Study Desk

So we returned to our father and reported what you had said.

That's why Benjamin must be with us when I go back to my father. He loves him so much

Then he cried so loudly that the Egyptians heard him and told about it in the king's palace.

So the king said to Joseph: Tell your brothers to load their donkeys and return to Canaan.

they told their father that Joseph was still alive and was the ruler of Egypt. But their father was so surprised that he could not believe them.

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.

So Joseph got in his chariot and went to meet his father. When they met, Joseph hugged his father around the neck and cried for a long time.

But in our country all the pastures are dried up, and our sheep have no grass to eat. So we, your servants, have come here. Please let us live in the region of Goshen."

So Joseph sold them the grain that had been stored up, and he put the money in the king's treasury.

The famine became so severe that Joseph finally bought every piece of land in Egypt for the king

except the priests. The king gave the priests a regular food allowance, so they did not have to sell their land.

Joseph was told that his father Jacob had become very sick. So Joseph went to see him and took along his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.

Jacob was very old and almost blind. He did not recognize the two boys, and so he asked Joseph, "Who are these boys?" Joseph answered, "They are my sons. God has given them to me here in Egypt." "Bring them to me," Jacob said. "I want to give them my blessing." Joseph brought the boys to him, and he hugged and kissed them.

Joseph did not like it when he saw his father place his right hand on the head of the younger son. So he tried to move his father's right hand from Ephraim's head and place it on Manasseh.

Uncontrollable as a flood, you slept with my wife and disgraced my bed. And so you no longer deserve the place of honor.

You found them so pleasant that you worked too hard and became a slave.

Jacob told his sons: Soon I will die, and I want you to bury me in Machpelah Cave. Abraham bought this cave as a burial place from Ephron the Hittite, and it is near the town of Mamre in Canaan. Abraham and Sarah are buried there, and so are Isaac and Rebekah. I buried Leah there too.

So Jacob's sons did just as their father had instructed.

So they sent this message to Joseph: Before our father died,

You tried to harm me, but God made it turn out for the best, so that he could save all these people, as he is now doing.