Genesis 46:19

²⁷Your servant, my father, said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons.

¹Jacob lived in the land of his father’s travels, in the land of Canaan. ²This is the history of the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brothers. He was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives. Joseph brought an evil report of them to their father. ³Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age, and he made him a tunic of many colors. ⁴His brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, and they hated him, and couldn’t speak peaceably to him.

⁵Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it to his brothers, and they hated him all the more. ⁶He said to them, “Please hear this dream which I have dreamed: ⁷for behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and also stood upright; and behold, your sheaves came around, and bowed down to my sheaf.”

⁸His brothers asked him, “Will you indeed reign over us? Will you indeed have dominion over us?” They hated him all the more for his dreams and for his words. ⁹He dreamed yet another dream, and told it to his brothers, and said, “Behold, I have dreamed yet another dream: and behold, the sun and the moon and eleven stars bowed down to me.” ¹⁰He told it to his father and to his brothers. His father rebuked him, and said to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Will I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves down to the earth before you?” ¹¹His brothers envied him, but his father kept this saying in mind.

¹²His brothers went to feed their father’s flock in Shechem. ¹³Israel said to Joseph, “Aren’t your brothers feeding the flock in Shechem? Come, and I will send you to them.” He said to him, “Here I am.”

¹⁴He said to him, “Go now, see whether it is well with your brothers, and well with the flock; and bring me word again.” So he sent him out of the valley of Hebron, and he came to Shechem. ¹⁵A certain man found him, and behold, he was wandering in the field. The man asked him, “What are you looking for?”

¹⁶He said, “I am looking for my brothers. Tell me, please, where they are feeding the flock.”

¹⁷The man said, “They have left here, for I heard them say, ‘Let’s go to Dothan.’” Joseph went after his brothers, and found them in Dothan.

¹⁸They saw him afar off, and before he came near to them, they conspired against him to kill him. ¹⁹They said to one another, “Behold, this dreamer comes. ²⁰Come now therefore, and let’s kill him, and cast him into one of the pits, and we will say, ‘An evil animal has devoured him.’ We will see what will become of his dreams.”

²¹Reuben heard it, and delivered him out of their hand, and said, “Let’s not take his life.” ²²Reuben said to them, “Shed no blood. Throw him into this pit that is in the wilderness, but lay no hand on him”—that he might deliver him out of their hand, to restore him to his father. ²³When Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped Joseph of his tunic, the tunic of many colors that was on him; ²⁴and they took him, and threw him into the pit. The pit was empty. There was no water in it.

²⁵They sat down to eat bread, and they lifted up their eyes and looked, and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing spices and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt. ²⁶Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? ²⁷Come, and let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites, and not let our hand be on him; for he is our brother, our flesh.” His brothers listened to him. ²⁸Midianites who were merchants passed by, and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. The merchants brought Joseph into Egypt.

²⁹Reuben returned to the pit, and saw that Joseph wasn’t in the pit; and he tore his clothes. ³⁰He returned to his brothers, and said, “The child is no more; and I, where will I go?” ³¹They took Joseph’s tunic, and killed a male goat, and dipped the tunic in the blood. ³²They took the tunic of many colors, and they brought it to their father, and said, “We have found this. Examine it, now, and see if it is your son’s tunic or not.”

³³He recognized it, and said, “It is my son’s tunic. An evil animal has devoured him. Joseph is without doubt torn in pieces.” ³⁴Jacob tore his clothes, and put sackcloth on his waist, and mourned for his son many days. ³⁵All his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. He said, “For I will go down to Sheol^[+] to my son, mourning.” His father wept for him. ³⁶The Midianites sold him into Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh’s, the captain of the guard.

²²“Joseph is a fruitful vine, a fruitful vine by a spring. His branches run over the wall. ²³The archers have severely grieved him, shot at him, and persecuted him: ²⁴But 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), ²⁵even by the God 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 breasts, and of the womb. ²⁶The blessings of your father have prevailed above the blessings of my 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. ²⁷“Benjamin is a ravenous wolf. In the morning he will devour the prey. At evening he will divide the plunder.”

^1[+] Joseph was brought down to Egypt. Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh’s, the captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him from the hand of the Ishmaelites that had brought him down there. ²The LORD was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man. He was in the house of his master the Egyptian. ³His master saw that the LORD was with him, and that the LORD made all that he did prosper in his hand. ⁴Joseph found favor in his sight. He ministered to him, and Potiphar made him overseer over his house, and all that he had he put into his hand. ⁵From the time that he made him overseer in his house, and over all that he had, the LORD blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake. The LORD’s blessing was on all that he had, in the house and in the field. ⁶He left all that he had in Joseph’s hand. He didn’t concern himself with anything, except for the food which he ate. Joseph was well-built and handsome.

