Daily Bible Reading, Day 13 (Genesis 43-46)

Famine, Judah’s Guarantee, and the Journey Back to Egypt

Now the famine was heavy in the land, and it happened, when they had finished eating the grain which they had brought from Egypt, that their father said to them, Go back, buy us a little food. Judah spoke to him, however, saying, The man solemnly warned us, saying, You shall not see my face unless your brother is with you.

If you send our brother with us, we will go down and buy food, but if you do not send him, we will not go down, for the man said to us, You will not see my face unless your brother is with you. Then Israel said, Why did you treat me so badly, by telling the man whether you still had another brother?

But they said, The man questioned particularly about us and our kin, saying, Is your father still alive? Have you another brother? So we told him concerning these things. Could we possibly have known that he would say, Bring your brother down?

Then Judah said to his father Israel, Send the boy with me, and we will arise and go, that we may live and not die, we as well as you and our little ones. I myself will be the guarantee for him, from my hand you may require it.

If I do not bring him back to you and set him before you, then I shall bear the sin before you all my days. For if we had not delayed, surely by now we could have returned twice. Then their father Israel said to them, If it must be so, then do this, take some of the best products of the land in your bags, and bring them down to the man as a present, a little balm and a little honey, aromatic gum and myrrh, pistachio nuts and almonds.

Now take double the money in your hand, and take back in your hand the money that was put back in the mouth of your sacks, perhaps it was a mistake, and take your brother also, and arise, return to the man, and may God Almighty grant you compassion before the man, so that he will release to you your other brother and Benjamin.

As for me, if I am bereaved of my children, I am bereaved. So the men took this present, and they took double the money in their hand and Benjamin, and they arose and went down to Egypt and stood before Joseph.

Joseph Receives Benjamin and Tests His Brothers

Then Joseph saw Benjamin with them, and said to his house steward, Bring the men into the house, and slay an animal and prepare it, for the men are to eat with me at noon. So the man did as Joseph said, and brought the men to Joseph's house.

And the men were afraid, because they were brought to Joseph's house, and they said, It is because of the money that was returned in our sacks the first time that we are being brought in, that he may seek occasion against us, and fall upon us, and take us for slaves with our donkeys.

So they came near to Joseph's house steward, and spoke to him at the entrance of the house, and they said, O my Lord, we indeed came down the first time to buy food, and it happened when we came to the lodging place that we opened our sacks, and behold, each man's money was in the mouth of his sack, our money in full, so we have brought it back in our hand.

We have also brought down other money in our hand to buy food, we do not know who put our money in our sacks. And he said, Be well, do not be afraid, your God, and the God of your father, has given you treasure in your sacks, your money has come to me.

Then he brought Simeon out to them. Then the man brought the men into Joseph's house, and gave them water, and they washed their feet, and he gave their donkeys fodder. So they prepared the present for Joseph's coming at noon, for they had heard that they were to eat a meal there.

Then Joseph came home, and they brought into the house to him the present which was in their hand, and bowed to the ground before him. And he asked them about their well-being, and said, Is your old father well, of whom you spoke, is he still alive?

And they said, Your servant our father is well, he is still alive. They bowed down, and prostrated themselves. Then he lifted his eyes, and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother's son, and he said, Is this your youngest brother, of whom you spoke to me?

And he said, May God be gracious to you, my son. And Joseph hurried out, for he was deeply stirred with compassion over his brother, and he sought a place to weep, and he entered his chamber, and wept there.

Then he washed his face, and came out, and he restrained himself, and said, Set the meal. So they set the meal for him by himself, and for them by themselves, and for the Egyptians who ate with him by themselves, because the Egyptians could not eat bread with the Hebrews, for that is an abomination to the Egyptians.

And they were seated before him, the firstborn according to his birthright, and the youngest according to his youth, and the men looked at one another in astonishment. And he took portions to them from his own table, but Benjamin's portion was five times greater than any of theirs.

So they feasted, and drank freely with him. Genesis chapter 44. Then he commanded his house stewards, saying, Fill the men's sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put each man's money in the mouth of his sack.

Now put my cup, the silver cup, in the mouth of the sack of the youngest, and his money for the grain. And he did as Joseph had told him. As the morning light broke, the men were sent away, they with their donkeys.

