Study Desk

Then Judah approached him, and said, "Oh my lord, may your servant please speak a word in my lord's ears, and do not be angry with your servant; for you are equal to Pharaoh.

"But we said to my lord, 'The lad cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father, his father would die.'

"But we said, 'We cannot go down. If our youngest brother is with us, then we will go down; for we cannot see the man's face unless our youngest brother is with us.'

"For your servant became surety for the lad to my father, saying, 'If I do not bring him back to you, then let me bear the blame before my father forever.'

"For how shall I go up to my father if the lad is not with me—for fear that I see the evil that would overtake my father?"

Then Joseph said to his brothers, "I am Joseph! Is my father still alive?" But his brothers could not answer him, for they were dismayed at his presence.

"Now do not be grieved or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life.

"For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting.

"God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth, and to keep you alive by a great deliverance.

"There I will also provide for you, for there are still five years of famine to come, and you and your household and all that you have would be impoverished."'

"Now you are ordered, 'Do this: take wagons from the land of Egypt for your little ones and for your wives, and bring your father and come.

'Do not concern yourselves with your goods, for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours.'"

Then the sons of Israel did so; and Joseph gave them wagons according to the command of Pharaoh, and gave them provisions for the journey.

To his father he sent as follows: ten donkeys loaded with the best things of Egypt, and ten female donkeys loaded with grain and bread and sustenance for his father on the journey.

They told him, saying, "Joseph is still alive, and indeed he is ruler over all the land of Egypt." But he was stunned, for he did not believe them.

He said, "I am God, the God of your father; do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you a great nation there.

and the men are shepherds, for they have been keepers of livestock; and they have brought their flocks and their herds and all that they have.'

you shall say, 'Your servants have been keepers of livestock from our youth even until now, both we and our fathers,' that you may live in the land of Goshen; for every shepherd is loathsome to the Egyptians."

They said to Pharaoh, "We have come to sojourn in the land, for there is no pasture for your servants' flocks, for the famine is severe in the land of Canaan. Now, therefore, please let your servants live in the land of Goshen."

Joseph gathered all the money that was found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan for the grain which they bought, and Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh's house.