Study Desk

(iii) So it was not you who sent me here, but God; and he has made me a father to Pharaoh, lord of all his household and ruler over the whole land of Egypt.

Hurry, go up to my father, and tell him, ‘Here is what your son Yosef says: "God has made me lord of all Egypt! Come down to me, don't delay!

Isra'el took everything he owned with him on his journey. He arrived at Be'er-Sheva and offered sacrifices to the God of his father Yitz'chak.

In a vision at night God called to Isra'el, "Ya‘akov! Ya‘akov!" He answered, "Here I am."

He said, "I am God, the God of your father. Don't be afraid to go down to Egypt. It is there that I will make you into a great nation.

Yosef answered his father, "They are my sons, whom God has given me here." Ya‘akov replied, "I want you to bring them here to me, so that I can bless them."

Isra'el said to Yosef, "I never expected to see even you again, but God has allowed me to see your children too!"

Then he blessed Yosef: "The God in whose presence my fathers Avraham and Yitz'chak lived, the God who has been my own shepherd all my life long to this day,

Then he added this blessing on them that day: "Isra'el will speak of you in their own blessings by saying, ‘May God make you like Efrayim and M'nasheh.'" Thus he put Efrayim ahead of M'nasheh.

Isra'el then said to Yosef, "You see that I am dying, but God will be with you and will bring you back to the land of your ancestors.

by the God of your father, who will help you, by El Shaddai, who will bless you with blessings from heaven above, blessings from the deep, lying below, blessings from the breasts and the womb.

‘Say to Yosef, "I beg you now, please forgive your brothers' crime and wickedness in doing you harm."' So now, we beg of you, forgive the crime of the servants of the God of your father." Yosef wept when they spoke to him;

But Yosef said to them, "Don't be afraid! Am I in the place of God?

You meant to do me harm, but God meant it for good — so that it would come about as it is today, with many people's lives being saved.

Yosef said to his brothers, "I am dying. But God will surely remember you and bring you up out of this land to the land which he swore to Avraham, Yitz'chak and Ya‘akov."

Then Yosef took an oath from the sons of Isra'el: "God will surely remember you, and you are to carry my bones up from here."

However, the midwives were God-fearing women, so they didn't do as the king of Egypt ordered but let the boys live.

Therefore God prospered the midwives, and the people continued to multiply and grow very powerful.

Indeed, because the midwives feared God, he made them founders of families.

Sometime during those many years the king of Egypt died, but the people of Isra'el still groaned under the yoke of slavery, and they cried out, and their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God.