Joseph Brings His Family to Egypt

46 So Israel took his journey with all that he had and came to ^(A)Beersheba, and offered sacrifices ^(B)to the God of his father Isaac. ² And God spoke to Israel ^(C)in visions of the night and said, “Jacob, Jacob.” And he said, “Here I am.” ³ Then he said, “I am God, ^(D)the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will ^(E)make you into a great nation. ⁴ I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also ^(F)bring you up again, and ^(G)Joseph's hand shall close your eyes.”

⁵ Then Jacob set out from Beersheba. The sons of Israel carried Jacob their father, their little ones, and their wives, in the wagons ^(H)that Pharaoh had sent to carry him. ⁶ They also took their livestock and their goods, which they had gained in the land of Canaan, and ^(I)came into Egypt, Jacob and all his offspring with him, ⁷ his sons, and his sons' sons with him, his daughters, and his sons' daughters. All his offspring he brought with him into Egypt.

^8 (J)Now ^(K)these are the names of the descendants of Israel, who came into Egypt, Jacob and his sons. ^(L)Reuben, Jacob's firstborn, ⁹ and the sons of Reuben: Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi. ¹⁰ The sons of Simeon: Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul, the son of a Canaanite woman. ¹¹ The sons of ^(M)Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. ¹² The sons of ^(N)Judah: Er, Onan, Shelah, Perez, and Zerah (but ^(O)Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan); and the sons of ^(P)Perez were Hezron and Hamul. ^13 (Q)The sons of Issachar: Tola, Puvah, Yob, and Shimron. ¹⁴ The sons of Zebulun: Sered, Elon, and Jahleel. ¹⁵ These are the sons of Leah, ^(R)whom she bore to Jacob in Paddan-aram, together with his daughter Dinah; altogether his sons and his daughters numbered thirty-three.

¹⁶ The sons of Gad: Ziphion, Haggi, Shuni, Ezbon, Eri, Arodi, and Areli. ^17 (S)The sons of Asher: Imnah, Ishvah, Ishvi, Beriah, with Serah their sister. And the sons of Beriah: Heber and Malchiel. ^18 (T)These are the sons of Zilpah, ^(U)whom Laban gave to Leah his daughter; and these she bore to Jacob—sixteen persons.

¹⁹ The sons of Rachel, Jacob's wife: Joseph and Benjamin. ²⁰ And ^(V)to Joseph in the land of Egypt were born Manasseh and Ephraim, whom Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera the priest of ^(W)On, bore to him. ²¹ And ^(X)the sons of Benjamin: Bela, Becher, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ehi, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim, and Ard. ²² These are the sons of Rachel, who were born to Jacob—fourteen persons in all.

²³ The son^[a] of Dan: Hushim. ^24 (Y)The sons of Naphtali: Jahzeel, Guni, Jezer, and Shillem. ^25 (Z)These are the sons of Bilhah, ^(AA)whom Laban gave to Rachel his daughter, and these she bore to Jacob—seven persons in all.

²⁶ All the persons belonging to Jacob who came into Egypt, who were his own descendants, not including Jacob's sons' wives, were sixty-six persons in all. ²⁷ And the sons of Joseph, who were born to him in Egypt, were two. ^(AB)All the persons of the house of Jacob who came into Egypt were seventy.

Jacob and Joseph Reunited

²⁸ He had sent Judah ahead of him to Joseph to show the way before him in Goshen, and they came ^(AC)into the land of Goshen. ²⁹ Then Joseph prepared his chariot and went up to meet Israel his father in Goshen. He presented himself to him and ^(AD)fell on his neck and wept on his neck a good while. ³⁰ Israel said to Joseph, ^(AE)“Now let me die, since I have seen your face and know that you are still alive.” ³¹ Joseph said to his brothers and to his father's household, ^(AF)“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 (AG)And the men are shepherds, for they have been keepers of livestock, and they have brought their flocks and their herds and all that they have.’ ³³ When Pharaoh calls you and says, ^(AH)‘What is your occupation?’ ³⁴ you shall say, ^(AI)‘Your servants have been keepers of livestock ^(AJ)from our youth even until now, both we and our fathers,’ in order that you may dwell ^(AK)in the land of Goshen, for every shepherd is ^(AL)an abomination to the Egyptians.”

