Jacob’s Family Settles in Goshen

47 Then ^(A)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 ^(B)Goshen.” ² And he took five men from among his brothers and ^(C)presented them to Pharaoh. ³ Then Pharaoh said to his brothers, “^(D)What is your occupation?” So they said to Pharaoh, “Your servants are ^(E)shepherds, both we and our fathers.” ⁴ They also said to Pharaoh, “^(F)We have come to reside in the land, for there is no pasture for your servants’ flocks, for ^(G)the famine is severe in the land of Canaan. Now, therefore, please let your servants ^(H)live in the land of Goshen.” ⁵ Then Pharaoh said to ^[a]Joseph, “Your father and your brothers have come to you. ⁶ The land of Egypt is ^[b]at your disposal; settle your father and your brothers in ^(I)the best of the land, let them live in the land of Goshen; and if you know any ^(J)capable men among them, then ^[c]put them in charge of my livestock.”

⁷ Then Joseph brought his father Jacob and ^[d]presented him to Pharaoh; and Jacob ^(K)blessed Pharaoh. ⁸ And Pharaoh said to Jacob, “How many ^[e]years have you lived?” ⁹ So Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The ^[f](L)years of my living abroad are ^[g]130; few and ^[h]unpleasant have been the ^[i]years of my life, nor have they ^[j]attained ^(M)the ^[k]years ^[l]that my fathers lived during the days of their living abroad.” ¹⁰ So Jacob ^(N)blessed Pharaoh, and went out from ^[m]his presence. ¹¹ Now Joseph settled his father and his brothers and gave them property in the land of Egypt, in ^(O)the best of the land, in the land of ^(P)Rameses, as Pharaoh had ordered. ¹² Joseph also ^(Q)provided his father and his brothers and all his father’s household with ^[n]food, according to the ^[o]number of their little ones.

¹³ Now there was no ^[p]food in all the land, because the famine was very severe, so that ^(R)the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan languished because of the famine. ¹⁴ And ^(S)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 ^[q]food, for ^(T)why should we die in your presence? For our money is ^[r]gone.” ¹⁶ Then Joseph said, “Give up your livestock, and I will give you food for your livestock, since your money is ^[s]gone.” ¹⁷ So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and Joseph gave them ^[t]food in exchange for the horses and the ^[u]flocks and the herds and the donkeys; and he ^[v]fed them with ^[w]food in exchange for all their livestock ^[x]that year. ¹⁸ But when that year ended, they came to him the ^[y]next year and said to him, “We will not hide from my lord the fact that our money is all spent, and the ^[z]livestock are my lord’s. There is nothing left ^[aa]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 ^[ab]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 ^[ac]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 ^[ad]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 [ae]At the harvest you shall give a ^(U)fifth to Pharaoh, and ^[af]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; ^(V)only the land of the priests ^[ag]did not become Pharaoh’s.

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

²⁹ When ^[aj](Z)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, ^(AA)place your hand under my thigh now and ^(AB)deal with me in kindness and ^[ak]faithfulness: please do not bury me in Egypt, ³⁰ but when I ^(AC)[al]lie down with my fathers, you shall carry me out of Egypt and bury me in ^(AD)their burial place.” And he said, “I will do as you have said.” ³¹ And he said, “^(AE)Swear to me.” So he swore to him. Then ^(AF)Israel bowed in worship at the head of the bed.

Israel’s Last Days

48 Now it came about after these things that ^[am]Joseph was told, “Behold, your father is sick.” So he took his two sons ^(AG)Manasseh and Ephraim with him. ² When ^[an]it was told to Jacob, “Behold, your son Joseph has come to you,” Israel ^[ao]collected his strength and sat ^[ap]up in the bed. ³ Then Jacob said to Joseph, “^[aq](AH)God Almighty appeared to me at ^(AI)Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me, ⁴ and He said to me, ‘Behold, I will make you fruitful and numerous, and I will make you a multitude of peoples, and will give this land to your ^[ar]descendants after you as ^(AJ)an everlasting possession.’ ⁵ Now your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, are mine; ^(AK)Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine, as ^(AL)Reuben and Simeon are. ⁶ But your children that you have fathered after them shall be yours; they shall be called by the ^[as]names of their brothers in their inheritance. ⁷ Now as for me, when I came from ^(AM)Paddan, ^(AN)Rachel died, ^[at]to my sorrow, in the land of Canaan on the journey, when there was still some distance to go to Ephrath. I buried her there on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).”

