Study Desk

So they brought their animals to Joseph. And Joseph gave them food in trade for the horses and flocks and cattle and donkeys. He fed them that year in trade for their animals.

When that year ended, they came to him the next year. They said, "We will not hide from my lord that our money is all gone. And the cattle belong to my lord. There is nothing left for our lord except our bodies and our lands.

Why should we die in front of you and our lands be wasted? Buy us and our land in trade for food. We and our land will work for Pharaoh. Give us seed, so that we may live and not die, and so the land will not be wasted."

So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh. For every Egyptian sold his field, because the time without food was hard for them. So the land became Pharaoh's.

He had the people move to the cities from one end of Egypt to the other, to work for Pharaoh.

Only the land of the religious leaders he did not buy. For the religious leaders received money from Pharaoh. They lived on the money Pharaoh gave them. So they did not sell their land.

Then Joseph said to the people, "See, today I have bought you and your land for Pharaoh. Now here is seed for you to plant in the fields.

At gathering time, you must give a fifth part to Pharaoh. Keep the rest to have seeds for the field, and to feed yourselves and your children and those of your houses."

When the time came for Israel to die, he called his son Joseph. He said to him, "If I have found favor in your eyes, give me your promise to be kind and faithful to me. I ask of you, do not bury me in Egypt.

For when I came from Paddan, Rachel died by my side in the land of Canaan before we came to Ephrath. I buried her there on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem)."

Joseph said to his father, "Not this way, my father, for this one is the first-born. Place your right hand on his head."

May my soul not have a part in their secrets, nor my shining-greatness be joined to them. Because in their anger they killed men and for no reason they hurt cattle.

Their anger will be punished, for it is bad. Their bad temper will be punished, for it is bad. I will divide them in Jacob and spread them apart in Israel.

"Zebulun will live beside the sea and be a safe place for ships. His land will lie beside Sidon.

I wait for Your saving power, O Lord.

The men fought against him with their bows. They sent arrows toward him and made it hard for him.

All these are the twelve family groups of Israel. This is what their father said to them when he prayed that good would come to them. He prayed for each of them to receive the good they should have.

in the grave that is in the field of Machpelah, east of Mamre, in the land of Canaan. Abraham bought this grave and the field from Ephron the Hittite for a burying place.

Forty days were needed for this. For this is how much time it took for making the body ready to be buried. And the Egyptians cried for him seventy days.

When the days of sorrow for him were past, Joseph said to those of Pharaoh's house, "If now I have found favor in your eyes, speak to Pharaoh, saying,