our lands.

19 “Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land for 1food, and we and our land will be slaves to Pharaoh. So give us seed, that we may live and not die, and that the land may not be desolate.”

Result of the Famine

20 So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh, for 1every Egyptian sold his field, because the famine was severe upon them. Thus the land became Pharaoh’s.

21 As for the people, he removed them to the cities from one end of Egypt’s border to the other.

22 Only the land of the priests he did not buy, for the priests had an allotment from Pharaoh, and they 1lived off the allotment which Pharaoh gave them. Therefore, they did not sell their land.

23 Then Joseph said to the people, “Behold, I have today bought you and your land for Pharaoh; now, here is seed for you, and you may sow the land.

24 “1At the harvest you shall give a afifth to Pharaoh, and 2four-fifths shall be your own for seed of the field and for your food and for those of your households and as food for your little ones.”

25 So they said, “You have saved our lives! Let us find favor in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh’s slaves.”

26 Joseph made it a statute concerning the land of Egypt valid to this day, that Pharaoh should have the fifth; aonly the land of the priests 1did not become Pharaoh’s.

27 Now Israel 1lived in the land of Egypt, in 2Goshen, and they aacquired property in it and bwere fruitful and became very numerous.

28 Jacob lived in the land of Egypt aseventeen years; so the 1length of Jacob’s life was one hundred and forty-seven years.

29 When 1athe time for Israel to die drew near, he called his son Joseph and said to him, “Please, if I have found favor in your sight, bplace now your hand under my thigh and cdeal with me in kindness and 2faithfulness. Please do not bury me in Egypt,

30 but when I alie down with my fathers, you shall carry me out of Egypt and bury me in btheir burial place.” And he said, “I will do as you have said.”

31 He said, “aSwear to me.” So he swore to him. Then bIsrael bowed in worship at the head of the bed.