Joseph Tells His Brothers Who He Is

¹Joseph was no longer able to control his feelings in front of his servants, so he ordered them all to leave the room. No one else was with him when Joseph told his brothers who he was.

²He cried with such loud sobs that the Egyptians heard it, and the news was taken to the king's palace.

³Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?” But when his brothers heard this, they were so terrified that they could not answer.

⁴Then Joseph said to them, “Please come closer.” They did, and he said, “I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt.

⁵Now do not be upset or blame yourselves because you sold me here. It was really God who sent me ahead of you to save people's lives.

⁶This is only the second year of famine in the land; there will be five more years in which there will be neither plowing nor reaping.

⁷God sent me ahead of you to rescue you in this amazing way and to make sure that you and your descendants survive.

⁸So it was not really you who sent me here, but God. He has made me the king's highest official. I am in charge of his whole country; I am the ruler of all Egypt.

⁹“Now hurry back to my father and tell him that this is what his son Joseph says: ‘God has made me ruler of all Egypt; come to me without delay.

¹⁰You can live in the region of Goshen, where you can be near me—you, your children, your grandchildren, your sheep, your goats, your cattle, and everything else that you have.

¹¹If you are in Goshen, I can take care of you. There will still be five years of famine; and I do not want you, your family, and your livestock to starve.’”

¹²Joseph continued, “Now all of you, and you too, Benjamin, can see that I am really Joseph.

¹³Tell my father how powerful I am here in Egypt and tell him about everything that you have seen. Then hurry and bring him here.”

¹⁴He threw his arms around his brother Benjamin and began to cry; Benjamin also cried as he hugged him.

¹⁵Then, still weeping, he embraced each of his brothers and kissed them. After that, his brothers began to talk with him.

¹⁶When the news reached the palace that Joseph's brothers had come, the king and his officials were pleased.

¹⁷He said to Joseph, “Tell your brothers to load their animals and to return to the land of Canaan.

¹⁸Let them get their father and their families and come back here. I will give them the best land in Egypt, and they will have more than enough to live on.

¹⁹Tell them also to take wagons with them from Egypt for their wives and small children and to bring their father with them.

²⁰They are not to worry about leaving their possessions behind; the best in the whole land of Egypt will be theirs.”

²¹Jacob's sons did as they were told. Joseph gave them wagons, as the king had ordered, and food for the trip.

²²He also gave each of them a change of clothes, but he gave Benjamin three hundred pieces of silver and five changes of clothes.

²³He sent his father ten donkeys loaded with the best Egyptian goods and ten donkeys loaded with grain, bread, and other food for the trip.

²⁴He sent his brothers off and as they left, he said to them, “Don't quarrel on the way.”

²⁵They left Egypt and went back home to their father Jacob in Canaan.

²⁶“Joseph is still alive!” they told him. “He is the ruler of all Egypt!” Jacob was stunned and could not believe them.

²⁷But when they told him all that Joseph had said to them, and when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to take him to Egypt, he recovered from the shock.

²⁸“My son Joseph is still alive!” he said. “This is all I could ask for! I must go and see him before I die.”

Jacob and His Family Go to Egypt

¹Jacob packed up all he had and went to Beersheba, where he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac.

²God spoke to him in a vision at night and called, “Jacob, Jacob!” “Yes, here I am,” he answered.

³“I am God, the God of your father,” he said. “Do not be afraid to go to Egypt; I will make your descendants a great nation there.

⁴I will go with you to Egypt, and I will bring your descendants back to this land. Joseph will be with you when you die.”

⁵Jacob set out from Beersheba. His sons put him, their small children, and their wives in the wagons which the king of Egypt had sent.

⁶They took their livestock and the possessions they had acquired in Canaan and went to Egypt. Jacob took all his descendants with him:

⁷his sons, his grandsons, his daughters, and his granddaughters.

⁸The members of Jacob's family who went to Egypt with him were his oldest son Reuben

⁹and Reuben's sons: Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi.

¹⁰Simeon and his sons: Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul, the son of a Canaanite woman.

¹¹Levi and his sons: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

¹²Judah and his sons: Shelah, Perez, and Zerah. (Judah's other sons, Er and Onan, had died in Canaan.) Perez' sons were Hezron and Hamul.

¹³Issachar and his sons: Tola, Puah, Jashub, and Shimron.

¹⁴Zebulun and his sons: Sered, Elon, and Jahleel.

¹⁵These are the sons that Leah had borne to Jacob in Mesopotamia, besides his daughter Dinah. In all, his descendants by Leah numbered thirty-three.

¹⁶Gad and his sons: Zephon, Haggi, Shuni, Ezbon, Eri, Arod, and Areli.

¹⁷Asher and his sons: Imnah, Ishvah, Ishvi, Beriah, and their sister Serah. Beriah's sons were Heber and Malchiel.

¹⁸These sixteen are the descendants of Jacob by Zilpah, the slave woman whom Laban gave to his daughter Leah.

¹⁹Jacob's wife Rachel bore him two sons: Joseph and Benjamin.

²⁰In Egypt Joseph had two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, by Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera, a priest in Heliopolis.

²¹Benjamin's sons were Bela, Becher, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ehi, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim, and Ard.

²²These fourteen are the descendants of Jacob by Rachel.

²³Dan and his son Hushim.

²⁴Naphtali and his sons: Jahzeel, Guni, Jezer, and Shillem.

²⁵These seven are the descendants of Jacob by Bilhah, the slave woman whom Laban gave to his daughter Rachel.

²⁶The total number of the direct descendants of Jacob who went to Egypt was sixty-six, not including his sons' wives.

²⁷Two sons were born to Joseph in Egypt, bringing to seventy the total number of Jacob's family who went there.

Jacob and His Family in Egypt

²⁸Jacob sent Judah ahead to ask Joseph to meet them in Goshen. When they arrived,

²⁹Joseph got in his chariot and went to Goshen to meet his father. When they met, Joseph threw his arms around his father's neck and cried for a long time.

³⁰Jacob said to Joseph, “I am ready to die, now that I have seen you and know that you are still alive.”

³¹Then Joseph said to his brothers and the rest of his father's family, “I must go and tell the king that my brothers and all my father's family, who were living in Canaan, have come to me.

³²I will tell him that you are shepherds and take care of livestock and that you have brought your flocks and herds and everything else that belongs to you.

³³When the king calls for you and asks what your occupation is,

³⁴be sure to tell him that you have taken care of livestock all your lives, just as your ancestors did. In this way he will let you live in the region of Goshen.” Joseph said this because Egyptians will have nothing to do with shepherds.

¹The storm makes my heart beat wildly.

²Listen, all of you, to the voice of God, to the thunder that comes from his mouth.

³He sends the lightning across the sky, from one end of the earth to the other.

⁴Then the roar of his voice is heard, the majestic sound of thunder, and all the while the lightning flashes.

⁵At God's command amazing things happen, wonderful things that we can't understand.

⁶He commands snow to fall on the earth, and sends torrents of drenching rain.

⁷He brings our work to a stop; he shows us what he can do.

⁸The wild animals go to their dens.

⁹The storm winds come from the south, and the biting cold from the north.

¹⁰The breath of God freezes the waters, and turns them to solid ice.

¹¹Lightning flashes from the clouds,

¹²as they move at God's will. They do all that God commands, everywhere throughout the world.

¹³God sends rain to water the earth; he may send it to punish us, or to show us his favor.

¹⁴Pause a moment, Job, and listen; consider the wonderful things God does.

¹⁵Do you know how God gives the command and makes lightning flash from the clouds?

¹⁶Do you know how clouds float in the sky, the work of God's amazing skill?

¹⁷No, you can only suffer in the heat when the south wind oppresses the land.

¹⁸Can you help God stretch out the sky and make it as hard as polished metal?

¹⁹Teach us what to say to God; our minds are blank; we have nothing to say.

