Genesis 44-47

New American Standard Bible

The Brothers Are Brought Back

44 ^(A)Then he commanded his house steward, saying, “Fill the men’s sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put each man’s money in the opening of his sack. ² And put my cup, the silver cup, in the opening of the sack of the youngest, and his money for the grain.” And he did ^[a]as Joseph had told him. ^3 [b]As soon as it was light, the men were sent away, they with their donkeys. ⁴ They had just left ^(B)the city, and were not far away, when Joseph said to his house steward, “Up, follow the men; and when you overtake them, say to them, ‘Why have you repaid evil for good? ⁵ Is this not that from which my lord drinks, and which he indeed uses for ^(C)divination? You have done wrong in doing this!’”

⁶ So ^[c]he overtook them and spoke these words to them. ⁷ And they said to him, “Why does my lord say such words as these? Far be it from your servants to do such a thing! ⁸ Behold, ^(D)the money which we found in the opening of our sacks we have brought back to you from the land of Canaan. How then could we steal silver or gold from your lord’s house? ^9 (E)With whomever of your servants it is found, he shall die, and we also shall be my lord’s ^(F)slaves.” ¹⁰ So he said, “Now let it indeed be according to your words; he with whom it is found shall be my slave, but the rest of you shall be considered innocent.” ¹¹ Then they hurried, each man lowered his sack to the ground, and each man opened his sack. ¹² And he searched, beginning with the oldest and ending with the youngest; and ^(G)the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack. ¹³ Then they ^(H)tore their clothes in grief, and when each man had loaded his donkey, they returned to ^(I)the city.

¹⁴ When Judah and his brothers came to Joseph’s house, he was still there, and ^(J)they fell down to the ground before him. ¹⁵ Joseph said to them, “What is this thing that you have done? Do you not know that a man who is like me can indeed practice ^(K)divination?” ¹⁶ So Judah said, “What can we say to my lord? What words can we speak? And how can we justify ourselves? God has found out the guilt of your servants; behold, we are my lord’s ^(L)slaves, both we and the one in whose ^[d]possession the cup has been found.” ¹⁷ But he said, “Far be it from me to do this. The man in whose ^[e]possession the cup has been found, he shall be my slave; but as for you, go up in peace to your father.”

¹⁸ Then Judah approached him and said, “Oh my lord, may your servant please speak a word in my lord’s ears, and ^[f](M)do not be angry with your servant; for ^(N)you are equal to Pharaoh. ^19 (O)My lord asked his servants, saying, ‘Have you a father or a brother?’ ²⁰ And we said to my lord, ‘We have an old father and ^(P)a little boy born in our father’s old age. Now ^(Q)his brother is dead, so he alone is left of his mother, and his father loves him.’ ²¹ Then you said to your servants, ‘^(R)Bring him down to me so that I may set my eyes on him.’ ²² But we said to my lord, ‘The boy cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father, ^[g]his father would die.’ ²³ You said to your servants, however, ‘^(S)Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you will not see my face again.’ ²⁴ So it came about when we went up to your servant my father, we told him the words of my lord. ²⁵ And ^(T)our father said, ‘Go back, buy us a little food.’ ²⁶ But we said, ‘We cannot go down. If our youngest brother is with us, then we will go down; for we cannot see the man’s face unless our youngest brother is with us.’ ²⁷ Then your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that ^(U)my wife bore me two sons; ²⁸ and the one left me, and ^(V)I said, “Surely he is torn to pieces,” and I have not seen him since. ²⁹ If you also take this one from ^[h]me, and harm happens to him, you will ^(W)bring my gray hair down to Sheol in ^[i]sorrow.’ ³⁰ So now, when I come to your servant, my father, and the boy is not with us—since ^[j](X)our father’s life is so attached to the boy’s life— ³¹ when he sees that the boy is not with us, he will die. So your servants will ^(Y)bring the gray hair of your servant, our father, down to Sheol in sorrow. ³² For your servant ^(Z)accepted responsibility for the boy from my father, saying, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, then ^[k]my father can let me take the blame forever.’ ³³ So now, please let your servant remain as a slave to my lord instead of the boy, and let the boy go up with his brothers. ³⁴ For how shall I go up to my father if the boy is not with me? I fear that I may see the evil that would ^[l]overtake my father.”

Joseph Deals Kindly with His Brothers

45 Then Joseph could not control himself in front of everyone standing before him, and he shouted, “Have everyone leave me!” So there ^[m]was no one with him ^(AA)when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. ² Then ^(AB)he ^[n]wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard about it. ³ And Joseph said to his brothers, “^(AC)I am Joseph! ^(AD)Is my father still alive?” But his brothers could not answer him, for ^(AE)they were terrified in his presence.

⁴ Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Please come ^[o]closer to me.” And they came ^[p]closer. And he said, “I am your brother Joseph, whom you ^(AF)sold to Egypt. ⁵ Now do not be grieved or angry ^[q]with yourselves because ^(AG)you sold me here, for ^(AH)God sent me ahead of you ^[r]to save lives. ⁶ For the famine has been in the land ^(AI)these two years, and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. ⁷ So ^(AJ)God sent me ahead of you to ensure for you a remnant on the earth, and to ^[s]keep you alive by a great deliverance. ⁸ Now, therefore, it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a ^(AK)father to Pharaoh and lord of all his household, and ruler over all the land of Egypt. ⁹ Hurry and go up to my father, and ^(AL)say to him, ‘This is what your son Joseph says: “God has made me lord of all Egypt; come down to me, do not delay. ¹⁰ For you shall live in the land of ^(AM)Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children and your ^[t]grandchildren, and your flocks and your herds and all that you have. ¹¹ There I will also ^(AN)provide for you, for there are still five years of famine to come, and you and your household and all that you have would be impoverished.”’ ¹² Behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see, that it is my mouth which is speaking to you. ¹³ Now you must tell my father of all my splendor in Egypt, and all that you have seen; and you must hurry and ^(AO)bring my father down here.” ¹⁴ Then he fell on his brother Benjamin’s neck and ^(AP)wept, and Benjamin wept on his neck. ¹⁵ And he kissed all his brothers and wept on them, and afterward his brothers talked with him.

¹⁶ Now when ^(AQ)the ^[u]news was heard in Pharaoh’s house ^[v]that Joseph’s brothers had come, it ^[w]pleased Pharaoh and his servants. ¹⁷ Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Say to your brothers, ‘Do this: load your livestock and ^[x]go to the land of Canaan, ¹⁸ and take your father and your households and come to me; and ^(AR)I will give you the ^[y]best of the land of Egypt, and you will eat the fat of the land.’ ¹⁹ Now you are ordered, ‘Do this: ^[z]take ^(AS)wagons from the land of Egypt for your little ones and for your wives, and bring your father and come. ²⁰ And do not ^[aa]concern yourselves with your property, for the ^[ab]best of all the land of Egypt is yours.’”

²¹ Then the sons of Israel did so; and Joseph gave them ^(AT)wagons according to the ^[ac]command of Pharaoh, and gave them provisions for the journey. ²² To ^[ad]each of them he gave ^(AU)changes of garments, but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver and ^(AV)five changes of garments. ²³ And to his father he sent ^[ae]the following: ten male donkeys loaded with the ^[af]best things of Egypt, ten female donkeys loaded with grain, bread, and sustenance for his father ^[ag]on the journey.

²⁴ So he sent his brothers away, and ^[ah]as they departed, he said to them, “Do not ^[ai]quarrel on the journey.” ²⁵ Then they went up from Egypt, and came to the land of Canaan, to their father Jacob. ²⁶ And they told him, saying, “Joseph is still alive, and indeed he is ruler over all the land of Egypt.” But ^[aj]he was stunned, for ^(AW)he did not believe them. ²⁷ When they told him all the words of Joseph that he had spoken to them, and when he saw the ^(AX)wagons that Joseph had sent to carry him, then the spirit of their father Jacob revived. ²⁸ Then Israel said, “It is enough; my son Joseph is still alive. I will go and see him before I die.”

Jacob Moves to Egypt

46 So Israel set out with all that he had, and came to ^(AY)Beersheba, and offered sacrifices to the ^(AZ)God of his father Isaac. ² And ^(BA)God spoke to Israel ^[ak]in visions of the night and said, “^(BB)Jacob, Jacob.” And he said, “Here I am.” ³ Then He said, “^(BC)I am God, the God of your father; do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will ^(BD)make you into a great nation there. ^4 (BE)I will go down with you to Egypt, and ^(BF)I will also assuredly bring you up again; and ^(BG)Joseph will ^[al]close your eyes.”

⁵ Then Jacob left Beersheba, and the sons of Israel carried their father Jacob and their little ones and their wives in the ^(BH)wagons which Pharaoh had sent to carry him. ⁶ They also took their livestock and their possessions, which they had acquired in the land of Canaan, and ^(BI)came to Egypt, Jacob and all his ^[am]descendants with him: ⁷ his sons and his grandsons with him, his daughters and his granddaughters, and all his ^[an]descendants he brought with him to Egypt.

Those Who Came to Egypt

⁸ Now these are the ^(BJ)names of the sons of Israel who went to Egypt, Jacob and his sons: Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn. ⁹ And the sons of Reuben: Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi. ¹⁰ And the ^(BK)sons of Simeon: ^[ao]Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, ^[ap]Jachin, ^[aq]Zohar, and Shaul the son of a Canaanite woman. ¹¹ And the sons of Levi: ^[ar]Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. ¹² And the sons of Judah: Er, Onan, Shelah, Perez, and Zerah (but Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan). And the ^(BL)sons of Perez were Hezron and Hamul. ¹³ And the sons of Issachar: Tola, ^[as]Puvvah, ^[at]Iob, and Shimron. ¹⁴ And the sons of Zebulun: Sered, Elon, and Jahleel. ¹⁵ These are the sons of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob in Paddan-aram, with his daughter Dinah; ^[au]all his sons and his daughters numbered thirty-three. ¹⁶ And the ^(BM)sons of Gad: ^[av]Ziphion, Haggi, Shuni, ^[aw]Ezbon, Eri, ^[ax]Arodi, and Areli. ¹⁷ And the ^(BN)sons of Asher: Imnah, Ishvah, Ishvi, Beriah, and their sister Serah. And the ^(BO)sons of Beriah: Heber and Malchiel. ¹⁸ These are the sons of Zilpah, whom Laban gave to his daughter Leah; and she bore to Jacob these sixteen persons. ¹⁹ The sons of Jacob’s wife Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin. ^20 (BP)Now to Joseph in the land of Egypt were born Manasseh and Ephraim, whom Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, bore to him. ²¹ And the ^(BQ)sons of Benjamin: Bela, Becher, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, ^[ay]Ehi, Rosh, ^[az]Muppim, ^[ba]Huppim, and Ard. ²² These are the sons of Rachel, who were born to Jacob; there were fourteen persons in all. ²³ And the sons of Dan: ^[bb]Hushim. ²⁴ And the sons of Naphtali: ^[bc]Jahzeel, Guni, Jezer, and ^[bd]Shillem. ²⁵ These are the ^(BR)sons of Bilhah, whom ^(BS)Laban gave to his daughter Rachel, and she bore these to Jacob; there were seven persons in all. ^26 (BT)All the people belonging to Jacob, who came to Egypt, ^[be]his direct descendants, not including the wives of Jacob’s sons, were sixty-six persons in all, ²⁷ and the sons of Joseph, who were born to him in Egypt, were ^[bf]two; ^(BU)all the people of the house of Jacob, who came to Egypt, were seventy.

²⁸ Now Jacob sent Judah ahead of him to Joseph, to ^[bg]guide him to ^(BV)Goshen; and they came into the land of Goshen. ²⁹ And Joseph ^[bh]prepared his chariot and went up to Goshen to meet his father Israel; as soon as he appeared to him, Joseph threw himself on his neck and ^(BW)wept on his neck a long time. ³⁰ Then Israel said to Joseph, “Now let me die, since I have seen your face, that you are still alive.” ³¹ But Joseph said to his brothers and to his father’s household, “^(BX)I will go up and tell Pharaoh, and will say to him, ‘My brothers and my father’s household, who were in the land of Canaan, have come to me; ³² and the men are shepherds, for they have been ^[bi]keepers of livestock; and they have brought their flocks and their herds and all that they have.’ ³³ When Pharaoh calls for you and says, ‘^(BY)What is your occupation?’ ³⁴ you shall say, ‘Your servants have been ^[bj](BZ)keepers of livestock since our youth even until now, both we and our fathers,’ so that you may live in the land of ^(CA)Goshen; for every shepherd is an ^(CB)abomination to the Egyptians.”

Jacob’s Family Settles in Goshen

47 Then ^(CC)Joseph went in and told Pharaoh, and said, “My father and my brothers and their flocks and their herds and all that they have, have come out of the land of Canaan; and behold, they are in the land of ^(CD)Goshen.” ² And he took five men from among his brothers and ^(CE)presented them to Pharaoh. ³ Then Pharaoh said to his brothers, “^(CF)What is your occupation?” So they said to Pharaoh, “Your servants are ^(CG)shepherds, both we and our fathers.” ⁴ They also said to Pharaoh, “^(CH)We have come to reside in the land, for there is no pasture for your servants’ flocks, for ^(CI)the famine is severe in the land of Canaan. Now, therefore, please let your servants ^(CJ)live in the land of Goshen.” ⁵ Then Pharaoh said to ^[bk]Joseph, “Your father and your brothers have come to you. ⁶ The land of Egypt is ^[bl]at your disposal; settle your father and your brothers in ^(CK)the best of the land, let them live in the land of Goshen; and if you know any ^(CL)capable men among them, then ^[bm]put them in charge of my livestock.”

⁷ Then Joseph brought his father Jacob and ^[bn]presented him to Pharaoh; and Jacob ^(CM)blessed Pharaoh. ⁸ And Pharaoh said to Jacob, “How many ^[bo]years have you lived?” ⁹ So Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The ^[bp](CN)years of my living abroad are ^[bq]130; few and ^[br]unpleasant have been the ^[bs]years of my life, nor have they ^[bt]attained ^(CO)the ^[bu]years ^[bv]that my fathers lived during the days of their living abroad.” ¹⁰ So Jacob ^(CP)blessed Pharaoh, and went out from ^[bw]his presence. ¹¹ Now Joseph settled his father and his brothers and gave them property in the land of Egypt, in ^(CQ)the best of the land, in the land of ^(CR)Rameses, as Pharaoh had ordered. ¹² Joseph also ^(CS)provided his father and his brothers and all his father’s household with ^[bx]food, according to the ^[by]number of their little ones.

¹³ Now there was no ^[bz]food in all the land, because the famine was very severe, so that ^(CT)the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan languished because of the famine. ¹⁴ And ^(CU)Joseph collected all the money that was found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan in payment for the grain which they bought, and Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh’s house. ¹⁵ When the money was all spent in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came to Joseph saying, “Give us ^[ca]food, for ^(CV)why should we die in your presence? For our money is ^[cb]gone.” ¹⁶ Then Joseph said, “Give up your livestock, and I will give you food for your livestock, since your money is ^[cc]gone.” ¹⁷ So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and Joseph gave them ^[cd]food in exchange for the horses and the ^[ce]flocks and the herds and the donkeys; and he ^[cf]fed them with ^[cg]food in exchange for all their livestock ^[ch]that year. ¹⁸ But when that year ended, they came to him the ^[ci]next year and said to him, “We will not hide from my lord the fact that our money is all spent, and the ^[cj]livestock are my lord’s. There is nothing left ^[ck]for my lord except our bodies and our lands. ¹⁹ Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land for ^[cl]food, and we and our land will be slaves to Pharaoh. So give us seed, so that we may live and not die, and that the land may not be desolate.”

Result of the Famine

²⁰ So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh, for ^[cm]every Egyptian sold his field, because the famine was severe upon them. So the land became Pharaoh’s. ²¹ As for the people, he relocated them to the cities from one end of Egypt’s border to the other. ²² Only the land of the priests he did not buy, because the priests had an allotment from Pharaoh, and they ^[cn]lived off the allotment which Pharaoh gave them. Therefore, they did not sell their land. ²³ Then Joseph said to the people, “Behold, today I have purchased you and your land for Pharaoh; now, here is seed for you, and you may sow the land. ^24 [co]At the harvest you shall give a ^(CW)fifth to Pharaoh, and ^[cp]four-fifths shall be your own for seed of the field and for your food, and for those of your households and as food for your little ones.” ²⁵ So they said, “You have saved our lives! Let us find favor in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh’s slaves.” ²⁶ Joseph made it a statute concerning the land of Egypt, valid to this day, that Pharaoh was to have the fifth; ^(CX)only the land of the priests ^[cq]did not become Pharaoh’s.

²⁷ Now Israel lived in the land of Egypt, in ^[cr]Goshen, and they ^(CY)acquired property in it and ^(CZ)were fruitful and became very numerous. ²⁸ And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt for ^(DA)seventeen years; so the ^[cs]length of Jacob’s life was 147 years.

²⁹ When ^[ct](DB)the time for Israel to die drew near, he called his son Joseph and said to him, “Please, if I have found favor in your sight, ^(DC)place your hand under my thigh now and ^(DD)deal with me in kindness and ^[cu]faithfulness: please do not bury me in Egypt, ³⁰ but when I ^(DE)[cv]lie down with my fathers, you shall carry me out of Egypt and bury me in ^(DF)their burial place.” And he said, “I will do as you have said.” ³¹ And he said, “^(DG)Swear to me.” So he swore to him. Then ^(DH)Israel bowed in worship at the head of the bed.