Then he said, "Look, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy grain for us there that we may live and not die."

Then the sons of Israel went to buy grain amid those [other people] who went [as well], for there was famine in the land of Canaan.

Now Joseph was the governor over the land. He [was] the one who sold [food] to all the people of the land. And the brothers of Joseph came and bowed down to him with their faces to the ground.

Send one of you, and let him bring your brother, but you will be kept in prison so that your words might be tested [to see] if [there is] truth with you. And if not, by the life of Pharaoh surely you [are] spies."

Then he gathered them into the prison for three days.

Then Joseph gave orders to fill their bags with grain and to return their money to each sack, and to give them provisions for the journey. Thus he did for them.

Then they loaded their grain upon their donkeys and went [away] from there.

And he said to his brothers, "My money was returned and moreover, behold, [it is] in my sack!" Then {their hearts failed them} and each of them trembled [and] said, "What [is] this God has done to us?"

And when they came to Jacob their father in the land of Canaan they told him everything [that] had happened to them, saying,

And it happened [that when] they emptied their sacks, behold, each one's pouch of money [was] in his sack. And when they and their father saw the pouches of their money, they were greatly distressed.

And Jacob their father said to them, "You have bereaved me--Joseph is no more and Simeon is no more, and Benjamin you would take! All of this [is] against me!

And it happened [that] as they finished eating the grain which they had brought from Egypt their father said to them, "Return and buy a little food for us."

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 take them down to the man as a gift--a little balm and honey, aromatic gum and myrrh, and pistachios and almonds.

So the men took this gift, and they took double money in their hands, and Benjamin, and they rose up and went down to Egypt and stood before Joseph.

Then the man brought the men into Joseph's house and he gave them water and washed their feet, and gave fodder to their donkeys.

Then they laid out the gift until Joseph came at noon, for they had heard that they were to eat food there.

And when Joseph came into the house they brought the gift that [was] in their hand into the house to him, and they bowed down before him to the ground.

Then Joseph {hurried away}, {being overcome with emotion} toward his brother, and sought for [a place] to cry. Then he went into a room and wept there.

[When] the morning light [came] the men were sent away, they and their donkeys.

Then they tore their clothes, and each one loaded his donkey and they returned to the city.

And Judah and his brothers came to the house of Joseph--now he [was] still there--they fell before him to the ground.

For these two years the famine [has been] in the midst of the land, but [there will be] five more years where there is no plowing or harvest.

And I will provide for you there, because [there are] still five years of famine--lest you and your household and all that you have become destitute.'

To each and to all of them he gave sets of clothing, but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver and five sets of clothing.

So they went up from Egypt and came to the land of Canaan to Jacob their father.

Then they told him all the words of Joseph that he had spoken to them. And when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to carry him, then the spirit of Jacob their father revived.

Then he said, "I [am] the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you a great nation there.

So Jacob arose from Beersheba. And the sons of Israel carried their father Jacob, and their little ones and their wives in the wagons Pharaoh had sent to transport him.

And they took their livestock and their possessions that they had acquired in the land of Canaan. And they came to Egypt, Jacob and all his offspring with him,

These [are] the sons of Leah that she bore to Jacob in Paddan-Aram, and Dinah his daughter. His sons and daughters [were] thirty-three persons in all.

The sons of Asher: Imnah, Ishvah, Ishvi, and Beriah, and their sister Serah. And the sons of Beriah: Heber and Malkiel.

There [are] the sons of Zilpah, whom Laban gave to Leah his daughter, and she bore these to Jacob--sixteen persons.

And the men [are] shepherds, for they are men of livestock, and they have brought their flocks and their cattle and all that they have.'

So Joseph went and reported to Pharaoh. And he said, "My father and my brothers, with their flocks and their herds, and all that they have, have come from the land of Canaan. Now [they are] here in the land of Goshen."

And they said to Pharaoh, "We have come to sojourn in the land, for there is no pasture for your servant's flocks, for the famine [is] severe in the land of Canaan. So now, please let your servants dwell in the land of Goshen."

The land of Egypt [is] before you. Settle your father and your brothers in the best of the land. Let them live in the land of Goshen, and if you know there is among them men of ability, then appoint them overseers of my own livestock."

And Jacob said to Pharaoh, "The days of the years of my sojourning [are] one hundred and thirty years. Few and hard have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not reached the days of the years of the lives of my ancestors in the days of their sojourning."

And Joseph provided his father and his brothers and all the household of his father with food, according to the number of their children.

Now there was no food in all the land, for the famine [was] very severe. And the land of Egypt languished, with the land of Canaan, on account of the famine.

So they brought their herds to Joseph, and Joseph gave food to them in exchange for horses, their flocks, and their cattle and donkeys. And he provided them with food in exchange for all their livestock that year.

Only the land of the priests he did not buy, for [there was] an allotment for the priests from Pharaoh, and they {lived on} the allotment that Pharaoh gave to them. Therefore they did not sell their land.

but let me lie with my ancestors. Carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burial site." And he said, "I will do according to your word."

And your children whom you father after them shall be yours. By the name of their brothers they shall be called, with respect to their inheritance.

As for me, when I came to Paddan-Aram Rachel died {to my sorrow} in the land of Canaan on the way when [there was] still some distance to go to Ephrath. And I buried her there on the way to Ephrath (that [is], Bethlehem)."

The angel who redeemed me from all evil, may he bless the boys. And through them let my name be perpetuated, and the name of my fathers, Abraham and Isaac. And let them multiply into many in the midst of the earth.

So he blessed them that day, saying, Through you Israel shall pronounce blessing, saying, 'May God make you like Ephraim and like Manasseh.'" So he put Ephraim before Manasseh.

Simeon and Levi [are] brothers; weapons of violence [are] their swords. Let me not come into their council.

Let not my person be joined to their company. For in their anger they killed men, and at their pleasure they hamstrung cattle.

Cursed be their anger, for [it is] fierce, and their wrath, for [it is] cruel. I will divide them in Jacob, and I will scatter them in Israel.

Bandits shall attack Gad, but he shall attack [their] heels.

But his bow remained in a steady position; {his arms} were made agile by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob. From there [is] the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel.

All these [are] the twelve tribes of Israel, and this [is] what their father said to them when he blessed them, each according to their blessing.

There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife. There they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife. And there I buried Leah--

'My father made me swear, saying, "Behold, I [am about] to die. In the tomb that I have hewed out for myself in the land of Canaan--there you must bury me." So then, please let me go up and let me bury my father; then I will return.'"

with all the household of Joseph, his brothers, and the household of his father. They left only their little children and their flocks and their herds in the land of Goshen.

And there also went up with him chariots and horsemen. The company [was] very great.

When they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which [was] beyond the Jordan, they lamented there with a very great and sorrowful wailing. And he made a mourning ceremony for his father seven days.

And when the brothers of Joseph saw that their father [was] dead, they said, "It may be [that] Joseph will hold a grudge against us and pay us back dearly for all the evil that we did to him."

"Thus you must say to Joseph, 'O, please now forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, for they did evil to you.' So now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father." And Joseph wept when they spoke to him.

And they appointed commanders of forced labor over them in order to oppress them with their {forced labor}, and they built storage cities for Pharaoh--Pithom and Rameses.

And they made their lives bitter with hard work with mortar and with bricks and with all [sorts] of work in the field--with all their work in which they ruthlessly enslaved them.

And Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, "Every son who is born you will throw into the Nile, and every daughter you will let live."

And the woman conceived, and she gave birth to a son, and she saw him, that he was a fine baby, and she hid him three months.

{And then} in those days when Moses had grown up, he went out to his brothers, and he saw their {forced labor}, and he saw an Egyptian man striking a Hebrew man, [one of] his brothers.

And he turned here and there, and he saw no one, and he struck the Egyptian, and he hid him in the sand.

And he went out on the second day, and there were two Hebrew men fighting, and he said to the guilty [one], "Why do you strike your neighbor?"

[Now] the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came and drew water and filled the troughs to water their father's flock.

And the shepherds came and drove them away, but Moses stood up and came to their rescue and watered their flock.

And they came to Reuel, their father, and he said, "{Why have you come so quickly} today?"

{And then} during those many days, the king of Egypt died, and the {Israelites} groaned because of the work, and they cried out, and their cry for help because of the work went up to God.

And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob,

And the angel of Yahweh appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush, and he looked, and there was the bush burning with fire, but the bush was not being consumed.

And Yahweh said, "Surely I have seen the misery of my people who [are] in Egypt, and I have heard their cry of distress because of their oppressors, for I know their sufferings.

And they will listen to your voice, and you will go, you and the elders of Israel, to the king of Egypt, and you will say to him, 'Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews has met with us, and now let us please go [on] a journey of three days into the desert, and let us sacrifice to Yahweh our God.'

And he said, "Throw it onto the ground." And he threw it onto the ground, and it became a snake, and Moses fled from it.

"so that they may believe that Yahweh, the God of their ancestors, appeared to you, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob."

{And Yahweh was angry with} Moses and said, "[Is there] not Aaron your brother the Levite? I know that he certainly can speak, and also there he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you, he will rejoice in his heart.

And the people believed when they heard that Yahweh had attended to the {Israelites} and that he had seen their misery, and they knelt down and they worshiped.

And they said, "The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go [on] a three-day journey into the desert, and let us sacrifice to Yahweh our God, lest he strike us with plague or with sword."

And the king of Egypt said, "Why, Moses and Aaron, do you take the people from their work? Go to your {forced labor}!"

And Pharaoh said, "Look, the people of the land [are] now many, and you want to stop them from their {forced labor}."

And the slave drivers of the people and their foremen went out, and they spoke to the people, saying, "Thus says Pharaoh, 'I [am] not giving you straw.

And the slave drivers [were] insisting, saying, "Finish your work {for each day} on its day, as {when there was straw}."

And they said to them, "May Yahweh look upon you and judge because you have caused our fragrance to stink in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of his servants [so as] to put a sword into their hand to kill us."

And I not only established my covenant with them to give to them the land of Canaan, the land of their sojournings, in which they dwelt as aliens,

Therefore say to the {Israelites}, 'I [am] Yahweh, and I will bring you out from under the {forced labor} of Egypt, and I will deliver you from their slavery, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great punishments.

These [are] the heads of {their families}. The sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel, [are] Enoch and Pallu, Hezron and Carmi. These [are] the clans of Reuben.

And these [are] the names of the sons of Levi according to their genealogies: Gershon and Kohath and Merari, and the years of the life of Levi [were] {one hundred and thirty-seven years}.

The sons of Gershon [are] Libni and Shimei according to their clans.

And the sons of Kohath [are] Amram and Izhar and Hebron and Uzziel, and the years of the life of Kohath [were] {one hundred and thirty-three years}.

And the sons of Merari [are] Mahli and Mushi. These [are] clans of the Levites according to their genealogies.

And Eleazar the son of Aaron took for himself [one] from the daughters of Putiel as a wife, and she bore for him Phinehas. These [are] the heads of the {families} of the Levites according to their clans.

[It was] that Aaron and Moses to whom Yahweh said, "Bring the {Israelites} out from the land of Egypt according to their divisions."

And [the] Egyptians will know that I [am] Yahweh when I stretch out my hand over Egypt and bring the {Israelites} out from their midst."

(And Moses [was] {eighty years old}, and Aaron [was] {eighty-three years old} when they spoke to Pharaoh.)

"When Pharaoh speaks to you, saying, 'Do a wonder for yourselves,' you will say to Aaron, 'Take your staff and throw it before Pharaoh, and it will become a snake.'"

And Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh, and they did so, as Yahweh had commanded. And Aaron threw his staff before Pharaoh and before his servants, and it became a snake.

And Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers, and they also, the magicians of Egypt, did likewise with their secret arts.

Each threw down his staff, and they became snakes, and Aaron's staff swallowed up their staffs.

And Yahweh said to Moses, "Say to Aaron, 'Take your staff and stretch your hand out over the waters of Egypt and over their rivers, over their canals, and over their pools and over all of their reservoirs of water, so that they become blood,' and blood will be in all the land of Egypt and in [vessels of] wood and of stone."