The Living Bible (18 page)
Authors: Inc. Tyndale House Publishers
Tags: #BIBLES / Other Translations / Text
Joseph could stand it no longer.
“Out, all of you,” he cried out to his attendants, and he was left alone with his brothers.
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Then he wept aloud. His sobs could be heard throughout the palace, and the news was quickly carried to Pharaoh’s palace.
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“I am Joseph!” he said to his brothers. “Is my father still alive?” But his brothers couldn’t say a word, they were so stunned with surprise.
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“Come over here,” he said. So they came closer. And he said again, “I am Joseph, your brother whom you sold into Egypt!
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But don’t be angry with yourselves that you did this to me, for God did it! He sent me here ahead of you to preserve your lives.
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These two years of famine will grow to seven, during which there will be neither plowing nor harvest.
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God has sent me here to keep you and your families alive, so that you will become a great nation.
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Yes, it was God who sent me here, not you! And he has made me a counselor to Pharaoh, and manager of this entire nation, ruler of all the land of Egypt.
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“Hurry, return to my father and tell him, ‘Your son Joseph says, “God has made me chief of all the land of Egypt. Come down to me right away!
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You shall live in the land of Goshen so that you can be near me with all your children, your grandchildren, your flocks and herds, and all that you have.
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I will take care of you there”’ (you men are witnesses of my promise, and my brother Benjamin has heard me say it) ‘“for there are still five years of famine ahead of us. Otherwise you will come to utter poverty along with all your household.”’
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Tell our father about all my power here in Egypt, and how everyone obeys me. And bring him to me quickly.”
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Then, weeping with joy, he embraced Benjamin and Benjamin began weeping too.
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And he did the same with each of his brothers, who finally found their tongues!
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The news soon reached Pharaoh—“Joseph’s brothers have come”; and Pharaoh was very happy to hear it, as were his officials.
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Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Tell your brothers to load their pack animals and return quickly to their homes in Canaan,
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and to bring your father and all of your families and come here to Egypt to live. Tell them, ‘Pharaoh will assign to you the very best territory in the land of Egypt. You shall live off the fat of the land!’
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And tell your brothers to take wagons from Egypt to carry their wives and little ones, and to bring your father here.
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Don’t worry about your property, for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours.”
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So Joseph gave them wagons, as Pharaoh had commanded, and provisions for the journey,
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and he gave each of them new clothes—but to Benjamin he gave five changes of clothes and three hundred pieces of silver!
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He sent his father ten donkey-loads of the good things of Egypt, and ten donkeys loaded with grain and all kinds of other food, to eat on his journey.
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So he sent his brothers off.
“Don’t quarrel along the way!” was his parting shot!
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And leaving, they returned to the land of Canaan, to Jacob their father.
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“Joseph is alive,” they shouted to him. “And he is ruler over all the land of Egypt!” But Jacob’s heart was like a stone; he couldn’t take it in.
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But when they had given him Joseph’s messages, and when he saw the wagons filled with food that Joseph had sent him, his spirit revived.
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And he said, “It must be true! Joseph my son is alive! I will go and see him before I die.”
So Israel set out with all his possessions, and came to Beer-sheba, and offered sacrifices there to the God of his father, Isaac.
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During the night God spoke to him in a vision.
“Jacob! Jacob!” he called.
“Yes?” Jacob answered.
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“I am God,” the voice replied, “the God of your father. Don’t be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will see to it that you become a great nation there. And I will go down with you into Egypt and I will bring your descendants back again; but you shall die in Egypt with Joseph at your side.”
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So Jacob left Beer-sheba, and his sons brought him to Egypt, along with their little ones and their wives, in the wagons Pharaoh had provided for them.
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They brought their livestock, too, and all their belongings accumulated in the land of Canaan, and came to Egypt—Jacob and all his children,
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sons and daughters, grandsons and granddaughters—all his loved ones.
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Here are the names of his sons and grandchildren who went with him into Egypt:
Reuben, his oldest son;
Reuben’s sons: Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi.
Simeon and his sons: Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul (Shaul’s mother was a girl from Canaan).
Levi and his sons: Gershon, Kohath, Merari.
Judah and his sons: Er, Onan, Shelah, Perez, Zerah (however, Er and Onan died while still in Canaan, before Israel went to Egypt).
The sons of Perez were Hezron and Hamul.
Issachar and his sons: Tola, Puvah, Iob, Shimron.
Zebulun and his sons: Sered, Elon, Jahleel.
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So these descendants of Jacob and Leah, not including their daughter Dinah, born to Jacob in Paddan-aram, were thirty-three in all.
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Also accompanying him were:
Gad and his sons: Ziphion, Haggi, Shuni, Ezbon, Eri, Arodi, and Areli.
Asher and his sons: Imnah, Ishvah, Ishvi, Beriah, and a sister, Serah.
Beriah’s sons were Heber and Malchiel.
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These sixteen persons were the sons of Jacob and Zilpah, the slave girl given to Leah by her father, Laban.
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Also in the total of Jacob’s household were these fourteen sons and descendants of Jacob and Rachel:
Joseph and Benjamin;
Joseph’s sons,
born in the land of Egypt, were Manasseh and Ephraim (their mother was Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera, priest of Heliopolis);
Benjamin’s sons:
Bela, Becher, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ehi, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim, and Ard.
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Also in the group were these seven sons and descendants of Jacob and Bilhah, the slave girl given to Rachel by her father, Laban:
Dan and his son: Hushim.
Naphtali and his sons: Jahzeel, Guni, Jezer, and Shillem.
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So the total number of those going to Egypt, of his own descendants, not counting the wives of Jacob’s sons, was sixty-six.
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With Joseph and his two sons included, the total number of people in Jacob’s household there in Egypt was seventy.
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Jacob sent Judah on ahead to tell Joseph that they were on the way, and would soon arrive in Goshen—which they did.
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Joseph jumped into his chariot and journeyed to Goshen to meet his father and they fell into each other’s arms and wept a long while.
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Then Israel said to Joseph, “Now let me die, for I have seen you again and know you are alive.”
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And Joseph said to his brothers and to all their households, “I’ll go and tell Pharaoh that you are here, and that you have come from the land of Canaan to join me.
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And I will tell him, ‘These men are shepherds. They have brought with them their flocks and herds and everything they own.’
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So when Pharaoh calls for you and asks you about your occupation,
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tell him, ‘We have been shepherds from our youth, as our fathers have been for many generations.’ When you tell him this, he will let you live here in the land of Goshen.” For shepherds were despised and hated in other parts of Egypt.
Upon their arrival, Joseph went in to see Pharaoh.
“My father and my brothers are here from Canaan,” he reported, “with all their flocks and herds and possessions. They wish to settle in the land of Goshen.”
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He took five of his brothers with him, and presented them to Pharaoh.
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Pharaoh asked them, “What is your occupation?”
And they replied, “We are shepherds like our ancestors.
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We have come to live here in Egypt, for there is no pasture for our flocks in Canaan—the famine is very bitter there. We request permission to live in the land of Goshen.”
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And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Choose anywhere you like for them to live. Give them the best land of Egypt. The land of Goshen will be fine. And if any of them are capable, put them in charge of my flocks, too.”
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Then Joseph brought his father Jacob to Pharaoh. And Jacob blessed Pharaoh.
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“How old are you?” Pharaoh asked him.
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Jacob replied, “I have lived 130 long, hard years, and I am not nearly as old as many of my ancestors.”
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Then Jacob blessed Pharaoh again before he left.
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So Joseph assigned the best land of Egypt—the land of Rameses—to his father and brothers, just as Pharaoh had commanded.
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And Joseph furnished food to them in accordance with the number of their dependents.
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The famine became worse and worse, so that all the land of Egypt and Canaan was starving.
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Joseph collected all the money in Egypt and Canaan in exchange for grain, and he brought the money to Pharaoh’s treasure-houses.
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When the people were out of money, they came to Joseph crying again for food.
“Our money is gone,” they said, “but give us bread; for why should we die?”
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“Well then,” Joseph replied, “give me your livestock. I will trade you food in exchange.”
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So they brought their cattle to Joseph in exchange for food. Soon all the horses, flocks, herds, and donkeys of Egypt were in Pharaoh’s possession.
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The next year they came again and said, “Our money is gone, and our cattle are yours, and there is nothing left but our bodies and land.
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Why should we die? Buy us and our land and we will be serfs to Pharaoh. We will trade ourselves for food, then we will live, and the land won’t be abandoned.”
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So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh; all the Egyptians sold him their fields because the famine was so severe. And the land became Pharaoh’s.
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Thus all the people of Egypt became Pharaoh’s serfs.
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The only land he didn’t buy was that belonging to the priests, for they were assigned food from Pharaoh and didn’t need to sell.
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Then Joseph said to the people, “See, I have bought you and your land for Pharaoh. Here is grain. Go and sow the land.
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And when you harvest it, a fifth of everything you get belongs to Pharaoh. Keep four parts for yourselves to be used for next year’s seed, and as food for yourselves and for your households and little ones.”
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“You have saved our lives,” they said. “We will gladly be the serfs of Pharaoh.”
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So Joseph made it a law throughout the land of Egypt—and it is still the law—that Pharaoh should have as his tax 20 percent of all the crops except those produced on the land owned by the temples.
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So Israel lived in the land of Goshen in Egypt, and soon the people of Israel began to prosper, and there was a veritable population explosion among them.
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Jacob lived seventeen years after his arrival, so that he was 147 years old at the time of his death.
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As the time drew near for him to die, he called for his son Joseph and said to him, “Swear to me most solemnly that you will honor this, my last request: do not bury me in Egypt.
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But when I am dead, take me out of Egypt and bury me beside my ancestors.” And Joseph promised.
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“Swear that you will do it,” Jacob insisted. And Joseph did. Soon afterwards Jacob took to his bed.