Genesis 50; Exodus 1–3

Genesis 50 WEB

¹Joseph fell on his father’s face, wept on him, and kissed him. ²Joseph commanded his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father; and the physicians embalmed Israel. ³Forty days were used for him, for that is how many days it takes to embalm. The Egyptians wept for Israel for seventy days. ⁴When the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph spoke to Pharaoh’s staff, saying, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, please speak in the ears of Pharaoh, saying, ⁵‘My father made me swear, saying, “Behold, I am dying. Bury me in my grave which I have dug for myself in the land of Canaan.” Now therefore, please let me go up and bury my father, and I will come again.’” ⁶Pharaoh said, “Go up, and bury your father, just like he made you swear.” ⁷Joseph went up to bury his father; and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, all the elders of the land of Egypt, ⁸all the house of Joseph, his brothers, and his father’s house. Only their little ones, their flocks, and their herds, they left in the land of Goshen. ⁹Both chariots and horsemen went up with him. It was a very great company. ¹⁰They came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, and there they lamented with a very great and severe lamentation. He mourned for his father seven days. ¹¹When the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning in the floor of Atad, they said, “This is a grievous mourning by the Egyptians.” Therefore its name was called Abel Mizraim, which is beyond the Jordan. ¹²His sons did to him just as he commanded them, ¹³for his sons carried him into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which Abraham bought with the field, as a possession for a burial site, from Ephron the Hittite, near Mamre. ¹⁴Joseph returned into Egypt—he, and his brothers, and all that went up with him to bury his father, after he had buried his father. ¹⁵When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “It may be that Joseph will hate us, and will fully pay us back for all the evil which we did to him.” ¹⁶They sent a message to Joseph, saying, “Your father commanded before he died, saying, ¹⁷‘You shall tell Joseph, “Now please forgive the disobedience of your brothers, and their sin, because they did evil to you.”’ Now, please forgive the disobedience of the servants of the God of your father.” Joseph wept when they spoke to him. ¹⁸His brothers also went and fell down before his face; and they said, “Behold, we are your servants.” ¹⁹Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid, for am I in the place of God? ²⁰As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to save many people alive, as is happening today. ²¹Now therefore don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your little ones.” He comforted them, and spoke kindly to them. ²²Joseph lived in Egypt, he, and his father’s house. Joseph lived one hundred ten years. ²³Joseph saw Ephraim’s children to the third generation. The children also of Machir, the son of Manasseh, were born on Joseph’s knees. ²⁴Joseph said to his brothers, “I am dying, but God will surely visit you, and bring you up out of this land to the land which he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” ²⁵Joseph took an oath from the children of Israel, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.” ²⁶So Joseph died, being one hundred ten years old, and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.

Exodus 1–3 WEB

^1:1Now these are the names of the sons of Israel, who came into Egypt (every man and his household came with Jacob): ²Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, ³Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, ⁴Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. ⁵All the souls who came out of Jacob’s body were seventy souls, and Joseph was in Egypt already. ⁶Joseph died, as did all his brothers, and all that generation. ⁷The children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and grew exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them. ⁸Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who didn’t know Joseph. ⁹He said to his people, “Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we. ¹⁰Come, let’s deal wisely with them, lest they multiply, and it happen that when any war breaks out, they also join themselves to our enemies and fight against us, and escape out of the land.” ¹¹Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. They built storage cities for Pharaoh: Pithom and Raamses. ¹²But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and the more they spread out. They started to dread the children of Israel. ¹³The Egyptians ruthlessly made the children of Israel serve, ¹⁴and they made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and in brick, and in all kinds of service in the field, all their service, in which they ruthlessly made them serve. ¹⁵The king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah, ¹⁶and he said, “When you perform the duty of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birth stool, if it is a son, then you shall kill him; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.” ¹⁷But the midwives feared God, and didn’t do what the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the baby boys alive. ¹⁸The king of Egypt called for the midwives, and said to them, “Why have you done this thing and saved the boys alive?” ¹⁹The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women aren’t like the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.” ²⁰God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied, and grew very mighty. ²¹Because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. ²²Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “You shall cast every son who is born into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive.”

^2:1A man of the house of Levi went and took a daughter of Levi as his wife. ²The woman conceived and bore a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months. ³When she could no longer hide him, she took a papyrus basket for him, and coated it with tar and with pitch. She put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds by the river’s bank. ⁴His sister stood far off, to see what would be done to him. ⁵Pharaoh’s daughter came down to bathe at the river. Her maidens walked along by the riverside. She saw the basket among the reeds, and sent her servant to get it. ⁶She opened it, and saw the child, and behold, the baby cried. She had compassion on him, and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.” ⁷Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Should I go and call a nurse for you from the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for you?” ⁸Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go.” The young woman went and called the child’s mother. ⁹Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child away, and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.” The woman took the child, and nursed him. ¹⁰The child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, and said, “Because I drew him out of the water.” ¹¹In those days, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his brothers and saw their burdens. He saw an Egyptian striking a Hebrew, one of his brothers. ¹²He looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no one, he killed the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand. ¹³He went out the second day, and behold, two men of the Hebrews were fighting with each other. He said to him who did the wrong, “Why do you strike your fellow?” ¹⁴He said, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you plan to kill me, as you killed the Egyptian?” Moses was afraid, and said, “Surely this thing is known.” ¹⁵Now when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and lived in the land of Midian, and he sat down by a well. ¹⁶Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock. ¹⁷The shepherds came and drove them away; but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock. ¹⁸When they came to Reuel, their father, he said, “How is it that you have returned so early today?” ¹⁹They said, “An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and moreover he drew water for us, and watered the flock.” ²⁰He said to his daughters, “Where is he? Why is it that you have left the man? Call him, that he may eat bread.” ²¹Moses was content to dwell with the man. He gave Moses Zipporah, his daughter. ²²She bore a son, and he named him Gershom, for he said, “I have lived as a foreigner in a foreign land.” ²³In the course of those many days, the king of Egypt died, and the children of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up to God because of the bondage. ²⁴God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. ²⁵God saw the children of Israel, and God understood.

^3:1Now Moses was keeping the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the back of the wilderness, and came to God’s mountain, to Horeb. ²The LORD’s angel appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the middle of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. ³Moses said, “I will go now, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” ⁴When the LORD saw that he came over to see, God called to him out of the middle of the bush, and said, “Moses! Moses!” He said, “Here I am.” ⁵He said, “Don’t come close. Take off your sandals, for the place you are standing on is holy ground.” ⁶Moreover he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God. ⁷The LORD said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. ⁸I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey; to the place of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite. ⁹Now, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to me. Moreover I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. ¹⁰Come now therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” ¹¹Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” ¹²He said, “Certainly I will be with you. This will be the token to you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.” ¹³Moses said to God, “Behold, when I come to the children of Israel, and tell them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what should I tell them?” ¹⁴God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM,” and he said, “You shall tell the children of Israel this: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” ¹⁵God said moreover to Moses, “You shall tell the children of Israel this, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and this is my memorial to all generations. ¹⁶Go and gather the elders of Israel together, and tell them, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, “I have surely visited you, and seen that which is done to you in Egypt. ¹⁷I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, to a land flowing with milk and honey.”’ ¹⁸They will listen to your voice. You shall come, you and the elders of Israel, to the king of Egypt, and you shall tell him, ‘The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Now please let us go three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the LORD, our God.’ ¹⁹I know that the king of Egypt won’t give you permission to go, no, not by a mighty hand. ²⁰I will reach out my hand and strike Egypt with all my wonders which I will do among them, and after that he will let you go. ²¹I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, and it will happen that when you go, you shall not go empty-handed. ²²But every woman shall ask of her neighbor, and of her who visits her house, jewels of silver, jewels of gold, and clothing. You shall put them on your sons, and on your daughters. You shall plunder the Egyptians.”