Study Desk

As she was being taken out, she sent word to her father-in-law: "I am pregnant by the man who owns these things. Look at them and see whose they are—this seal with its cord and this walking stick."

He refused and said to her, "Look, my master does not have to concern himself with anything in the house, because I am here. He has put me in charge of everything he has.

The king said to him, "I am the king—and no one in all Egypt shall so much as lift a hand or a foot without your permission."

On the third day Joseph said to them, "I am a God-fearing man, and I will spare your lives on one condition.

Their father said to them, "Do you want to make me lose all my children? Joseph is gone; Simeon is gone; and now you want to take away Benjamin. I am the one who suffers!"

But Jacob said, "My son cannot go with you; his brother is dead, and he is the only one left. Something might happen to him on the way. I am an old man, and the sorrow you would cause me would kill me."

If you take this one from me now and something happens to him, the sorrow you would cause me would kill me, as old as I am.'

Joseph said to his brothers, "I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?" But when his brothers heard this, they were so terrified that they could not answer.

Then Joseph said to them, "Please come closer." They did, and he said, "I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt.

So it was not really you who sent me here, but God. He has made me the king's highest official. I am in charge of his whole country; I am the ruler of all Egypt.

Joseph continued, "Now all of you, and you too, Benjamin, can see that I am really Joseph.

Tell my father how powerful I am here in Egypt and tell him about everything that you have seen. Then hurry and bring him here."

God spoke to him in a vision at night and called, "Jacob, Jacob!" "Yes, here I am," he answered.

"I am God, the God of your father," he said. "Do not be afraid to go to Egypt; I will make your descendants a great nation there.

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

I am doing this because of your mother Rachel. To my great sorrow she died in the land of Canaan, not far from Ephrath, as I was returning from Mesopotamia. I buried her there beside the road to Ephrath." (Ephrath is now known as Bethlehem.)

Then Jacob said to Joseph, "As you see, I am about to die, but God will be with you and will take you back to the land of your ancestors.

It is to you and not to your brothers that I am giving Shechem, that fertile region which I took from the Amorites with my sword and my bow."

Then Jacob commanded his sons, "Now that I am going to join my people in death, bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite,

He said to his brothers, "I am about to die, but God will certainly take care of you and lead you out of this land to the land he solemnly promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob."