Study Desk

When that year was ended, they came to him the second year, and said to him, "We will not hide from my lord how our money is all spent, and the herds of cattle are my lord's. There is nothing left in the sight of my lord, but our bodies, and our lands.

Only he didn't buy the land of the Kohanim, for the Kohanim had a portion from Par`oh, and ate their portion which Par`oh gave them. That is why they didn't sell their land.

They said, "You have saved our lives! Let us find favor in the sight of my lord, and we will be Par`oh's servants."

Yisra'el lived in the land of Mitzrayim, in the land of Goshen; and they got themselves possessions therein, and were fruitful, and multiplied exceedingly.

Yosef said to his father, "They are my sons, whom God has given me here." He said, "Please bring them to me, and I will bless them."

There they buried Avraham and Sarah, his wife. There they buried Yitzchak and Rivka, his wife, and there I buried Le'ah:

all the house of Yosef, his brothers, and his father's house. Only their little ones, their flocks, and their herds, they left in the land of Goshen.

They came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Yarden, and there they lamented with a very great and sore lamentation. He mourned for his father seven days.

When Yosef's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, "It may be that Yosef will hate us, and will fully pay us back for all of the evil which we did to him.

"So will you tell Yosef, 'Now please forgive the disobedience of your brothers, and their sin, because they did evil to you.' Now, please forgive the disobedience of the servants of the God of your father." Yosef wept when they spoke to him.

His brothers also went and fell down before his face; and they said, "Behold, we are your servants."

So Yosef died, being one hundred ten years old, and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Mitzrayim.

Come, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply, and it happen that when any war breaks out, they also join themselves to our enemies, and fight against us, and escape out of the land."

Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. They built storage cities for Par`oh: Pitom and Ra`meses.

But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and the more they spread out. They were grieved because of the children of Yisra'el.

and they made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field, all their service, in which they ruthlessly made them serve.

The midwives said to Par`oh, "Because the Hebrew women aren't like the Mitzrian women; for they are vigorous, and give birth before the midwife comes to them."

Now the Kohen of Midyan had seven daughters. They came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father's flock.

They said, "A Mitzrian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and moreover he drew water for us, and watered the flock."

It happened in the course of those many days, that the king of Mitzrayim died, and the children of Yisra'el sighed because of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up to God because of the bondage.