Genesis 44; Genesis 45; Genesis 46; Genesis 47:1-27

1 He commanded the steward of his house, saying, "Fill the men's sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put every man's money in his sack's mouth.

2 Put my cup, the silver cup, in the sack's mouth of the youngest, with his grain money." He did according to the word that Yosef had spoken.

3 As soon as the morning was light, the men were sent away, they and their donkeys.

4 When they had gone out of the city, and were not yet far off, Yosef said to his steward, "Up, follow after the men. When you overtake them, tell them, 'Why have you rewarded evil for good?

5 Isn't this that from which my lord drinks, and whereby he indeed divines? You have done evil in so doing.'"

6 He overtook them, and he spoke to them these words.

7 They said to him, "Why does my lord speak such words as these? Far be it from your servants that they should do such a thing!

8 Behold, the money, which we found in our sacks' mouths, we brought again to you out of the land of Kana`an. How then should we steal silver or gold out of your lord's house?

9 With whoever of your servants it be found, let him die, and we also will be my lord's bondservants."

10 He said, "Now also let it be according to your words: he with whom it is found will be my bondservant; and you will be blameless."

11 Then they hurried, and took down every man his sack to the ground, and opened every man his sack.

12 He searched, beginning with the eldest, and ending at the youngest. The cup was found in Binyamin's sack.

13 Then they tore their clothes, and loaded every man his donkey, and returned to the city.

14 Yehudah and his brothers came to Yosef's house, and he was still there. They fell on the ground before him.

15 Yosef said to them, "What deed is this that you have done? Don't you know that such a man as I can indeed divine?"

16 Yehudah said, "What will we tell my lord? What will we speak? Or how will we clear ourselves? God has found out the iniquity of your servants. Behold, we are my lord's bondservants, both we, and he also in whose hand the cup is found."

17 He said, "Far be it from me that I should do so. The man in whose hand the cup is found, he will be my bondservant; but as for you, go up in shalom to your father."

18 Then Yehudah came near to him, and said, "Oh, my lord, please let your servant speak a word in my lord's ears, and don't let your anger burn against your servant; for you are even as Par`oh.

19 My lord asked his servants, saying, 'Have you a father, or a brother?'

20 We said to my lord, 'We have a father, an old man, and a child of his old age, a little one; and his brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother; and his father loves him.'

21 You said to your servants, 'Bring him down to me, that I may set my eyes on him.'

22 We said to my lord, 'The boy can't leave his father: for if he should leave his father, his father would die.'

23 You said to your servants, 'Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you will see my face no more.'

24 It happened when we came up to your servant my father, we told him the words of my lord.

25 Our father said, 'Go again, buy us a little food.'

26 We said, 'We can't go down. If our youngest brother is with us, then will we go down: for we may not see the man's face, unless our youngest brother is with us.'

27 Your servant, my father, said to us, 'You know that my wife bore me two sons:

28 and the one went out from me, and I said, "Surely he is torn in pieces;" and I haven't seen him since.

29 If you take this one also from me, and harm befalls him, you will bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to She'ol.'

30 Now therefore when I come to your servant my father, and the boy is not with us; seeing that his life is bound up in the boy's life;

31 it will happen, when he sees that the boy is no more, that he will die. Your servants will bring down the gray hairs of your servant, our father, with sorrow to She'ol.

32 For your servant became collateral for the boy to my father, saying, 'If I don't bring him to you, then I will bear the blame to my father forever.'

33 Now therefore, please let your servant stay instead of the boy, a bondservant to my lord; and let the boy go up with his brothers.

34 For how will I go up to my father, if the boy isn't with me? Lest I see the evil that will come on my father."

1 Then Yosef couldn't control himself before all those who stood before him, and he cried, "Cause every man to go out from me!" There stood no man with him, while Yosef made himself known to his brothers.

2 He wept aloud. The Mitzrim heard, and the house of Par`oh heard.

3 Yosef said to his brothers, "I am Yosef! Does my father still live?" His brothers couldn't answer him; for they were terrified at his presence.

4 Yosef said to his brothers, "Come near to me, please." They came near. "He said, I am Yosef, your brother, whom you sold into Mitzrayim.

5 Now don't be grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life.

6 For these two years has the famine been in the land, and there are yet five years, in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest.

7 God sent me before you to preserve you a remnant in the eretz, and to save you alive by a great deliverance.

8 So now it wasn't you who sent me here, but God, and he has made me a father to Par`oh, lord of all his house, and ruler over all the land of Mitzrayim.

9 Hurry, and go up to my father, and tell him, 'This is what your son Yosef says, "God has made me lord of all Mitzrayim. Come down to me. Don't wait.

10 You shall dwell in the land of Goshen, and you will be near to me, you, your children, your children's children, your flocks, your herds, and all that you have.

11 There I will nourish you; for there are yet five years of famine; lest you come to poverty, you, and your household, and all that you have."'

12 Behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Binyamin, that it is my mouth that speaks to you.

13 You shall tell my father of all my glory in Mitzrayim, and of all that you have seen. You shall hurry and bring my father down here."

14 He fell on his brother Binyamin's neck, and wept, and Binyamin wept on his neck.

15 He kissed all his brothers, and wept on them. After that his brothers talked with him.

16 The report of it was heard in Par`oh's house, saying, "Yosef's brothers have come." It pleased Par`oh well, and his servants.

17 Par`oh said to Yosef, "Tell your brothers, 'Do this. Load your animals, and go, travel to the land of Kana`an.

18 Take your father and your households, and come to me, and I will give you the good of the land of Mitzrayim, and you will eat the fat of the land.'

19 Now you are commanded: do this. Take wagons out of the land of Mitzrayim for your little ones, and for your wives, and bring your father, and come.

20 Also, don't concern yourselves about your belongings, for the good of all of the land of Mitzrayim is yours."

21 The sons of Yisra'el did so. Yosef gave them wagons, according to the mitzvah of Par`oh, and gave them provision for the way.

22 To all of them he gave each man changes of clothing, but to Binyamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver and five changes of clothing.

23 To his father, he sent after this manner: ten donkeys laden with the good things of Mitzrayim, and ten she-asses laden with grain and bread and provision for his father by the way.

24 So he sent his brothers away, and they departed. He said to them, "See that you don't quarrel on the way."

25 They went up out of Mitzrayim, and came into the land of Kana`an, to Ya`akov their father.

26 They told him, saying, "Yosef is still alive, and he is ruler over all the land of Mitzrayim." His heart fainted, for he didn't believe them.

27 They told him all the words of Yosef, which he had said to them. When he saw the wagons which Yosef had sent to carry him, the spirit of Ya`akov, their father, revived.

28 Yisra'el said, "It is enough. Yosef my son is still alive. I will go and see him before I die."

1 Yisra'el took his journey with all that he had, and came to Be'er-Sheva, and offered sacrifices to the God of his father, Yitzchak.

2 God spoke to Yisra'el in the visions of the night, and said, "Ya`akov, Ya`akov!" He said, "Here I am."

3 He said, "I am God, the God of your father. Don't be afraid to go down into Mitzrayim; for there I will make of you a great nation.

4 I will go down with you into Mitzrayim. I will also surely bring you up again. Yosef will close your eyes."

5 Ya`akov rose up from Be'er-Sheva, and the sons of Yisra'el carried Ya`akov, their father, their little ones, and their wives, in the wagons which Par`oh had sent to carry him.

6 They took their cattle, and their goods, which they had gotten in the land of Kana`an, and came into Mitzrayim - Ya`akov, and all his seed with him,

7 his sons, and his sons' sons with him, his daughters, and his sons' daughters, and all his seed brought he with him into Mitzrayim.

8 These are the names of the children of Yisra'el, who came into Mitzrayim, Ya`akov and his sons: Re'uven, Ya`akov's firstborn.

9 The sons of Re'uven: Hanokh, Pallu, Hetzron, and Karmi.

10 The sons of Shim`on: Yemu'el, Yamin, Ohad, Yakhin, Tzochar, and Sha'ul the son of a Kana`ani woman.

11 The sons of Levi: Gershon, Kehat, and Merari.

12 The sons of Yehudah: `Er, Onan, Shelach, Peretz, and Zerach; but `Er and Onan died in the land of Kana`an. The sons of Peretz were Hetzron and Hamul.

13 The sons of Yissakhar: Tola, Puvah, Yov, and Shimron.

14 The sons of Zevulun: Sered, Elon, and Yachle'el.

15 These are the sons of Le'ah, whom she bore to Ya`akov in Paddan-Aram, with his daughter Dinah. All the souls of his sons and his daughters were thirty-three.

16 The sons of Gad: Tzifyon, Haggi, Shuni, Etzbon, `Eri, Arodi, and Ar'eli.

17 The sons of Asher: Yimna, Yishvah, Yishvi, Beri`ah, and Serach their sister. The sons of Beri`ah: Hever and Malki'el.

18 These are the sons of Zilpah, whom Lavan gave to Le'ah, his daughter, and these she bore to Ya`akov, even sixteen souls.

19 The sons of Rachel, Ya`akov's wife: Yosef and Binyamin.

20 To Yosef in the land of Mitzrayim were born Menashsheh and Efrayim, whom Asenat, the daughter of Potiphera, Kohen of On, bore to him.

21 The sons of Binyamin: Bela, Bekher, Ashbel, Gera, Na`aman, Echi, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim, and Ard.

22 These are the sons of Rachel, who were born to Ya`akov: all the souls were fourteen.

23 The sons of Dan: Hushim.

24 The sons of Naftali: Yachtze'el, Guni, Yetzer, and Shillem.

25 These are the sons of Bilhah, whom Lavan gave to Rachel, his daughter, and these she bore to Ya`akov: all the souls were seven.

