The World English Bible (WEB) Part 10

44:10 He said, "Now also let it be according to your words: he with whom it is found will be my bondservant; and you will be blameless."

44:11 Then they hurried, and every man took his sack down to the ground, and every man opened his sack. 44:12 He searched, beginning with the eldest, and ending at the youngest. The cup was found in Benjamin's sack. 44:13 Then they tore their clothes, and every man loaded his donkey, and returned to the city.

44:14 Judah and his brothers came to Joseph's house, and he was still there. They fell on the ground before him. 44:15 Joseph said to them, "What deed is this that you have done? Don't you know that such a man as I can indeed divine?"

44:16 Judah said, "What will we tell my lord? What will we speak? Or how will we clear ourselves? G.o.d has found out the iniquity of your servants. Behold, we are my lord's bondservants, both we, and he also in whose hand the cup is found."

44:17 He said, "Far be it from me that I should do so. The man in whose hand the cup is found, he will be my bondservant; but as for you, go up in peace to your father."

44:18 Then Judah came near to him, and said, "Oh, my lord, please let your servant speak a word in my lord's ears, and don't let your anger burn against your servant; for you are even as Pharaoh. 44:19 My lord asked his servants, saying, 'Have you a father, or a brother?' 44:20 We said to my lord, 'We have a father, an old man, and a child of his old age, a little one; and his brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother; and his father loves him.' 44:21 You said to your servants, 'Bring him down to me, that I may set my eyes on him.' 44:22 We said to my lord, 'The boy can't leave his father: for if he should leave his father, his father would die.' 44:23 You said to your servants, 'Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you will see my face no more.' 44:24 It happened when we came up to your servant my father, we told him the words of my lord. 44:25 Our father said, 'Go again, buy us a little food.' 44:26 We said, 'We can't go down. If our youngest brother is with us, then we will go down: for we may not see the man's face, unless our youngest brother is with us.' 44:27 Your servant, my father, said to us, 'You know that my wife bore me two sons: 44:28 and the one went out from me, and I said, "Surely he is torn in pieces;" and I haven't seen him since. 44:29 If you take this one also from me, and harm happens to him, you will bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Sheol.' 44:30 Now therefore when I come to your servant my father, and the boy is not with us; seeing that his life is bound up in the boy's life; 44:31 it will happen, when he sees that the boy is no more, that he will die. Your servants will bring down the gray hairs of your servant, our father, with sorrow to Sheol. 44:32 For your servant became collateral for the boy to my father, saying, 'If I don't bring him to you, then I will bear the blame to my father forever.' 44:33 Now therefore, please let your servant stay instead of the boy, a bondservant to my lord; and let the boy go up with his brothers. 44:34 For how will I go up to my father, if the boy isn't with me?--lest I see the evil that will come on my father."

45:1 Then Joseph couldn't control himself before all those who stood before him, and he cried, "Cause every man to go out from me!" No one else stood with him, while Joseph made himself known to his brothers.

45:2 He wept aloud. The Egyptians heard, and the house of Pharaoh heard.

45:3 Joseph said to his brothers, "I am Joseph! Does my father still live?"

His brothers couldn't answer him; for they were terrified at his presence. 45:4 Joseph said to his brothers, "Come near to me, please."

They came near. "He said, I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. 45:5 Now don't be grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that you sold me here, for G.o.d sent me before you to preserve life. 45:6 For these two years the famine has been in the land, and there are yet five years, in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. 45:7 G.o.d sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth, and to save you alive by a great deliverance. 45:8 So now it wasn't you who sent me here, but G.o.d, and he has made me a father to Pharaoh, lord of all his house, and ruler over all the land of Egypt. 45:9 Hurry, and go up to my father, and tell him, 'This is what your son Joseph says, "G.o.d has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me. Don't wait. 45:10 You shall dwell in the land of Goshen, and you will be near to me, you, your children, your children's children, your flocks, your herds, and all that you have. 45:11 There I will nourish you; for there are yet five years of famine; lest you come to poverty, you, and your household, and all that you have."' 45:12 Behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that it is my mouth that speaks to you. 45:13 You shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt, and of all that you have seen. You shall hurry and bring my father down here." 45:14 He fell on his brother Benjamin's neck, and wept, and Benjamin wept on his neck. 45:15 He kissed all his brothers, and wept on them. After that his brothers talked with him.

45:16 The report of it was heard in Pharaoh's house, saying, "Joseph's brothers have come." It pleased Pharaoh well, and his servants. 45:17 Pharaoh said to Joseph, "Tell your brothers, 'Do this. Load your animals, and go, travel to the land of Canaan. 45:18 Take your father and your households, and come to me, and I will give you the good of the land of Egypt, and you will eat the fat of the land.' 45:19 Now you are commanded: do this. Take wagons out of the land of Egypt for your little ones, and for your wives, and bring your father, and come. 45:20 Also, don't concern yourselves about your belongings, for the good of all of the land of Egypt is yours."

45:21 The sons of Israel did so. Joseph gave them wagons, according to the commandment of Pharaoh, and gave them provision for the way. 45:22 He gave each one of them changes of clothing, but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver and five changes of clothing. 45:23 To his father, he sent after this manner: ten donkeys loaded with the good things of Egypt, and ten female donkeys loaded with grain and bread and provision for his father by the way. 45:24 So he sent his brothers away, and they departed. He said to them, "See that you don't quarrel on the way."

45:25 They went up out of Egypt, and came into the land of Canaan, to Jacob their father. 45:26 They told him, saying, "Joseph is still alive, and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt." His heart fainted, for he didn't believe them. 45:27 They told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said to them. When he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob, their father, revived. 45:28 Israel said, "It is enough. Joseph my son is still alive. I will go and see him before I die."

46:1 Israel traveled with all that he had, and came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices to the G.o.d of his father, Isaac. 46:2 G.o.d spoke to Israel in the visions of the night, and said, "Jacob, Jacob!"

He said, "Here I am."

46:3 He said, "I am G.o.d, the G.o.d of your father. Don't be afraid to go down into Egypt, for there I will make of you a great nation. 46:4 I will go down with you into Egypt. I will also surely bring you up again.

Joseph will close your eyes."

46:5 Jacob rose up from Beersheba, and the sons of Israel carried Jacob, their father, their little ones, and their wives, in the wagons which Pharaoh had sent to carry him. 46:6 They took their livestock, and their goods, which they had gotten in the land of Canaan, and came into Egypt- -Jacob, and all his seed with him, 46:7 his sons, and his sons' sons with him, his daughters, and his sons' daughters, and he brought all his seed with him into Egypt.

46:8 These are the names of the children of Israel, who came into Egypt, Jacob and his sons: Reuben, Jacob's firstborn. 46:9 The sons of Reuben: Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi. 46:10 The sons of Simeon: Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul the son of a Canaanite woman.

46:11 The sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. 46:12 The sons of Judah: Er, Onan, Shelah, Perez, and Zerah; but Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan. The sons of Perez were Hezron and Hamul. 46:13 The sons of Issachar: Tola, Puvah, Iob, and Shimron. 46:14 The sons of Zebulun: Sered, Elon, and Jahleel. 46:15 These are the sons of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob in Paddan Aram, with his daughter Dinah. All the souls of his sons and his daughters were thirty-three. 46:16 The sons of Gad: Ziphion, Haggi, Shuni, Ezbon, Eri, Arodi, and Areli. 46:17 The sons of Asher: Imnah, Ishvah, Ishvi, Beriah, and Serah their sister. The sons of Beriah: Heber and Malchiel. 46:18 These are the sons of Zilpah, whom Laban gave to Leah, his daughter, and these she bore to Jacob, even sixteen souls. 46:19 The sons of Rachel, Jacob's wife: Joseph and Benjamin. 46:20 To Joseph in the land of Egypt were born Mana.s.seh and Ephraim, whom Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, bore to him. 46:21 The sons of Benjamin: Bela, Becher, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ehi, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim, and Ard. 46:22 These are the sons of Rachel, who were born to Jacob: all the souls were fourteen. 46:23 The son of Dan: Hushim. 46:24 The sons of Naphtali: Jahzeel, Guni, Jezer, and Shillem. 46:25 These are the sons of Bilhah, whom Laban gave to Rachel, his daughter, and these she bore to Jacob: all the souls were seven.

46:26 All the souls who came with Jacob into Egypt, who were his direct descendants, besides Jacob's sons' wives, all the souls were sixty-six.

46:27 The sons of Joseph, who were born to him in Egypt, were two souls.

All the souls of the house of Jacob, who came into Egypt, were seventy.

46:28 He sent Judah before him to Joseph, to show the way before him to Goshen, and they came into the land of Goshen. 46:29 Joseph made ready his chariot, and went up to meet Israel, his father, in Goshen. He presented himself to him, and fell on his neck, and wept on his neck a good while. 46:30 Israel said to Joseph, "Now let me die, since I have seen your face, that you are still alive."

46:31 Joseph said to his brothers, and to his father's house, "I will go up, and speak with Pharaoh, and will tell him, 'My brothers, and my father's house, who were in the land of Canaan, have come to me. 46:32 These men are shepherds, for they have been keepers of livestock, and they have brought their flocks, and their herds, and all that they have.' 46:33 It will happen, when Pharaoh summons you, and will say, 'What is your occupation?' 46:34 that you shall say, 'Your servants have been keepers of livestock from our youth even until now, both we, and our fathers:' that you may dwell in the land of Goshen; for every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians."

47:1 Then Joseph went in and told Pharaoh, and said, "My father and my brothers, with their flocks, their herds, and all that they own, have come out of the land of Canaan; and behold, they are in the land of Goshen." 47:2 From among his brothers he took five men, and presented them to Pharaoh. 47:3 Pharaoh said to his brothers, "What is your occupation?"

They said to Pharaoh, "Your servants are shepherds, both we, and our fathers." 47:4 They said to Pharaoh, "We have come to live as foreigners in the land, for there is no pasture for your servants' flocks. For the famine is severe in the land of Canaan. Now therefore, please let your servants dwell in the land of Goshen."

47:5 Pharaoh spoke to Joseph, saying, "Your father and your brothers have come to you. 47:6 The land of Egypt is before you. Make your father and your brothers dwell in the best of the land. Let them dwell in the land of Goshen. If you know any able men among them, then put them in charge of my livestock."

47:7 Joseph brought in Jacob, his father, and set him before Pharaoh, and Jacob blessed Pharaoh. 47:8 Pharaoh said to Jacob, "How many are the days of the years of your life?"

47:9 Jacob said to Pharaoh, "The days of the years of my pilgrimage are one hundred thirty years. Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage." 47:10 Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from the presence of Pharaoh.

47:11 Joseph placed his father and his brothers, and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded. 47:12 Joseph nourished his father, his brothers, and all of his father's household, with bread, according to their families.

47:13 There was no bread in all the land; for the famine was very severe, so that the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan fainted by reason of the famine. 47:14 Joseph gathered up 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.

47:15 When the money was all spent in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came to Joseph, and said, "Give us bread, for why should we die in your presence? For our money fails."

47:16 Joseph said, "Give me your livestock; and I will give you food for your livestock, if your money is gone."

47:17 They brought their livestock to Joseph, and Joseph gave them bread in exchange for the horses, and for the flocks, and for the herds, and for the donkeys: and he fed them with bread in exchange for all their livestock for that year. 47:18 When that year was ended, they came to him the second year, and said to him, "We will not hide from my lord how our money is all spent, and the herds of livestock are my lord's. There is nothing left in the sight of my lord, but our bodies, and our lands.

47:19 Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants to Pharaoh.

Give us seed, that we may live, and not die, and that the land won't be desolate."

47:20 So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh, for the Egyptians sold every man his field, because the famine was severe on them, and the land became Pharaoh's. 47:21 As for the people, he moved them to the cities from one end of the border of Egypt even to the other end of it. 47:22 Only he didn't buy the land of the priests, for the priests had a portion from Pharaoh, and ate their portion which Pharaoh gave them. That is why they didn't sell their land. 47:23 Then Joseph said to the people, "Behold, I have bought you and your land today for Pharaoh. Behold, here is seed for you, and you shall sow the land. 47:24 It will happen at the harvests, that you shall give a fifth to Pharaoh, and four parts will be your own, for seed of the field, for your food, for them of your households, and for food for your little ones."

47:25 They said, "You have saved our lives! Let us find favor in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh's servants."

47:26 Joseph made it a statute concerning the land of Egypt to this day, that Pharaoh should have the fifth. Only the land of the priests alone didn't become Pharaoh's.

47:27 Israel lived in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen; and they got themselves possessions therein, and were fruitful, and multiplied exceedingly. 47:28 Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years. So the days of Jacob, the years of his life, were one hundred forty-seven years. 47:29 The time drew near that Israel must die, and he called his son Joseph, and said to him, "If now I have found favor in your sight, please put your hand under my thigh, and deal kindly and truly with me.

Please don't bury me in Egypt, 47:30 but when I sleep with my fathers, you shall carry me out of Egypt, and bury me in their burying place."

He said, "I will do as you have said."

47:31 He said, "Swear to me," and he swore to him. Israel bowed himself on the bed's head.

48:1 It happened after these things, that someone said to Joseph, "Behold, your father is sick." He took with him his two sons, Mana.s.seh and Ephraim. 48:2 Someone told Jacob, and said, "Behold, your son Joseph comes to you," and Israel strengthened himself, and sat on the bed. 48:3 Jacob said to Joseph, "G.o.d Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and blessed me, 48:4 and said to me, 'Behold, I will make you fruitful, and multiply you, and I will make of you a company of peoples, and will give this land to your seed after you for an everlasting possession.' 48:5 Now your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you into Egypt, are mine; Ephraim and Mana.s.seh, even as Reuben and Simeon, will be mine. 48:6 Your issue, who you become the father of after them, will be yours. They will be called after the name of their brothers in their inheritance. 48:7 As for me, when I came from Paddan, Rachel died by me in the land of Canaan in the way, when there was still some distance to come to Ephrath, and I buried her there in the way to Ephrath (the same is Bethlehem)."

48:8 Israel saw Joseph's sons, and said, "Who are these?"

48:9 Joseph said to his father, "They are my sons, whom G.o.d has given me here."

He said, "Please bring them to me, and I will bless them." 48:10 Now the eyes of Israel were dim for age, so that he couldn't see. He brought them near to him; and he kissed them, and embraced them. 48:11 Israel said to Joseph, "I didn't think I would see your face, and behold, G.o.d has let me see your seed also." 48:12 Joseph brought them out from between his knees, and he bowed himself with his face to the earth.

48:13 Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel's left hand, and Mana.s.seh in his left hand toward Israel's right hand, and brought them near to him. 48:14 Israel stretched out his right hand, and laid it on Ephraim's head, who was the younger, and his left hand on Mana.s.seh's head, guiding his hands knowingly, for Mana.s.seh was the firstborn. 48:15 He blessed Joseph, and said, "The G.o.d before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the G.o.d who has fed me all my life long to this day, 48:16 the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads, and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac. Let them grow into a mult.i.tude in the midst of the earth."

48:17 When Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim, it displeased him. He held up his father's hand, to remove it from Ephraim's head to Mana.s.seh's head. 48:18 Joseph said to his father, "Not so, my father; for this is the firstborn; put your right hand on his head."

48:19 His father refused, and said, "I know, my son, I know. He also will become a people, and he also will be great. However, his younger brother will be greater than he, and his seed will become a mult.i.tude of nations." 48:20 He blessed them that day, saying, "In you will Israel bless, saying, 'G.o.d make you as Ephraim and as Mana.s.seh'" He set Ephraim before Mana.s.seh. 48:21 Israel said to Joseph, "Behold, I am dying, but G.o.d will be with you, and bring you again to the land of your fathers.

48:22 Moreover I have given to you one portion above your brothers, which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow."

49:1 Jacob called to his sons, and said: "Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which will happen to you in the days to come.

49:2 a.s.semble yourselves, and hear, you sons of Jacob. Listen to Israel, your father. 49:3 "Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength; excelling in dignity, and excelling in power.

49:4 Boiling over as water, you shall not excel; because you went up to your father's bed, then defiled it. He went up to my couch. 49:5 "Simeon and Levi are brothers. Their swords are weapons of violence. 49:6 My soul, don't come into their council. My glory, don't be united to their a.s.sembly; for in their anger they killed men. In their self-will they hamstrung cattle. 49:7 Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel. I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel. 49:8 "Judah, your brothers will praise you. Your hand will be on the neck of your enemies. Your father's sons will bow down before you. 49:9 Judah is a lion's cub. From the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down, he crouched as a lion, as a lioness. Who will rouse him up? 49:10 The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs.

To him will the obedience of the peoples be. 49:11 Binding his foal to the vine, his donkey's colt to the choice vine; he has washed his garments in wine, his robes in the blood of grapes. 49:12 His eyes will be red with wine, his teeth white with milk. 49:13 "Zebulun will dwell at the haven of the sea. He will be for a haven of ships. His border will be on Sidon. 49:14 "Issachar is a strong donkey, lying down between the saddlebags. 49:15 He saw a resting place, that it was good, the land, that it was pleasant. He bows his shoulder to the burden, and becomes a servant doing forced labor. 49:16 "Dan will judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel. 49:17 Dan will be a serpent in the way, an adder in the path, That bites the horse's heels, so that his rider falls backward. 49:18 I have waited for your salvation, Yahweh. 49:19 "A troop will press on Gad, but he will press on their heel. 49:20 "Asher's food will be rich. He will yield royal dainties. 49:21 "Naphtali is a doe set free, who bears beautiful fawns. 49:22 "Joseph is a fruitful vine, a fruitful vine by a spring. His branches run over the wall. 49:23 The archers have sorely grieved him, shot at him, and persecute him: 49:24 But his bow remained strong. The arms of his hands were made strong, by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob, (from there is the shepherd, the stone of Israel), 49:25 even by the G.o.d of your father, who will help you; by the Almighty, who will bless you, with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lies below, blessings of the b.r.e.a.s.t.s, and of the womb. 49:26 The blessings of your father have prevailed above the blessings of your ancestors, above the boundaries of the ancient hills. They will be on the head of Joseph, on the crown of the head of him who is separated from his brothers. 49:27 "Benjamin is a ravenous wolf. In the morning he will devour the prey. At evening he will divide the spoil." 49:28 All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father spoke to them and blessed them. He blessed everyone according to his blessing. 49:29 He instructed them, and said to them, "I am to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hitt.i.te, 49:30 in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hitt.i.te as a burial place. 49:31 There they buried Abraham and Sarah, his wife. There they buried Isaac and Rebekah, his wife, and there I buried Leah: 49:32 the field and the cave that is therein, which was purchased from the children of Heth." 49:33 When Jacob made an end of charging his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the spirit, and was gathered to his people.