Now they had just gone out of the city, and were not far off, when Joseph said to his house steward, Arise, pursue the men, you shall overtake them, and say to them, Why have you repaid evil for good?

Is not this the one from which my lord drinks, and which he indeed uses to interpret omens? You have done evil in doing this. So he overtook them, and spoke these words to them. And they said to him, Why does my lord speak such words as these?

Far be it from your servants to do such a thing. Behold the money which we have found in the mouth of our sacks, we have brought back to you from the land of Canaan. How then could we steal silver or gold from your lord's house?

With whomever of your servants it is found, let him die, and we also will be my lord's slaves. So he said, Now let it also be according to your words, he with whom it is found shall be my slave, but the rest of you shall be innocent.

Then they hurried, each man brought his sack down to the ground, and each man opened his sack. So he searched, beginning with the oldest, and ending with the youngest, and the cup was found in Benjamin's sack.

Then they tore their clothes, and each man loaded his donkey and returned to the city. Then Judah and his brothers came to Joseph's house, and he was still there. So they fell to the ground before him.

And Joseph said to them, What is this deed that you have done? Do you not know that such a man as I can indeed interpret omens? So Judah said, What can we say to my lord? What can we speak? And how can we justify ourselves?

God has found out the iniquity of your servants. Behold, we are my lord's slaves, both we and the one in whose possession the cup has been found. But he said, Far be it from me to do this. The man in whose possession the cup has been found, he shall be my slave.

But as for you, go up in peace to your father. Then Judah came near to him and said, O 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.

My lord asked his servants, saying, Have you a father or a brother? And we said to my lord, We have an old father and a little child of his old age. Now his brother is dead, so he alone is left of his mother, and his father loves him.

Then you said to your servants, Bring him down to me that I may set my eyes on him. And we said to my lord, The boy cannot leave his father. If he should leave his father, his father would die. You said to your servants, however, If your youngest brother does not come down with you, you will not see my face again.

Thus it happened, that when we went up to your servant, my father, we told him the words of my lord. And our father said, Go back, buy us a little food. 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 if our youngest brother is not with us.

And your servant, my father, said to us, You know that my wife bore me two sons, and the one went out from me, and I said, Surely he is torn to pieces, and I have not seen him since. If you take this one also from me, and harm befalls him, you will bring my gray hair down to Sheol in evil.

So now, when I come to your servant, my father, and the boy is not with us, and his life is bound up in the boy's life, so it will be that when he sees that the boy is not with us, he will die. Thus your servants will bring the gray hair of your servant, our father, down to Sheol in sorrow.

For your servant became a guarantee for the boy to my father, saying, If I do not bring him back to you, then I shall bear the sin before my father all my days. So now, please let your servant remain instead of the boy as a slave to my lord, and let the boy go up with his brothers.

For how shall I go up to my father if the boy is not with me, lest I see the evil that would overtake my father? Genesis 45. Then Joseph could not restrain himself before all those who stood by him, and he called out, Have everyone go out from me.

So there was no man with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. Then he wept loudly, and the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it. Then Joseph said to his brothers, I am Joseph.

Is my father still alive? But his brothers could not answer him, for they were terrified at his presence. Then Joseph said to his brothers, Please come near to me. And they came near, and he said, I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into Egypt.

So 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.

So God sent me before you to establish for you a remnant in the earth, and to keep you alive for a great remnant of survivors. So now it was not you who sent me here, but God, and he has sent me as a father to Pharaoh and lord of all his household and ruler over all the land of Egypt.

Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, Thus says your son Joseph, God has sent me as lord of all Egypt. Come down to me, do not delay, and you shall live in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children and your children's children, and your flocks and your herds and all that you have.

There I will also provide for you, for there are still five years of famine to come, lest you and your household and all that you have be impoverished. And behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see, that it is my mouth which is speaking to you.

So you must tell my father of all my glory in Egypt and all that you have seen, and you must hurry and bring my father down here. Then he fell on his brother Benjamin's neck and wept, and Benjamin wept on his neck.

He kissed all his brothers and wept on them, and afterward his brothers talked with him. Now the news was heard in Pharaoh's house, saying, Joseph's brothers have come, and it was good in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants.

Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, Say to your brothers, do this, load your beasts and go to the land of Canaan, and take your father and your households and come to me, and I will give you the best of the land of Egypt, and you will eat the fat of the land.