⁸ When Israel ^(AO)saw Joseph’s sons, he said, “Who are these?” ⁹ And Joseph said to his father, “^(AP)They are my sons, whom God has given me here.” So he said, “Bring them to me, please, so that ^(AQ)I may bless them.” ¹⁰ Now ^(AR)the eyes of Israel were so ^[au]dim from age that he could not see. And ^[av]Joseph brought them close to him, and he ^(AS)kissed them and embraced them. ¹¹ And Israel said to Joseph, “I never ^[aw]expected to see your face, and behold, God has let me see your ^[ax]children as well!” ¹² Then Joseph ^[ay]took them from his knees, and ^(AT)bowed with his face to the ground. ¹³ And Joseph took them both, Ephraim with his right hand toward Israel’s left, and Manasseh with his left hand toward Israel’s right, and brought them close to him. ¹⁴ But Israel reached out his right hand and placed it on the head of Ephraim, who was the younger, and his left hand on Manasseh’s head, crossing his hands, although ^(AU)Manasseh was the firstborn. ¹⁵ And he blessed Joseph, and said,

¹⁷ When Joseph saw that his father ^(BA)placed his right hand on Ephraim’s head, it displeased him; and he grasped his father’s hand to move it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head. ¹⁸ And Joseph said to his father, “Not so, my father, for this one is the firstborn. Place your right hand on his head.” ¹⁹ But 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 shall be greater than he, and ^(BB)his ^[bc]descendants shall become ^[bd]a multitude of nations.” ²⁰ So ^(BC)he blessed them that day, saying,

And so he put Ephraim before Manasseh. ²¹ Then Israel said to Joseph, “Behold, I am about to die, but ^(BD)God will be with you, and ^(BE)bring you back to the land of your fathers. ²² And I give you one ^[be]portion more than your brothers, ^(BF)which I took from the hand of the Amorite with my sword and my bow.”

The Lord Praised for Rescuing David.

For the music director. A Psalm of David, the servant of the Lord, ^[a]who spoke to the Lord the words of this song on the day that the Lord rescued him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. And he said,

Rank in the Kingdom

18 ^(A)At that ^[a]time the disciples came to Jesus and said, “^(B)Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” ² And He called a child to Himself and set him among them, ³ and said, “Truly I say to you, unless you ^[b]change and ^(C)become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. ⁴ So whoever will humble himself like this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. ⁵ And whoever receives one such child in My name, receives Me; ⁶ but ^(D)whoever ^(E)causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to ^[c]sin, it is better for him that a ^[d]heavy millstone be hung around his neck, and that he be drowned in the depths of the sea.

Stumbling Blocks

⁷ “Woe to the world because of its ^[e]stumbling blocks! For ^(F)it is inevitable that ^[f]stumbling blocks come; but woe to the person through whom the ^[g]stumbling block comes!

⁸ “And ^(G)if your hand or your foot is causing you to sin, cut it off and throw it away from you; it is better for you to enter life maimed or without a foot, than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into the eternal fire. ⁹ And ^(H)if your eye is causing you to sin, tear it out and throw it away from you. It is better for you to enter life with one eye, than to have two eyes and be thrown into the ^[h](I)fiery hell.

¹⁰ “See that you do not look down on one of these little ones; for I say to you that ^(J)their angels in heaven continually see the face of My Father who is in heaven.^[i]

Ninety-nine Plus One

¹² “What do you think? ^(K)If any man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains, and go and search for the one that is lost? ¹³ And if it turns out that he finds it, truly I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that have not gone astray. ¹⁴ So it is not the will ^[j]of your Father who is in heaven for one of these little ones to perish.

Discipline and Prayer

¹⁵ “Now ^(L)if your brother sins^[k], go and ^[l]show him his fault ^[m]in private; if he listens to you, you have gained your brother. ¹⁶ But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that ^(M)on the ^[n]testimony of two or three witnesses every ^[o]matter may be confirmed. ¹⁷ And if he refuses to listen to them, ^(N)tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, ^(O)he is to be to you as ^[p]a Gentile and ^[q]a tax collector. ¹⁸ Truly I say to you, ^(P)whatever you ^[r]bind on earth ^[s]shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you ^[t]loose on earth ^[u]shall have been loosed in heaven.

¹⁹ “Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, ^(Q)it shall be done for them ^[v]by My Father who is in heaven. ²⁰ For where two or three have gathered together in My name, ^(R)I am there in their midst.”

Forgiveness

²¹ Then Peter came up and said to Him, “Lord, ^(S)how many times shall my brother sin against me and I still forgive him? Up to ^(T)seven times?” ²² Jesus *said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to ^[w](U)seventy-seven times.

²³ “For this reason ^(V)the kingdom of heaven ^[x]is like a king who wanted to ^(W)settle accounts with his slaves. ²⁴ And when he had begun to settle them, one who owed him ^[y]ten thousand talents was brought to him. ²⁵ But since he ^[z](X)did not have the means to repay, his master commanded that he ^(Y)be sold, along with his wife and children and all that he had, and repayment be made. ²⁶ So the slave fell to the ground and ^(Z)prostrated himself before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will repay you everything.’ ²⁷ And the master of that slave felt compassion, and he released him and ^(AA)forgave him the ^[aa]debt. ²⁸ But that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred ^[ab]denarii; and he seized him and began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay back what you owe!’ ²⁹ So his fellow slave fell to the ground and began to plead with him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will repay you.’ ³⁰ But he was unwilling, ^[ac]and went and threw him in prison until he would pay back what was owed. ³¹ So when his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were deeply grieved and came and reported to their master all that had happened. ³² Then summoning him, his master *said to him, ‘You wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. ^33 (AB)Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, in the same way that I had mercy on you?’ ³⁴ And his master, moved with anger, handed him over to the ^[ad]torturers until he would repay all that was owed him. ^35 (AC)My heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your ^[ae]heart.”