Study Desk

The king said to the brothers, "What work do you do?" And they said to him, "We, your servants, are shepherds, just as our ancestors were."

They said to the king, "We have come to live in this land, because there is no grass in the land of Canaan for our animals to eat, and the hunger is terrible there. So please allow us to live in the land of Goshen."

And Joseph gave his father, his brothers, and everyone who lived with them the food they needed.

Joseph collected all the money that was to be found in Egypt and Canaan. People paid for the grain they were buying, and he brought that money to the king's palace.

After some time, when the people in Egypt and Canaan had no money left, they went to Joseph and said, "Please give us food. Our money is gone, and if we don't eat, we will die here in front of you."

The Israelites continued to live in the land of Goshen in Egypt. There they got possessions and had many children and grew in number.

But if you have other children, they will be your own, and their land will be part of the land given to Ephraim and Manasseh.

He was the Angel who saved me from all my troubles. Now I pray that he will bless these boys. May my name be known through these boys, and may the names of my ancestors Abraham and Isaac be known through them. May they have many descendants on the earth."

So Israel blessed them that day and said, "When a blessing is given in Israel, they will say: ‘May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.'" In this way he made Ephraim greater than Manasseh.

I will not join their secret talks, and I will not meet with them to plan evil. They killed men because they were angry, and they crippled oxen just for fun.

Everyone who lived with Joseph and his brothers went with him, as well as everyone who lived with his father. They left only their children, their flocks, and their herds in the land of Goshen.

They went with Joseph in chariots and on horses. It was a very large group.

When they came to the threshing floor of Atad, near the Jordan River, they cried loudly and bitterly for his father. Joseph's time of sorrow continued for seven days.

They carried his body to the land of Canaan and buried it in the cave in the field of Machpelah near Mamre. Abraham had bought this cave and field from Ephron the Hittite to use as a burial place.

Joseph died when he was one hundred ten years old. Doctors prepared his body for burial, and then they put him in a coffin in Egypt.

But the people of Israel had many children, and their number grew greatly. They became very strong, and the country of Egypt was filled with them.

If we don't make plans against them, the number of their people will grow even more. Then if there is a war, they might join our enemies and fight us and escape from the country!"

So the Egyptians made life hard for the Israelites. They put slave masters over them, who forced the Israelites to build the cities Pithom and Rameses as supply centers for the king.

They made their lives bitter. They forced the Israelites to work hard to make bricks and mortar and to do all kinds of work in the fields. The Egyptians were not merciful to them in all their painful work.

God was good to the nurses. And the Hebrew people continued to grow in number, so they became even stronger.