Now you are commanded, do this, take wagons from the land of Egypt for your little ones and for your wives, and bring your father and come. Now do not concern yourself with 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 he gave them provisions for the journey. To each of them he gave changes of garments, but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver and five changes of garments.

Now 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. So he sent his brothers away, and they departed.

And he said to them, Do not be stirred up on the journey. Then they went up from Egypt and came to the land of Canaan to their father Jacob. And they told him, saying, Joseph is still alive, and indeed he is ruler over all the.

Land of Egypt.

But his heart was stunned, for he did not believe them. Yet they told him all the words of Joseph that he had spoken to them, and he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to carry him. Then the spirit of their father Jacob revived, and Israel said, It is enough.

Jacob Goes Down to Egypt and the Family of Israel Is Numbered

My son Joseph is still alive. I will go and see him before I die. Genesis chapter 46. So Israel set out with all that he had and came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac.

And God spoke to Israel in visions of the night, and said, Jacob, Jacob. And he said, Here I am. And 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.

I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I myself will also bring you up again. And Joseph will close your eyes with his hand. Then Jacob arose from Beersheba, and the sons of Israel carried their father Jacob and their little ones and their wives in the wagons which Pharaoh had sent to carry him.

And they took their livestock and their possessions, which they had accumulated in the land of Canaan. And they came to Egypt, Jacob and all his seed with him, his sons and his grandsons with him, his daughters and his granddaughters, and all his seed he brought with him to Egypt.

Now these are the names of the sons of Israel, of Jacob and his sons, who were coming to.

Egypt.

Reuben, Jacob's firstborn, the sons of Reuben, Hanak and Pelu and Hezron and Carmi, the sons of Simeon, Jemuel and Jaman and Ohad and Jacob and Zohar and Sheol, the son of a Canaanite woman, the sons of Levi, Gershon, Kohath and Merari, the sons of Judah, Er and Onan and Shelah and Perez and Zerah, but Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan, and the sons of Perez were Hezron and Hamul, the sons of Issachar, Tola and Puvah and Ayob and Shimron, the sons of Zebulun, Sered and Elon and Jalil.

These are the sons of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob in Paddan Aram, with his daughter Dinah, all his sons and his daughters numbered thirty-three, the sons of Gad, Ziphion and Haggai, Shunai and Ezban, Eri and Eredi and Ereli, the sons of Asher, Imnah and Ishva and Ishvi and Beriah and their sister Sarah, and the sons of Beriah, Heber and Malkiel.

These are the sons of Zilpah, whom Laban gave to his daughter Leah, and she bore to Jacob these sixteen persons. The sons of Jacob's wife Rachel, Joseph and Benjamin. Now to Joseph in the land of Egypt were born Manasseh and Ephraim, whom Asenath, the daughter of Potiphar, a priest of Onan, bore to him.

The sons of Benjamin, Bela and Bekr and Ashbel, Gerah and Naaman, Ehai and Rosh, Mupim and Hupim and Ard. These are the sons of Rachel, who were born to Jacob, there were fourteen persons in all. The sons of Dan, Hushim, the sons of Naphtali, Jazil and Gunai and Jezer and Shillam.

These are the sons of Bilhah, whom Laban gave to his daughter Rachel, and she bore these to Jacob, there were seven persons in all. All the persons belonging to Jacob who came to Egypt, who came out from his loins, excluding the wives of Jacob's sons, were sixty-six persons in all.

And the sons of Joseph, who were born to him in Egypt, were two. All the persons of the house of Jacob who came to Egypt were seventy. Now he sent Judah before him to Joseph, to point out the way before him to Goshen, and they came into the land of Goshen.

And Joseph harnessed his chariot and went up to Goshen to meet his father Israel. As soon as he appeared before him, he fell on his neck and wept on his neck a long time. Then Israel said to Joseph, Now I can die, since I have seen your face, that you are still alive.

And Joseph said to his brothers and to his father's household, I will go up and tell Pharaoh and say to him, My brothers and my father's household, who were in the land of Canaan, have come to me. 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.

And it will be when Pharaoh calls you and says, What is your occupation? Then you shall say, Your servants have been keepers of livestock from our youth and until now, both we and our fathers, that you may live in the land of Goshen.

For every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians.