Study Desk

So let your servant stay and work for my lord, instead of the boy. Let the boy go home with his brothers.

For how can I return to my father if the boy is not with me? I am afraid to see the sorrow that my father would suffer."

Joseph said to his brothers, "I am Joseph! Is my father still alive?" But his brothers could not answer him, for they were afraid in front of him.

But do not be troubled or angry with yourselves because you sold me here. For God sent me before you to save your life.

For the land has been without food these two years. And there are five more years without plowing or gathering.

There I will take care of you, so that you and your family will not be in need. For there are still five years coming without food. By then you would have nothing."'

Also say to them, ‘Take wagons from the land of Egypt for your little ones and your wives. Bring your father and come.

Do not worry about the things that belong to you. For the best of all the land of Egypt is yours.'"

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

Then Joseph made his wagon ready and went to Goshen to meet his father Israel. When he came to him, they put their arms around each other and cried for a long time.

And the men are shepherds, for they have taken care of animals. They have brought their flocks and cattle and all they have.'

you answer, ‘Your servants have taken care of cattle since we were young, both we and our fathers.' Then he will let you live in the land of Goshen. For the Egyptians look down upon every shepherd."

They said to Pharaoh, "We have come to live in the land, for there is no field with food for our flocks. The time without food is hard in the land of Canaan. So now we ask of you, let your servants live in the land of Goshen."

Jacob answered Pharaoh, "I have traveled on this earth for 130 years. The years of my life have been few and full of sorrow, and less than the years that my fathers lived."

So Joseph made a place for his father and his brothers. He gave them a part of the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had told him.

Joseph gave food to his father and his brothers and all his father's family, for the needs of their children.

Now there was no food in the land for the time without food was very hard. So the people in the land of both Egypt and Canaan became weak because of hunger.

So Joseph gathered all the money that was found in Egypt and Canaan for the grain they bought. And Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh's house.

When the money was gone from the lands of Egypt and Canaan, all the Egyptians came to Joseph and said, "Give us food! Why should we die in front of you? For we have no more money."

Then Joseph said, "Give your cattle. I will give you food in trade for your cattle, because your money is gone."