Study Desk

Esau replied, "Let me leave some of my men with you." "You don't have to do that," Jacob answered. "I am happy, simply knowing that you are friendly to me."

After Jacob came back to the land of Canaan, God appeared to him again. This time he gave Jacob a new name and blessed him by saying: I am God All-Powerful, and from now on your name will be Israel instead of Jacob. You will have many children. Your descendants will become nations, and some of the men in your family will even be kings.

Then he went back to his brothers and said, "The boy is gone! What am I going to do?"

"Those are mine!" Judah admitted. "She's a better person than I am, because I broke my promise to let her marry my son Shelah." After this, Judah never slept with her again.

No one in my master's house is more important than I am. The only thing he hasn't given me is you, and that's because you are his wife. I won't sin against God by doing such a terrible thing as this."

The king said to him, "I had a dream, yet no one can explain what it means. I am told that you can interpret dreams."

But Jacob said, "I won't let my son Benjamin go down to Egypt with the rest of you. His brother is already dead, and he is the only son I have left. I am an old man, and if anything happens to him on the way, I'll die from sorrow, and all of you will be to blame."

Judah went over to Joseph and said: Sir, you have as much power as the king himself, and I am only your slave. Please don't get angry if I speak.

and he said, "I am an old man. If you take Benjamin from me, and something happens to him, I will die of a broken heart."

Sir, I am your slave. Please let me stay here in place of Benjamin and let him return home with his brothers.

Since Joseph could no longer control his feelings in front of his servants, he sent them out of the room. When he was alone with his brothers, he told them, "I am Joseph."

Joseph told them to come closer to him, and when they did, he said: Yes, I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt.

All of you, including my brother Benjamin, can tell by what I have said that I really am Joseph.

That night, God spoke to him and said, "Jacob! Jacob!" "Here I am," Jacob answered.

God said, "I am God, the same God your father worshiped. Don't be afraid to go to Egypt. I will give you so many descendants that one day they will become a nation.

Jacob said to Joseph, "Now that I have seen you and know you are still alive, I am ready to die."

and promised, "I will give you a large family with many descendants that will grow into a nation. And I am giving you this land that will belong to you and your family forever."

But his father said, "Son, I know what I am doing. It's true that Manasseh's family will someday become a great nation. But Ephraim will be even greater than Manasseh, because his descendants will become many great nations."

Jacob called his sons together and said: My sons, I am Jacob, your father Israel.

Our Lord , I am waiting for you to save us.