⁷After these things, his master’s wife set her eyes on Joseph; and she said, “Lie with me.”

⁸But he refused, and said to his master’s wife, “Behold, my master doesn’t know what is with me in the house, and he has put all that he has into my hand. ⁹No one is greater in this house than I am, and he has not kept back anything from me but you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?”

¹⁰As she spoke to Joseph day by day, he didn’t listen to her, to lie by her, or to be with her. ¹¹About this time, he went into the house to do his work, and there were none of the men of the house inside. ¹²She caught him by his garment, saying, “Lie with me!” He left his garment in her hand, and ran outside.

¹³When she saw that he had left his garment in her hand, and had run outside, ¹⁴she called to the men of her house, and spoke to them, saying, “Behold, he has brought a Hebrew in to us to mock us. He came in to me to lie with me, and I cried with a loud voice. ¹⁵When he heard that I lifted up my voice and cried, he left his garment by me, and ran outside.” ¹⁶She laid up his garment by her, until his master came home. ¹⁷She spoke to him according to these words, saying, “The Hebrew servant, whom you have brought to us, came in to me to mock me, ¹⁸and as I lifted up my voice and cried, he left his garment by me, and ran outside.”

¹⁹When his master heard the words of his wife, which she spoke to him, saying, “This is what your servant did to me,” his wrath was kindled. ²⁰Joseph’s master took him, and put him into the prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were bound, and he was there in custody. ²¹But the LORD was with Joseph, and showed kindness to him, and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. ²²The keeper of the prison committed to Joseph’s hand all the prisoners who were in the prison. Whatever they did there, he was responsible for it. ²³The keeper of the prison didn’t look after anything that was under his hand, because the LORD was with him; and that which he did, the LORD made it prosper.

¹⁶They traveled from Bethel. There was still some distance to come to Ephrath, and Rachel travailed. She had hard labor. ¹⁷When she was in hard labor, the midwife said to her, “Don’t be afraid, for now you will have another son.”

¹⁸As her soul was departing (for she died), she named him Benoni,^[+] but his father named him Benjamin.

²⁴She named him Joseph,^[+] May the LORD add another son to me.”

³Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin,

³⁶Of the children of Benjamin, their generations, by their families, by their fathers’ houses, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go out to war: ³⁷those who were counted of them, of the tribe of Benjamin, were thirty-five thousand four hundred.

⁵All the souls who came out of Jacob’s body were seventy souls, and Joseph was in Egypt already.

¹Then 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.” ²From among his brothers he took five men, and presented them to Pharaoh. ³Pharaoh said to his brothers, “What is your occupation?” They said to Pharaoh, “Your servants are shepherds, both we, and our fathers.”

⁴They also 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.”

⁵Pharaoh spoke to Joseph, saying, “Your father and your brothers have come to you. ⁶The 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.”

⁷Joseph brought in Jacob, his father, and set him before Pharaoh; and Jacob blessed Pharaoh. ⁸Pharaoh said to Jacob, “How old are you?”

⁹Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The years of my pilgrimage are one hundred thirty years. The days of the years of my life have been few and evil. They have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.” ¹⁰Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from the presence of Pharaoh.

¹¹Joseph 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. ¹²Joseph provided his father, his brothers, and all of his father’s household with bread, according to the sizes of their families.

¹³There 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. ¹⁴Joseph 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. ¹⁵When 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.”

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

¹⁷They 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. ¹⁸When 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. ¹⁹Why 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.”

²⁰So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh, for every man of the Egyptians sold his field, because the famine was severe on them, and the land became Pharaoh’s. ²¹As for the people, he moved them to the cities from one end of the border of Egypt even to the other end of it. ²²Only 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. ²³Then 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. ²⁴It 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.”

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

²⁶Joseph 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.

²⁷Israel lived in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen; and they got themselves possessions therein, and were fruitful, and multiplied exceedingly. ²⁸Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years. So the days of Jacob, the years of his life, were one hundred forty-seven years. ²⁹The time came 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, ³⁰but when I sleep with my fathers, you shall carry me out of Egypt, and bury me in their burying place.” Joseph said, “I will do as you have said.”

³¹Israel said, “Swear to me,” and he swore to him. Then Israel bowed himself on the bed’s head.