Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

This is a song that David wrote.

A prayer for help in trouble^[a]

³⁷ Pharaoh and his officers thought that Joseph's idea was good. ³⁸ Pharaoh said to his officers, ‘This man has the Spirit of God in him. We will never find anyone else like him.’ ³⁹ So Pharaoh said to Joseph, ‘God himself has helped you to know all these things. So there is no one who is as wise and clever as you are. ⁴⁰ I will give you authority in my palace. All my people will do whatever you tell them to do. Only I will be greater than you, because I am the king.’

⁴¹ Pharaoh also said to Joseph, ‘I give you authority in the whole land of Egypt.’ ⁴² Then Pharaoh took his king's ring from his finger and he put it on Joseph's finger. He dressed Joseph in beautiful clothes made of linen. He put a gold chain round Joseph's neck. ⁴³ Pharaoh gave Joseph a chariot to ride in. It showed that Joseph was Pharaoh's most important officer. Only Pharaoh had more authority. As Joseph travelled, his servants shouted to the people, ‘Bend your knees to respect Joseph!’

In this way Pharaoh gave Joseph authority over everything in the land of Egypt. ⁴⁴ Pharaoh said to Joseph, ‘I rule Egypt as Pharaoh. But nobody who lives anywhere in Egypt will do anything, unless you tell them to.’ ⁴⁵ Pharaoh gave Joseph the name Zaphenath-Paneah. He also gave Asenath to Joseph to be his wife. She was the daughter of Potiphera, who was a priest in Heliopolis.^[a] Everyone knew that Joseph had authority in all the land of Egypt.

⁴⁶ Joseph was 30 years old when he began to serve Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Joseph then left Pharaoh's palace and he travelled all over Egypt. ⁴⁷ During the seven good years, lots of food grew in the land. ⁴⁸ Joseph got all the extra food that grew in the seven good years. He stored it in Egypt's cities, near the fields where it had grown. ⁴⁹ In this way, Joseph stored a lot of food. The food grains were as many as the sand by the sea! Joseph stopped counting how much food he had stored because there was too much food to measure.

⁹ One of Jacob's sons was called Joseph. Jacob was more kind to Joseph than to his other sons. For this reason, Joseph's brothers did not like him. So one day they took Joseph and they sold him as a slave. The men that bought Joseph took him to Egypt. There he became the slave of an important man. All this time, God took care of Joseph. ¹⁰ God saved him from all his troubles and he helped him to live in a wise way. Because of that, Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, liked Joseph. He saw that Joseph was very wise. So Pharaoh gave Joseph authority to rule Egypt and everyone in the king's own house.

¹¹ Then there was a famine everywhere in Egypt and in Canaan. Everyone was very hungry and they suffered a lot. Our ancestors also had no food to eat. ¹² Jacob heard news that Pharaoh had stored a lot of wheat in Egypt. So he sent his sons there to buy food from Pharaoh. This was the first time that they went to Egypt.

¹³ Later, Jacob sent his sons back to Egypt for a second time. This time, Joseph told his brothers who he really was. As a result, Pharaoh came to know about Joseph's family. ¹⁴ After this, Joseph sent a message to his father, that he should also come to Egypt with his whole family. At that time, there were 75 people in Jacob's family.

¹⁵ So Jacob went to Egypt with all his family. Jacob and his 12 sons, our ancestors, lived there until they died.^[a]

¹⁶ When the people of Israel left Egypt, they carried with them the dead bodies of Joseph and his family. They took them back to Shechem and they buried them in a hole for dead people there. Abraham had bought that ground in Shechem from the family of a man called Hamor. He had paid Hamor the right money for it.’^[b]