I'll mention that the men are shepherds. Because they've been taking care of livestock, they brought along their flocks, their herds, and everything else that they own.

When Pharaoh calls for you and asks you "What's your occupation?'

you are to tell him, "Your servants have been taking care of livestock since we were youths. We and our ancestors have taken care of livestock.' That way, you'll be able to live in the Goshen territory, since shepherds are detestable to the Egyptians."

After this, Joseph went to inform Pharaoh. "My father and brothers have come here from Canaan," he said, "and they've come with their flocks, herds, and everything else they have. I settled them in the Goshen territory!"

"Your servants are shepherds," they replied, "both we and our ancestors. We've come to live for a while in this region, since there is no pasture back in Canaan for your servants' flocks. May your servants please live in the Goshen territory?"

Then Pharaoh replied to Joseph, "Now that your father and your brothers have come to you,

Egypt is at your disposal, so settle your father and brothers in the best part of the land! Let them live in the Goshen territory. If you learn that any of them are especially skilled, put them in charge of my livestock."

Later, Joseph brought his father Jacob to Pharaoh and introduced him. Jacob blessed Pharaoh.

"I'm 130 years old," Jacob replied. "My years have turned out to be few and unpleasant, but I haven't yet reached the age my ancestors did during their travels on earth."

Then Jacob blessed Pharaoh and then left the throne room.

Joseph settled his father and brothers, assigning them their own land in the best part of Egypt (in the territory of Rameses), just as Pharaoh had ordered.

Joseph provided food for his father, his brothers, and all of his father's household, proportionate to the number of young children.

Meanwhile, there continued to be no food throughout the land, because the famine remained very severe. As a result, both Egypt and Canaan languished under the effects of the famine.

So Joseph kept on accumulating all the money that was to be found throughout Egypt and Canaan in exchange for the grain that was being purchased. He stored the money in Pharaoh's palace.

After all the money had been spent throughout Egypt and Canaan, all the Egyptians came to Joseph and demanded, "Give us food! Why should we die right in front of you? Our money is spent!"

So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and Joseph traded food in exchange for horses, various flocks and herds, and donkeys. He fed them with food in exchange for their livestock during that year.

The following year, they came to him and reminded him, "We won't hide from you, your Excellency, that we've spent all of our money, and that our livestock all belong to you. There's nothing left to trade with you, your Excellency, except our bodies and our territories.

So why should we and our land die right in front of you? Buy us and our land in exchange for food, and we and our land will be slaves to Pharaoh. Give us seed, so we can survive and not die, and so the land won't stay desolate."

Then Joseph transported the people to cities from one end of Egypt to the other.

After this, Joseph addressed the people. "Pay attention," he said. "I've bought you and your land for Pharaoh today, in exchange for seed for you. Now go sow the land.

When harvest season arrives, you are to provide a fifth of the harvest to Pharaoh. The remaining four fifths are to be for your use, for seed, and to feed you, your households, and your little ones."

Israel remained in Egypt's Goshen territory, acquired land there, became prosperous, and his descendants grew very numerous.

As the time approached for Israel to die, he called for his son Joseph and addressed him. "Please," he asked, "if you're happy with me, make a solemn promise that you'll treat me fairly and kindly by not burying me in Egypt.

Instead, when I've died, as my ancestors have, you are to carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their tomb." "I'll do what you've asked," Joseph replied.

Some time later, somebody informed Joseph, "Your father is ill!" So he took his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim with him to visit Jacob.

As soon as Jacob was informed, "Look! Your son Joseph has come to visit you," Israel rallied his strength and sat up in bed.

Jacob reminded Joseph, "God Almighty revealed himself to me at Luz in Canaan and blessed me.

He told me, "Pay attention! I'm going to make you fruitful and numerous. I'm going to build you into a vast nation of people and then I'll give this land to your descendants for an eternal possession.'

You have two sons who were born to you in Egypt before I came to be with you, whom I now take as my own. Ephraim and Manasseh are mine, just as Reuben and Simeon are.

Just then, Israel saw Joseph's sons and asked, "Who are these?"

Now Israel's eyesight had become poor from age. Because he couldn't see well, Joseph brought them close to him, and Israel kissed them both and embraced them.

Then he told Joseph, "I never thought I'd see you again, and now God has allowed me to see your children as well!"

Joseph took them off his knees and then bowed low with his face to the ground.

Then he brought them both close to his father, placing Ephraim with his right hand toward Israel's left and Manasseh with his left hand toward Israel's right.

But Israel stretched out his right hand, laying it on Ephraim's head (he was the younger son) and laying his left hand on Manasseh's head (even though Manasseh was the firstborn).

Then Israel blessed Joseph by saying: "May the God in whose presence my ancestors Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has continued shepherding me my whole life even until today,

the angel who has been rescuing me from all sorts of evil, bless these young men. May my name continue to live on within them, including the names of my ancestors Abraham and Isaac, and may they grow into a vast multitude throughout the earth."

But Joseph observed that his father had laid his right hand on Ephraim's head. That displeased him, so he grabbed his father's hand and started to move it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's head.

But his father refused. "I know," he said. "I know. He's going to produce a large nation, and he's going to be very great. However, his younger brother will become even greater than he, and his descendants will become a multitude of nations."

That very day, Jacob blessed them with this blessing: "By you Israel will extend this blessing: "May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh!'"

After this, Jacob called his sons together and told them, "Assemble yourselves around me so I can tell you all what is going to happen to you in the last days.

"Gather together and listen, you children of Jacob. Listen to your father Israel."

"Reuben, you're my firstborn, my strength, and the first fruit of my vitality. You excel in rank and excel in power.

But you're as undisciplined as a roaring river, so eventually you won't succeed, because you got in your father's bed, defiled it, and then approached my couch."

"Simeon and Levi are brothers; their swords are violent weapons.

I'll never join their council; I'll never enter their assembly. In their anger they committed murder and lamed cattle just for fun.

Their anger is cursed, because it is so fierce, as is their vehemence, because it is so cruel. I will separate them throughout Jacob's territory and disperse them throughout Israel."

"Your brothers will praise you, Judah. Your hand will be at the throat of your enemies, and your father's children will bow down to you.

The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor a ruler's staff from between his feet, until the one comes, who owns them both, and to him will belong the allegiance of nations.

Binding his donkey to the vine and his mare's foal to its thick tendrils, he will wash his garments in wine and his robe in the juice of grapes.

His eyes are darker than wine and his teeth whiter than milk."

"Zebulun will settle down near the sea shore and become a safe haven for shipping, bordering Sidon."

He observed that his resting place was excellent, and that the land was pleasant; he bent down, picked up his burdens, and became a slave at forced labor."

Even though enemies attacked him, shooting at him and pursuing him viciously,

nevertheless his bow remained steady and his arms kept in shape by the strength of Jacob's Mighty One, in the name of the Shepherd, Israel's Rock,

by your father's God who helps you, by the Almighty who will keep on blessing you with blessings from heaven above, with blessings from the deepest ocean, with blessing from the breasts and the womb.

That's how Israel blessed these twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father told them when he pronounced his blessing for them, blessing each one with a blessing suitable for them.

It's where Abraham and his wife Sarah were buried, where Isaac and his wife Rebekah were buried, and where I buried Leah.

Both the field and the cave that's in it were purchased from the Hittites."

After concluding this set of instructions to his sons, Jacob tucked his feet up into bed, quit breathing, and was gathered to his ancestors.

Then Joseph embraced his father, cried over him, and kissed him.

So Joseph got up and went to bury his father, accompanied by all of Pharaoh's servants, all of the elders of Egypt,

all of Joseph's household, his brothers, and his father's household. They left behind in the territory of Goshen only their youngest children, their flocks, and their herds.

Chariots and horsemen also accompanied Joseph, so there were a lot of people.

When they arrived at Atad's threshing floor, which is located beyond the Jordan River, they held a great and mournful memorial service, during which Joseph spent seven days mourning for his father.

And so Israel's sons did what he had instructed them to do:

they carried him to the territory of Canaan and buried him in the cave in Machpelah field near Mamre that Abraham had purchased as a cemetery from Ephron the Hittite.

After he had buried his father, Joseph and his brothers returned to Egypt, along with everyone who had gone with him to attend the burial.

Joseph wept when they talked to him. So Joseph's brothers went to visit him, fell prostrate in front of him, and declared, "Look! We're your servants."

So don't be afraid! I'll take care of you and your little ones." So Joseph kept on comforting them, speaking to the needs of their hearts.

Later, Joseph told his brothers, "I'm going to die soon, but God will certainly provide for you and bring you up from this land to the land that he promised with an oath to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob."

Some time later, Joseph died at the age of 110 years, and he was embalmed and placed in a coffin in Egypt.

Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher.

Then Joseph, all his brothers, and that entire generation died.

But the Israelis were fruitful and increased abundantly. They multiplied in numbers and became very, very strong. As a result, the land was filled with them.

He told his people, "Look, the Israeli people are more numerous and more powerful than we are.

Come on, let's be careful how we treat them, so that when they grow numerous, if a war breaks out they won't join our enemies, fight against us, and leave our land."

So the Egyptians placed supervisors over them, oppressing them with heavy burdens. The Israelis built the supply cities of Pithom and Rameses for Pharaoh.

But the more the Egyptians afflicted the Israelis, the more they multiplied and flourished, so that the Egyptians became terrified of the Israelis.

making their lives bitter through hard labor with mortar, bricks, and all kinds of outdoor labor. They ruthlessly imposed all this work on them.

Later, the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah.

But the midwives feared God and didn't do what the king of Egypt told them. Instead, they let the boys live.

When the king of Egypt called for the midwives, he asked them, "Why have you done this and allowed the boys to live?"

God was pleased with the midwives, and the people multiplied and became very strong.

Meanwhile, Pharaoh continued commanding all of his people, "You're to throw every Hebrew son who is born into the Nile River, but you're to allow every Hebrew daughter to live."

Later, the woman became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She saw that he was a beautiful child, and hid him for three months.

But when she was no longer able to hide him, she took a papyrus container, coated it with asphalt and pitch, placed the child in it, and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile.

ThenPharaoh's daughter came down to the Nile River to bathe while her maids walked along the river bank. She saw the container among the reeds and sent a servant girl to get it.

When she opened it and saw the child, the little boy suddenly began crying. Filled with compassion for him, she exclaimed, "This is one of the Hebrew children!"

Then his sister asked Pharaoh's daughter, "Shall I go and call one of the nursing Hebrew women so she can nurse the child for you?"

Pharaoh's daughter told her, "Go," so the young girl went and called the child's mother.

Pharaoh's daughter instructed her, "Take this child and nurse him for me, and I'll pay you a salary." So the woman took the child and nursed him.

After the child had grown older, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, because she said, "I drew him out of the water."

Years later, after Moses had grown up, he went out to his own people, and took notice of their heavy burdens. He saw an Egyptian beating up a Hebrew, one of his own people.

Looking around and seeing no one else, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.

The man replied, "Who appointed you to be an official judge over us? Are you planning to kill me like you killed the Egyptian?" Then Moses became terrified and told himself, "Certainly this event has become known!"

When Pharaoh heard about this matter, he tried to kill Moses. So Moses fled from Pharaoh, settled in the land of Midian, and sat down by a well.

Some shepherds came to drive them away, but Moses got up, came to their rescue, and watered their sheep.

"An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds," they replied, "and he even drew water for us and watered the sheep!"

Moses agreed to stay with the man, and he gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage.