Study Desk

When the money from the lands of Egypt and Canaan was gone, all the Egyptians came to Joseph and said, "Give us food. Why should we die before your eyes? For our funds have run out!"

"Then bring me your livestock," said Joseph. "Since the money is gone, I will sell you food in exchange for your livestock."

So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and he gave them food in exchange for their horses, the animals of their flocks and herds, and their donkeys. Throughout that year he provided them with food in exchange for all their livestock.

When that year was over, they came to him the second year and said, "We cannot hide from our lord that our money is gone and all our livestock belongs to you. There is nothing left for our lord except our bodies and our land.

Why should we perish before your eyes-we and our land as well? Purchase us and our land in exchange for food. Then we, along with our land, will be slaves to Pharaoh. Give us seed that we may live and not die, and that the land may not become desolate."

So Joseph acquired for Pharaoh all the land in Egypt; the Egyptians, one and all, sold their fields because the famine was so severe upon them. The land became Pharaoh's,

However, he did not acquire the priests' portion of the land, for it had been given to them by Pharaoh. They ate the rations that Pharaoh supplied; so they did not sell their land.

Then Joseph said to the people, "Now that I have acquired you and your land for Pharaoh this day, here is seed for you to sow in the land.

At harvest time, you are to give a fifth of it to Pharaoh, and four-fifths will be yours as seed for the field and food for yourselves and your households and children."

When the time drew near for Israel to die, he called his son Joseph and said, "If I have found favor in your eyes, put your hand under my thigh and promise me that you will show me kindness and faithfulness. Do not bury me in Egypt,

Now as for me, when I was returning from Paddan, to my sorrow Rachel died along the way in the land of Canaan, some distance from Ephrath. So I buried her there beside the road to Ephrath" (that is, Bethlehem).

Then Jacob called for his sons and said, "Gather around so that I can tell you what will happen to you in the days to come:

May I never enter their council; may I never join their assembly. For they kill men in their anger, and hamstring oxen on a whim.

Cursed be their anger, for it is strong, and their wrath, for it is cruel! I will disperse them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel.

Zebulun shall dwell by the seashore and become a harbor for ships; his border shall extend to Sidon.

Dan shall provide justice for his people as one of the tribes of Israel.

taking the forty days required to complete the embalming. And the Egyptians mourned for him seventy days.

my father made me swear an oath when he said, 'I am about to die. You must bury me in the tomb that I dug for myself in the land of Canaan.' Now let me go and bury my father, and then return."

When they reached the threshing floor of Atad, which is across the Jordan, they lamented and wailed loudly, and Joseph mourned for his father seven days.

When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, "What if Joseph bears a grudge? Then he will surely repay us for all the evil that we did to him."