Study Desk

Then Joseph could not hide his feelings in front of all who stood by him. He cried, "Send all the people away from me." So no one was with him when Joseph told his brothers who he was.

He cried so loud that the Egyptians heard it, and those of Pharaoh's house heard of it.

Joseph said to his brothers, "Come near to me." So they came near. He said, "I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt.

So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and ruler of all his house, and of all the land of Egypt.

There I will take care of you, so that you and your family will not be in need. For there are still five years coming without food. By then you would have nothing."'

So they went out of Egypt and came to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan.

So they told him all the things that Joseph had said to them. And when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to carry him, the life of Jacob's spirit returned.

So Israel traveled with all he had to Beersheba. There he gave gifts to the God of his father Isaac.

Two sons were born to Joseph in Egypt. So all the people of Jacob's family when he came to Egypt were seventy.

Then Pharaoh said to his brothers, "What is your work?" So they said to Pharaoh, "Your servants are shepherds, both we and our fathers."

They said to Pharaoh, "We have come to live in the land, for there is no field with food for our flocks. The time without food is hard in the land of Canaan. So now we ask of you, let your servants live in the land of Goshen."

So Joseph made a place for his father and his brothers. He gave them a part of the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had told him.

Now there was no food in the land for the time without food was very hard. So the people in the land of both Egypt and Canaan became weak because of hunger.

So Joseph gathered all the money that was found in Egypt and Canaan for the grain they bought. And Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh's house.

So they brought their animals to Joseph. And Joseph gave them food in trade for the horses and flocks and cattle and donkeys. He fed them that year in trade for their animals.

Why should we die in front of you and our lands be wasted? Buy us and our land in trade for food. We and our land will work for Pharaoh. Give us seed, so that we may live and not die, and so the land will not be wasted."

So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh. For every Egyptian sold his field, because the time without food was hard for them. So the land became Pharaoh's.

Only the land of the religious leaders he did not buy. For the religious leaders received money from Pharaoh. They lived on the money Pharaoh gave them. So they did not sell their land.

So they said, "You have saved our lives! Let us find favor in the eyes of my lord. We will be Pharaoh's servants."

Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years. So Jacob had lived 147 years in all.