26 All the souls who came with Ya`akov into Mitzrayim, who were his direct descendants, besides Ya`akov's sons' wives, all the souls were sixty-six.

27 The sons of Yosef, who were born to him in Mitzrayim, were two souls. All the souls of the house of Ya`akov, who came into Mitzrayim, were seventy.

28 He sent Yehudah before him to Yosef, to show the way before him to Goshen, and they came into the land of Goshen.

29 Yosef made ready his chariot, and went up to meet Yisra'el, his father, in Goshen. He presented himself to him, and fell on his neck, and wept on his neck a good while.

30 Yisra'el said to Yosef, "Now let me die, since I have seen your face, that you are still alive."

31 Yosef said to his brothers, and to his father's house, "I will go up, and speak with Par`oh, and will tell him, 'My brothers, and my father's house, who were in the land of Kana`an, have come to me.

32 These men are shepherds, for they have been keepers of cattle, and they have brought their flocks, and their herds, and all that they have.'

33 It will happen, when Par`oh summons you, and will say, 'What is your occupation?'

34 that you shall say, 'Your servants have been keepers of cattle from our youth even until now, both we, and our fathers:' that you may dwell in the land of Goshen; for every shepherd is an abomination to the Mitzrim."

1 Then Yosef went in and told Par`oh, and said, "My father and my brothers, with their flocks, their herds, and all that they own, have come out of the land of Kana`an; and, behold, they are in the land of Goshen."

2 From among his brothers he took five men, and presented them to Par`oh.

3 Par`oh said to his brothers, "What is your occupation?" They said to Par`oh, "Your servants are shepherds, both we, and our fathers."

4 They said to Par`oh, "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 Kana`an. Now therefore, please let your servants dwell in the land of Goshen."

5 Par`oh spoke to Yosef, saying, "Your father and your brothers have come to you.

6 The land of Mitzrayim is before you. Make your father and your brothers dwell in the best of the land. Let them dwell in the land of Goshen. If you know any able men among them, then put them in charge of my cattle."

7 Yosef brought in Ya`akov, his father, and set him before Par`oh, and Ya`akov blessed Par`oh.

8 Par`oh said to Ya`akov, "How many are the days of the years of your life?"

9 Ya`akov said to Par`oh, "The days of the years of my pilgrimage are one hundred thirty years. Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage."

10 Ya`akov blessed Par`oh, and went out from the presence of Par`oh.

11 Yosef placed his father and his brothers, and gave them a possession in the land of Mitzrayim, in the best of the land, in the land of Ra`meses, as Par`oh had commanded.

12 Yosef nourished his father, his brothers, and all of his father's household, with bread, according to their families.

13 There was no bread in all the land; for the famine was very severe, so that the land of Mitzrayim and the land of Kana`an fainted by reason of the famine.

14 Yosef gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Mitzrayim, and in the land of Kana`an, for the grain which they bought: and Yosef brought the money into Par`oh's house.

15 When the money was all spent in the land of Mitzrayim, and in the land of Kana`an, all the Mitzrim came to Yosef, and said, "Give us bread, for why should we die in your presence? For our money fails."

16 Yosef said, "Give your cattle; and I will give you for your cattle, if money fails."

17 They brought their cattle to Yosef, and Yosef gave them bread in exchange for the horses, and for the flocks, and for the herds, and for the donkeys: and he fed them with bread in exchange for all their cattle for that year.

18 When that year was ended, they came to him the second year, and said to him, "We will not hide from my lord how our money is all spent, and the herds of cattle are my lord's. There is nothing left in the sight of my lord, but our bodies, and our lands.

19 Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants to Par`oh. Give us seed, that we may live, and not die, and that the land won't be desolate."

20 So Yosef bought all the land of Mitzrayim for Par`oh, for the Mitzrim sold every man his field, because the famine was severe on them, and the land became Par`oh's.

21 As for the people, he moved them to the cities from one end of the border of Mitzrayim even to the other end of it.

22 Only he didn't buy the land of the Kohanim, for the Kohanim had a portion from Par`oh, and ate their portion which Par`oh gave them. That is why they didn't sell their land.

23 Then Yosef said to the people, "Behold, I have bought you and your land today for Par`oh. Behold, here is seed for you, and you shall sow the land.

24 It will happen at the harvests, that you shall give a fifth to Par`oh, and four parts will be your own, for seed of the field, for your food, for them of your households, and for food for your little ones."

25 They said, "You have saved our lives! Let us find favor in the sight of my lord, and we will be Par`oh's servants."

26 Yosef made it a statute concerning the land of Mitzrayim to this day, that Par`oh should have the fifth. Only the land of the Kohanim alone didn't become Par`oh's.

27 Yisra'el lived in the land of Mitzrayim, in the land of Goshen; and they got themselves possessions therein, and were fruitful, and multiplied exceedingly.