Joseph's master took him and threw him into the prison, the place where the king's prisoners were confined. So he was there in the prison.

But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him kindness. He granted him favor in the sight of the prison warden.

The warden did not concern himself with anything that was in Joseph's care because the Lord was with him and whatever he was doing the Lord was making successful.

So he asked Pharaoh's officials, who were with him in custody in his master's house, "Why do you look so sad today?"

They told him, "We both had dreams, but there is no one to interpret them." Joseph responded, "Don't interpretations belong to God? Tell them to me."

"This is its meaning," Joseph said to him. "The three branches represent three days.

But the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph -- he forgot him.

In the morning he was troubled, so he called for all the diviner-priests of Egypt and all its wise men. Pharaoh told them his dreams, but no one could interpret them for him.

Now a young man, a Hebrew, a servant of the captain of the guards, was with us there. We told him our dreams, and he interpreted the meaning of each of our respective dreams for us.

Then Pharaoh summoned Joseph. So they brought him quickly out of the dungeon; he shaved himself, changed his clothes, and came before Pharaoh.

"So now Pharaoh should look for a wise and discerning man and give him authority over all the land of Egypt.

Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his own hand and put it on Joseph's. He clothed him with fine linen clothes and put a gold chain around his neck.

Pharaoh had him ride in the chariot used by his second-in-command, and they cried out before him, "Kneel down!" So he placed him over all the land of Egypt.

Pharaoh gave Joseph the name Zaphenath-Paneah. He also gave him Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, to be his wife. So Joseph took charge of all the land of Egypt.

But Jacob did not send Joseph's brother Benjamin with his brothers, for he said, "What if some accident happens to him?"

Now Joseph was the ruler of the country, the one who sold grain to all the people of the country. Joseph's brothers came and bowed down before him with their faces to the ground.

Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him.

They returned to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan and told him all the things that had happened to them, saying,

But we said to him, 'We are honest men; we are not spies!

Then Reuben said to his father, "You may put my two sons to death if I do not bring him back to you. Put him in my care and I will bring him back to you."

But Jacob replied, "My son will not go down there with you, for his brother is dead and he alone is left. If an accident happens to him on the journey you have to make, then you will bring down my gray hair in sorrow to the grave."

But Judah said to him, "The man solemnly warned us, 'You will not see my face unless your brother is with you.'

But if you will not send him, we won't go down there because the man said to us, 'You will not see my face unless your brother is with you.'"

They replied, "The man questioned us thoroughly about ourselves and our family, saying, 'Is your father still alive? Do you have another brother?' So we answered him in this way. How could we possibly know that he would say, 'Bring your brother down'?"

I myself pledge security for him; you may hold me liable. If I do not bring him back to you and place him here before you, I will bear the blame before you all my life.

So they approached the man who was in charge of Joseph's household and spoke to him at the entrance to the house.

When Joseph came home, they presented him with the gifts they had brought inside, and they bowed down to the ground before him.

They set a place for him, a separate place for his brothers, and another for the Egyptians who were eating with him. (The Egyptians are not able to eat with Hebrews, for the Egyptians think it is disgusting to do so.)

They sat before him, arranged by order of birth, beginning with the firstborn and ending with the youngest. The men looked at each other in astonishment.

He gave them portions of the food set before him, but the portion for Benjamin was five times greater than the portions for any of the others. They drank with Joseph until they all became drunk.

They answered him, "Why does my lord say such things? Far be it from your servants to do such a thing!

So Judah and his brothers came back to Joseph's house. He was still there, and they threw themselves to the ground before him.

Then Judah approached him and said, "My lord, please allow your servant to speak a word with you. Please do not get angry with your servant, for you are just like Pharaoh.

We said to my lord, 'We have an aged father, and there is a young boy who was born when our father was old. The boy's brother is dead. He is the only one of his mother's sons left, and his father loves him.'

"Then you told your servants, 'Bring him down to me so I can see him.'

When we returned to your servant my father, we told him the words of my lord.

The first disappeared and I said, "He has surely been torn to pieces." I have not seen him since.

If you take this one from me too and an accident happens to him, then you will bring down my gray hair in tragedy to the grave.'

Indeed, your servant pledged security for the boy with my father, saying, 'If I do not bring him back to you, then I will bear the blame before my father all my life.'

"So now, please let your servant remain as my lord's slave instead of the boy. As for the boy, let him go back with his brothers.

Joseph said to his brothers, "I am Joseph! Is my father still alive?" His brothers could not answer him because they were dumbfounded before him.

Now go up to my father quickly and tell him, 'This is what your son Joseph says: "God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me; do not delay!

He kissed all his brothers and wept over them. After this his brothers talked with him.

They told him, "Joseph is still alive and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt!" Jacob was stunned, for he did not believe them.

But when they related to him everything Joseph had said to them, and when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to transport him, their father Jacob's spirit revived.

Then Israel said, "Enough! My son Joseph is still alive! I will go and see him before I die."

So Israel began his journey, taking with him all that he had. When he came to Beer Sheba he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac.

Then Jacob started out from Beer Sheba, and the sons of Israel carried their father Jacob, their little children, and their wives in the wagons that Pharaoh had sent along to transport him.

He brought with him to Egypt his sons and grandsons, his daughters and granddaughters -- all his descendants.

Manasseh and Ephraim were born to Joseph in the land of Egypt. Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, bore them to him.

All the direct descendants of Jacob who went to Egypt with him were sixty-six in number. (This number does not include the wives of Jacob's sons.)

Counting the two sons of Joseph who were born to him in Egypt, all the people of the household of Jacob who were in Egypt numbered seventy.

Jacob sent Judah before him to Joseph to accompany him to Goshen. So they came to the land of Goshen.

Joseph harnessed his chariot and went up to meet his father Israel in Goshen. When he met him, he hugged his neck and wept on his neck for quite some time.

Tell him, 'Your servants have taken care of cattle from our youth until now, both we and our fathers,' so that you may live in the land of Goshen, for everyone who takes care of sheep is disgusting to the Egyptians."

Then Joseph brought in his father Jacob and presented him before Pharaoh. Jacob blessed Pharaoh.

When that year was over, they came to him the next year and said to him, "We cannot hide from our lord that the money is used up and the livestock and the animals belong to our lord. Nothing remains before our lord except our bodies and our land.

The time for Israel to die approached, so he called for his son Joseph and said to him, "If now I have found favor in your sight, put your hand under my thigh and show me kindness and faithfulness. Do not bury me in Egypt,

Jacob said, "Swear to me that you will do so." So Joseph gave him his word. Then Israel bowed down at the head of his bed.

After these things Joseph was told, "Your father is weakening." So he took his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim with him.

Now Israel's eyes were failing because of his age; he was not able to see well. So Joseph brought his sons near to him, and his father kissed them and embraced them.

When Joseph saw that his father placed his right hand on Ephraim's head, it displeased him. So he took his father's hand to move it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's head.

You are a lion's cub, Judah, from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He crouches and lies down like a lion; like a lioness -- who will rouse him?

The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs; the nations will obey him.

The archers will attack him, they will shoot at him and oppose him.

Then Joseph hugged his father's face. He wept over him and kissed him.

They took forty days, for that is the full time needed for embalming. The Egyptians mourned for him seventy days.

So Joseph went up to bury his father; all Pharaoh's officials went with him -- the senior courtiers of his household, all the senior officials of the land of Egypt,

Chariots and horsemen also went up with him, so it was a very large entourage.

So the sons of Jacob did for him just as he had instructed them.

His sons carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, near Mamre. This is the field Abraham purchased as a burial plot from Ephron the Hittite.

After he buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt, along with his brothers and all who had accompanied him to bury his father.

When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, "What if Joseph bears a grudge and wants to repay us in full for all the harm we did to him?"

Tell Joseph this: Please forgive the sin of your brothers and the wrong they did when they treated you so badly.' Now please forgive the sin of the servants of the God of your father." When this message was reported to him, Joseph wept.

Then his brothers also came and threw themselves down before him; they said, "Here we are; we are your slaves."

So Joseph died at the age of 110. After they embalmed him, his body was placed in a coffin in Egypt.

"When you assist the Hebrew women in childbirth, observe at the delivery: If it is a son, kill him, but if it is a daughter, she may live."

The woman became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a healthy child, she hid him for three months.

But when she was no longer able to hide him, she took a papyrus basket for him and sealed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and set it among the reeds along the edge of the Nile.

His sister stationed herself at a distance to find out what would happen to him.

opened it, and saw the child -- a boy, crying! -- and she felt compassion for him and said, "This is one of the Hebrews' children."

Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Take this child and nurse him for me, and I will pay your wages." So the woman took the child and nursed him.

When the child grew older she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, "Because I drew him from the water."

He said to his daughters, "So where is he? Why in the world did you leave the man? Call him, so that he may eat a meal with us."

When she bore a son, Moses named him Gershom, for he said, "I have become a resident foreigner in a foreign land."

The angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from within a bush. He looked -- and the bush was ablaze with fire, but it was not being consumed!

When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to look, God called to him from within the bush and said, "Moses, Moses!" And Moses said, "Here I am."

"The elders will listen to you, and then you and the elders of Israel must go to the king of Egypt and tell him, 'The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. So now, let us go three days' journey into the wilderness, so that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.'

The Lord said to him, "What is that in your hand?" He said, "A staff."

The Lord also said to him, "Put your hand into your robe." So he put his hand into his robe, and when he brought it out -- there was his hand, leprous like snow!

The Lord said to him, "Who gave a mouth to man, or who makes a person mute or deaf or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?

"So you are to speak to him and put the words in his mouth. And as for me, I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and I will teach you both what you must do.

So Moses went back to his father-in-law Jethro and said to him, "Let me go, so that I may return to my relatives in Egypt and see if they are still alive." Jethro said to Moses, "Go in peace."

and I said to you, 'Let my son go that he may serve me,' but since you have refused to let him go, I will surely kill your son, your firstborn!"'"

Now on the way, at a place where they stopped for the night, the Lord met Moses and sought to kill him.

So the Lord let him alone. (At that time she said, "A bridegroom of blood," referring to the circumcision.)

The Lord said to Aaron, "Go to the wilderness to meet Moses. So he went and met him at the mountain of God and greeted him with a kiss.

Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord who had sent him and all the signs that he had commanded him.

But Pharaoh said, "Who is the Lord that I should obey him by releasing Israel? I do not know the Lord, and I will not release Israel!"

God spoke to Moses and said to him, "I am the Lord.