Jacob's Family Settles in Goshen

47 So Joseph ^(AM)went in and told Pharaoh, “My father and my brothers, with their flocks and herds and all that they possess, have come from the land of Canaan. They are now in ^(AN)the land of Goshen.” ² And from among his brothers he took five men and ^(AO)presented them to Pharaoh. ³ Pharaoh said to his brothers, ^(AP)“What is your occupation?” And they said to Pharaoh, ^(AQ)“Your servants are shepherds, as our fathers were.” ⁴ They said to Pharaoh, ^(AR)“We have come to sojourn in the land, for there is no pasture for your servants' flocks, for the famine is severe in the land of Canaan. And now, please let your servants dwell ^(AS)in the land of Goshen.” ⁵ Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Your father and your brothers have come to you. ⁶ The land of Egypt is before you. Settle your father and your brothers ^(AT)in the best of the land. ^(AU)Let them settle in the land of Goshen, and if you know any ^(AV)able men among them, put them in charge of my livestock.”

⁷ Then Joseph brought in Jacob his father and stood him before Pharaoh, ^(AW)and Jacob blessed Pharaoh. ⁸ And Pharaoh said to Jacob, “How many are the days of the years of your life?” ⁹ And Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The days of the years of my ^(AX)sojourning are 130 years. ^(AY)Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and ^(AZ)they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their ^(BA)sojourning.” ¹⁰ And Jacob ^(BB)blessed Pharaoh and went out from the presence of Pharaoh. ¹¹ Then Joseph settled 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 ^(BC)Rameses, ^(BD)as Pharaoh had commanded. ¹² And Joseph ^(BE)provided his father, his brothers, and all his father's household with food, according to the number of their dependents.

Joseph and the Famine

¹³ Now there was no food in all the land, for the famine was very severe, so that the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan languished by reason of the famine. ^14 (BF)And Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, in exchange for the grain that they bought. And Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh's house. ¹⁵ And when 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 food. ^(BG)Why should we die before your eyes? For our money is gone.” ¹⁶ And Joseph answered, “Give your livestock, and I will give you food in exchange for your livestock, if your money is gone.” ¹⁷ So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and Joseph gave them food in exchange for the horses, the flocks, the herds, and the donkeys. He supplied them with food in exchange for all their livestock that year. ¹⁸ And when that year was ended, they came to him the following year and said to him, “We will not hide from my lord that our money is all spent. The herds of livestock are my lord's. There is nothing left in the sight of my lord but our bodies and our land. ¹⁹ Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our land? ^(BH)Buy us and our land for food, and we with our land will be servants to Pharaoh. And give us seed that we may live and not die, and that the land may not be desolate.”

²⁰ So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh, for all the Egyptians sold their fields, because the famine was severe on them. The land became Pharaoh's. ²¹ As for the people, he made servants of them^[b] from one end of Egypt to the other. ^22 (BI)Only the land of the priests he did not buy, for the priests had a fixed allowance from Pharaoh and lived on the allowance that Pharaoh gave them; therefore they did not sell their land.

²³ Then Joseph said to the people, “Behold, I have this day bought you and your land for Pharaoh. Now here is seed for you, and you shall sow the land. ²⁴ And at the harvests you shall give a ^(BJ)fifth to Pharaoh, and four fifths shall be your own, as seed for the field and as food for yourselves and your households, and as food for your little ones.” ²⁵ And they said, “You have saved our lives; ^(BK)may it please my lord, we will be servants to Pharaoh.” ²⁶ So Joseph made it a statute concerning the land of Egypt, and it stands to this day, that Pharaoh should have the fifth; ^(BL)the land of the priests alone did not become Pharaoh's.

²⁷ Thus Israel settled in the land of Egypt, ^(BM)in the land of Goshen. ^(BN)And they gained possessions in it, and were fruitful and multiplied greatly. ²⁸ And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years. ^(BO)So the days of Jacob, the years of his life, were 147 years.

²⁹ And ^(BP)when the time drew near that Israel must die, he called his son Joseph and said to him, “If now ^(BQ)I have found favor in your sight, ^(BR)put your hand under my thigh and ^(BS)promise to deal kindly and truly with me. ^(BT)Do not bury me in Egypt, ³⁰ but let me lie with my fathers. Carry me out of Egypt and ^(BU)bury me in their burying place.” He answered, “I will do as you have said.” ³¹ And he said, “Swear to me”; and he swore to him. Then ^(BV)Israel bowed himself upon the head of his bed.^[c]

The Parable of the Sower

13 That same day Jesus went out of the house ^(A)and sat beside the sea. ² And great crowds gathered about him, ^(B)so that he got into a boat and sat down. And the whole crowd stood on the beach. ³ And ^(C)he told them many things in parables, saying: ^(D)“A sower went out to sow. ⁴ And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. ⁵ Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, ⁶ but ^(E)when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, ^(F)they withered away. ⁷ Other seeds fell among ^(G)thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. ⁸ Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some ^(H)a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. ^9 (I)He who has ears,^[a] let him hear.”

The Purpose of the Parables

¹⁰ Then the disciples came and said to him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” ¹¹ And he answered them, ^(J)“To you it has been given to know ^(K)the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. ^12 (L)For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, ^(M)even what he has will be taken away. ¹³ This is why I speak to them in parables, because ^(N)seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, ^(O)nor do they understand. ¹⁴ Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says:

¹⁶ But ^(U)blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. ^17 (V)For truly, I say to you, ^(W)many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.

The Parable of the Sower Explained

^18 (X)“Hear then the parable of the sower: ¹⁹ When anyone hears the word of ^(Y)the kingdom and ^(Z)does not understand it, ^(AA)the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path. ²⁰ As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately ^(AB)receives it with joy, ²¹ yet he has no root in himself, but ^(AC)endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately ^(AD)he falls away.^{[b] 22} As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but ^(AE)the cares of ^(AF)the world and ^(AG)the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. ²³ As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and ^(AH)understands it. He indeed ^(AI)bears fruit and yields, in one case ^(AJ)a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”

The Parable of the Weeds

²⁴ He put another parable before them, saying, ^(AK)“The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, ²⁵ but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds^[c] among the wheat and went away. ²⁶ So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. ²⁷ And the servants^[d] of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ ²⁸ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ ²⁹ But he said, ^(AL)‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. ³⁰ Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, ^(AM)“Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.”’”

The Mustard Seed and the Leaven

³¹ He put another parable before them, saying, ^(AN)“The kingdom of heaven is like ^(AO)a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. ³² It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”

³³ He told them another parable. ^(AP)“The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in ^(AQ)three measures of flour, till it was ^(AR)all leavened.”

Prophecy and Parables

^34 (AS)All these things Jesus said to the crowds in parables; indeed, he said nothing to them without a parable. ³⁵ This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet:^[e]

The Parable of the Weeds Explained

³⁶ Then he left the crowds and went into ^(AW)the house. And his disciples came to him, saying, ^(AX)“Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” ³⁷ He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. ³⁸ The field is the world, and the good seed is ^(AY)the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are ^(AZ)the sons of the evil one, ³⁹ and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. ^(BA)The harvest is ^(BB)the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. ⁴⁰ Just as the weeds ^(BC)are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at ^(BD)the end of the age. ^41 (BE)The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all ^(BF)causes of sin and ^(BG)all law-breakers, ^42 (BH)and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place ^(BI)there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. ⁴³ Then ^(BJ)the righteous will shine like the sun ^(BK)in the kingdom of their Father. ^(BL)He who has ears, let him hear.

The Parable of the Hidden Treasure

⁴⁴ “The kingdom of heaven ^(BM)is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy ^(BN)he goes and sells all that he has and ^(BO)buys that field.

The Parable of the Pearl of Great Value

⁴⁵ “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, ⁴⁶ who, on finding ^(BP)one pearl of great value, ^(BQ)went and sold all that he had and ^(BR)bought it.

The Parable of the Net

⁴⁷ “Again, the kingdom of heaven is ^(BS)like a net that was thrown into the sea and ^(BT)gathered fish of every kind. ⁴⁸ When it was full, ^(BU)men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers but threw away the bad. ⁴⁹ So it will be at ^(BV)the end of the age. The angels will come out and ^(BW)separate the evil from the righteous ^50 (BX)and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place ^(BY)there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

New and Old Treasures

^51 (BZ)“Have you understood all these things?” They said to him, “Yes.” ⁵² And he said to them, “Therefore every ^(CA)scribe ^(CB)who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who ^(CC)brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.”

Jesus Rejected at Nazareth

⁵³ And when Jesus had finished these parables, he went away from there, ^54 (CD)and coming to ^(CE)his hometown ^(CF)he taught them in their synagogue, so that ^(CG)they were astonished, and said, “Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works? ^55 (CH)Is not this ^(CI)the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not ^(CJ)his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? ⁵⁶ And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?” ⁵⁷ And ^(CK)they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, ^(CL)“A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household.” ⁵⁸ And he did not do many mighty works there, ^(CM)because of their unbelief.