²⁰I won't ask to speak with God; why should I give him a chance to destroy me?

²¹And now the light in the sky is dazzling, too bright for us to look at it; and the sky has been swept clean by the wind.

²²A golden glow is seen in the north, and the glory of God fills us with awe.

²³God's power is so great that we cannot come near him; he is righteous and just in his dealings with us.

²⁴No wonder, then, that everyone is awed by him, and that he ignores those who claim to be wise.

The Lord Answers Job

¹Then out of the storm the Lord spoke to Job.

The Lord

²Who are you to question my wisdom with your ignorant, empty words?

³Now stand up straight and answer the questions I ask you.

⁴Were you there when I made the world? If you know so much, tell me about it.

⁵Who decided how large it would be? Who stretched the measuring line over it? Do you know all the answers?

⁶What holds up the pillars that support the earth? Who laid the cornerstone of the world?

⁷In the dawn of that day the stars sang together, and the heavenly beings shouted for joy.

⁸Who closed the gates to hold back the sea when it burst from the womb of the earth?

⁹It was I who covered the sea with clouds and wrapped it in darkness.

¹⁰I marked a boundary for the sea and kept it behind bolted gates.

¹¹I told it, “So far and no farther! Here your powerful waves must stop.”

¹²Job, have you ever in all your life commanded a day to dawn?

¹³Have you ordered the dawn to seize the earth and shake the wicked from their hiding places?

¹⁴Daylight makes the hills and valleys stand out like the folds of a garment, clear as the imprint of a seal on clay.

¹⁵The light of day is too bright for the wicked and restrains them from doing violence.

¹⁶Have you been to the springs in the depths of the sea? Have you walked on the floor of the ocean?

¹⁷Has anyone ever shown you the gates that guard the dark world of the dead?

¹⁸Have you any idea how big the world is? Answer me if you know.

¹⁹Do you know where the light comes from or what the source of darkness is?

²⁰Can you show them how far to go, or send them back again?

²¹I am sure you can, because you're so old and were there when the world was made!

²²Have you ever visited the storerooms, where I keep the snow and the hail?

²³I keep them ready for times of trouble, for days of battle and war.

²⁴Have you been to the place where the sun comes up, or the place from which the east wind blows?

²⁵Who dug a channel for the pouring rain and cleared the way for the thunderstorm?

²⁶Who makes rain fall where no one lives?

²⁷Who waters the dry and thirsty land, so that grass springs up?

²⁸Does either the rain or the dew have a father?

²⁹Who is the mother of the ice and the frost,

³⁰which turn the waters to stone and freeze the face of the sea?

³¹Can you tie the Pleiades together or loosen the bonds that hold Orion?

³²Can you guide the stars season by season and direct the Big and the Little Dipper?

³³Do you know the laws that govern the skies, and can you make them apply to the earth?

³⁴Can you shout orders to the clouds and make them drench you with rain?

³⁵And if you command the lightning to flash, will it come to you and say, “At your service”?

³⁶Who tells the ibis when the Nile will flood, or who tells the rooster that rain will fall?

³⁷Who is wise enough to count the clouds and tilt them over to pour out the rain,

³⁸rain that hardens the dust into lumps?

³⁹Do you find food for lions to eat, and satisfy hungry young lions

⁴⁰when they hide in their caves, or lie in wait in their dens?

⁴¹Who is it that feeds the ravens when they wander about hungry, when their young cry to me for food?

²⁰My child, pay attention to what I say. Listen to my words.

²¹Never let them get away from you. Remember them and keep them in your heart.

²²They will give life and health to anyone who understands them.

²³Be careful how you think; your life is shaped by your thoughts.

²⁴Never say anything that isn't true. Have nothing to do with lies and misleading words.

²⁵Look straight ahead with honest confidence; don't hang your head in shame.

²⁶Plan carefully what you do, and whatever you do will turn out right.

²⁷Avoid evil and walk straight ahead. Don't go one step off the right way.