January 16
Genesis 46:1 —
47:31
46
Accordingly Israel and all who were his pulled out and came to Beer-sheba,
and he proceeded to sacrifice sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac.
2 Then
God talked to Israel in visions of the night and said: “Jacob, Jacob!” to which
he said: “Here I am!”
3 And
he went on to say: “I am the [true] God, the God of your father. Do not be
afraid to go down to Egypt, for I shall constitute you there into a great
nation.
4 I
myself shall go down with you to Egypt and I myself shall surely bring you up
also; and Joseph will lay his hand upon your eyes.”
5 After
that Jacob got up out of Beer-sheba, and the sons of Israel continued
transporting Jacob their father and their little ones and their wives in the
wagons that Pharaoh had sent to transport him.
6 Further,
they took along their herds and their goods, which they had accumulated in the
land of Canaan. Eventually they came into Egypt, Jacob and all his offspring
with him.
7 He
brought his sons and his sons’ sons with him, his daughters and his sons’
daughters, even all his offspring, with him into Egypt.
8 Now
these are the names of Israel’s sons who came into Egypt: Jacob and his sons:
Jacob’s firstborn was Reuben.
9 And
the sons of Reuben were Hanoch and Pallu and Hezron and Carmi.
10 And
the sons of Simeon
were Jemuel
and Jamin and Ohad and Jachin and Zohar and Shaul the son of a Canaanite
woman.
11 And
the sons of Levi were Gershon, Kohath and Merari.
12 And
the sons of Judah were Er and Onan and Shelah and Perez and Zerah. However,
Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan.
And the sons of Perez came to be Hezron and Hamul.
13 And
the sons of Issachar
were Tola and Puvah and Iob and Shimron.
14 And
the sons of Zebulun
were Sered and Elon and Jahleel.
15 These
are the sons of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob in Paddan-aram, together with
his daughter Dinah. All the souls of his sons and of his daughters were
thirty-three.
16 And
the sons of Gad were Ziphion
and Haggi, Shuni and Ezbon, Eri and Arodi
and Areli.
17 And
the sons of Asher were Imnah and Ishvah and Ishvi and Beriah,
and there was Serah their sister.
And the sons of Beriah
were Heber and Malchiel.
18 These
are the sons of Zilpah, whom Laban gave to his daughter Leah. In time she
bore these to Jacob: sixteen souls.
19 The
sons of Rachel, Jacob’s wife, were Joseph and Benjamin.
20 And
there came to be born to Joseph in the land of Egypt Manasseh
and Ephraim,
whom Asenath
the daughter of Potiphera
the priest of On bore to him.
21 And
the sons of Benjamin were Bela and Becher and Ashbel, Gera and Naaman,
Ehi and Rosh, Muppim and Huppim and Ard.
22 These
are the sons of Rachel who were born to Jacob. All the souls were fourteen.
23 And
the sons of Dan were Hushim.
24 And
the sons of Naphtali
were Jahzeel
and Guni and Jezer and Shillem.
25 These
are the sons of Bilhah, whom Laban gave to his daughter Rachel. In time she
bore these to Jacob; all the souls were seven.
26 All
the souls who came to Jacob into Egypt were those who issued out of his upper
thigh, aside from the wives of Jacob’s sons. All the souls were sixty-six.
27 And
Joseph’s sons who were born to him in Egypt were two souls. All the souls of the
house of Jacob who came into Egypt were seventy.
28 And
he sent Judah in advance of him to Joseph to impart information ahead of him to
Goshen. After that they came into the land of Goshen.
29 Then
Joseph had his chariot made ready and went up to meet Israel his father at Goshen.
When he appeared to him he at once fell upon his neck and gave way to tears upon
his neck again and again.
30 Finally
Israel said to Joseph: “This time I am willing to die, now that I have seen your
face, since you are still alive.”
31 Then
Joseph said to his brothers and to his father’s household: “Let me go up and
report to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘My brothers and my father’s household who
were in the land of Canaan have come here to me.
32 And
the men are shepherds, because they became stock raisers; and their flocks and
their herds and all they have they have brought here.’
33 And
what must occur is that when Pharaoh will call YOU and actually say, ‘What is
YOUR occupation?’
34 YOU
must say, ‘Your servants have continued to be stock raisers from our youth until
now, both we and our forefathers,’ in order that YOU may dwell in the land of
Goshen, because every herder of sheep is a detestable thing to Egypt.”
47
Accordingly Joseph came and reported to Pharaoh and said: “My father and my
brothers and their flocks and their herds and all they have have come from the
land of Canaan, and here they are in the land of Goshen.”
2 And
from the whole number of his brothers he took five men, that he might present
them to Pharaoh.
3 Then
Pharaoh said to his brothers: “What is YOUR occupation?” So they said to Pharaoh:
“Your servants are herders of sheep, both we and our forefathers.”
4 After
that they said to Pharaoh: “We have come to reside as aliens in the land,
because there is no pasturage for the flock that your servants have, for the
famine is severe in the land of Canaan. And now let your servants dwell,
please, in the land of Goshen.”
5 At
that Pharaoh said to Joseph: “Your father and your brothers have come here to
you.
6 The
land of Egypt is at your disposal. Have your father and your brothers dwell in
the very best of the land. Let them dwell in the land of Goshen, and if you
know that there are among them courageous men, you must appoint them cattle
chiefs over what is mine.”
7 Then
Joseph brought in Jacob his father and introduced him to Pharaoh, and Jacob
proceeded to bless Pharaoh.
8 Pharaoh
now said to Jacob: “How many are the days of the years of your life?”
9 So
Jacob said to Pharaoh: “The days of the years of my alien residences are a
hundred and thirty years. Few and distressing the days of the years of my life
have proved, and they have not reached the days of the years of the lives of my
fathers in the days of their alien residences.”
10 After
that Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from before Pharaoh.
11 Thus
Joseph had his father and his brothers dwell and he gave them a possession in
the land of Egypt, in the very best of the land, in the land of Rameses,
just as Pharaoh had commanded.
12 And
Joseph kept supplying his father and his brothers and the entire household of
his father with bread, according to the number of the little ones.
13 Now
there was no bread in all the land, because the famine was very severe; and the
land of Egypt and the land of Canaan became exhausted as a result of the
famine.
14 And
Joseph went on picking up all the money that was to be found in the land of
Egypt and in the land of Canaan for the cereals which people were buying; and
Joseph kept bringing the money into Pharaoh’s house.
15 In
time the money from the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan was spent, and all
the Egyptians began coming to Joseph, saying: “Give us bread! And why should we
die in front of you because money has run out?”
16 Then
Joseph said: “Hand over YOUR livestock and I shall give YOU bread in exchange
for YOUR livestock, if money has run out.”
17 And
they began bringing their livestock to Joseph; and Joseph kept giving them bread
in exchange for their horses and the livestock of the flock and the livestock of
the herd and the asses, and he kept providing them with bread in exchange for
all their livestock during that year.
18 Gradually
that year came to its close, and they began coming to him in the next year and
saying to him: “We shall not hide it from my lord but the money and the stock of
domestic animals have been spent to my lord. There remains nothing before my
lord but our bodies and our land.
19 Why
should we die before your eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land for
bread, and we together with our land will become slaves to Pharaoh; and give us
seed that we may live and not die and our land not be laid desolate.”
20 So
Joseph bought all the land of the Egyptians for Pharaoh, because the Egyptians
sold each one his field, for the famine had got a strong grip on them; and the
land came to be Pharaoh’s.
21 As
for the people, he removed them into cities from one end of the territory of
Egypt to its other end.
22 Only
the land of the priests he did not buy, because the rations for the priests were
from Pharaoh and they ate their rations that Pharaoh gave them. That is why
they did not sell their land.
23 Then
Joseph said to the people: “See, I have today bought YOU and YOUR land for Pharaoh.
Here is seed for YOU, and YOU must sow the land with it.
24 When
it has resulted in produce, then YOU must give a fifth to Pharaoh, but four
parts will become YOURS as seed for the field and as food for YOU and for those
who are in YOUR houses and for YOUR little ones to eat.”
25 Consequently
they said: “You have preserved our lives. Let us find favor in the eyes of my
lord, and we will become slaves to Pharaoh.”
26 And
Joseph proceeded to make it a decree down to this day over the landed estate of
Egypt for Pharaoh to have to the amount of a fifth. Only the land of the
priests as a distinct group did not become Pharaoh’s.
27 And
Israel continued to dwell in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen; and they
became settled in it and were fruitful and grew to be very many.
28 And
Jacob lived on in the land of Egypt for seventeen years, so that Jacob’s days,
the years of his life, came to be a hundred and forty-seven years.
29 Gradually
the days approached for Israel to die. So he called his son Joseph and said to
him: “If, now, I have found favor in your eyes, place your hand, please, under
my thigh, and you must exercise loving-kindness and trustworthiness toward me.
(Please, do not bury me in Egypt.)
30 And
I must lie with my fathers, and you must carry me out of Egypt and bury me in
their grave.” Accordingly he said: “I myself shall do in keeping with your
word.”
31 Then
he said: “Swear to me.” So he swore to him. At that Israel prostrated himself
over the head of the couch.