Tamar was told, "Look, your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep."

When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute because she had covered her face.

He turned aside to her along the road and said, "Come on! I want to have sex with you." (He did not realize it was his daughter-in-law.) She asked, "What will you give me in exchange for having sex with you?"

He asked the men who were there, "Where is the cult prostitute who was at Enaim by the road?" But they replied, "There has been no cult prostitute here."

After three months Judah was told, "Your daughter-in-law Tamar has turned to prostitution, and as a result she has become pregnant." Judah said, "Bring her out and let her be burned!"

When it was time for her to give birth, there were twins in her womb.

While she was giving birth, one child put out his hand, and the midwife took a scarlet thread and tied it on his hand, saying, "This one came out first."

But then he drew back his hand, and his brother came out before him. She said, "How you have broken out of the womb!" So he was named Perez.

Afterward his brother came out -- the one who had the scarlet thread on his hand -- and he was named Zerah.

The Lord was with Joseph. He was successful and lived in the household of his Egyptian master.

His master observed that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made everything he was doing successful.

From the time Potiphar appointed him over his household and over all that he owned, the Lord blessed the Egyptian's household for Joseph's sake. The blessing of the Lord was on everything that he had, both in his house and in his fields.

So Potiphar left everything he had in Joseph's care; he gave no thought to anything except the food he ate. Now Joseph was well built and good-looking.

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 put all the prisoners under Joseph's care. He was in charge of whatever they were doing.

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.

Pharaoh was enraged with his two officials, the cupbearer and the baker,

so he imprisoned them in the house of the captain of the guard in the same facility where Joseph was confined.

So the chief cupbearer told his dream to Joseph: "In my dream, there was a vine in front of me.

Now Pharaoh's cup was in my hand, so I took the grapes, squeezed them into his cup, and put the cup in Pharaoh's hand."

for I really was kidnapped from the land of the Hebrews and I have done nothing wrong here for which they should put me in a dungeon."

When the chief baker saw that the interpretation of the first dream was favorable, he said to Joseph, "I also appeared in my dream and there were three baskets of white bread on my head.

In the top basket there were baked goods of every kind for Pharaoh, but the birds were eating them from the basket that was on my head."

On the third day it was Pharaoh's birthday, so he gave a feast for all his servants. He "lifted up" the head of the chief cupbearer and the head of the chief baker in the midst of his servants.

At the end of two full years Pharaoh had a dream. As he was standing by the Nile,

The thin heads swallowed up the seven healthy and full heads. Then Pharaoh woke up and realized it was a dream.

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.

Pharaoh was enraged with his servants, and he put me in prison in the house of the captain of the guards -- me and the chief baker.

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 said to Joseph, "In my dream I was standing by the edge of the Nile.

The dream was repeated to Pharaoh because the matter has been decreed by God, and God will make it happen soon.

Now Joseph was 30 years old when he began serving Pharaoh king of Egypt. Joseph was commissioned by Pharaoh and was in charge of all the land of Egypt.

Joseph stored up a vast amount of grain, like the sand of the sea, until he stopped measuring it because it was impossible to measure.

Two sons were born to Joseph before the famine came. Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, was their mother.

Then the seven years of famine began, just as Joseph had predicted. There was famine in all the other lands, but throughout the land of Egypt there was food.

While the famine was over all the earth, Joseph opened the storehouses and sold grain to the Egyptians. The famine was severe throughout the land of Egypt.

People from every country came to Joseph in Egypt to buy grain because the famine was severe throughout the earth.

When Jacob heard there was grain in Egypt, he said to his sons, "Why are you looking at each other?"

So Israel's sons came to buy grain among the other travelers, for the famine was severe in the land of Canaan.

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.

They said to one other, "Surely we're being punished because of our brother, because we saw how distressed he was when he cried to us for mercy, but we refused to listen. That is why this distress has come on us!"

(Now they did not know that Joseph could understand them, for he was speaking through an interpreter.)

He said to his brothers, "My money was returned! Here it is in my sack!" They were dismayed; they turned trembling one to another and said, "What in the world has God done to us?"

When they were emptying their sacks, there was each man's bag of money in his sack! When they and their father saw the bags of money, they were afraid.

Now the famine was severe in the land.

Take double the money with you; you must take back the money that was returned in the mouths of your sacks -- perhaps it was an oversight.

When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the servant who was over his household, "Bring the men to the house. Slaughter an animal and prepare it, for the men will eat with me at noon."

But the men were afraid when they were brought to Joseph's house. They said, "We are being brought in because of the money that was returned in our sacks last time. He wants to capture us, make us slaves, and take our donkeys!"

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

Joseph hurried out, for he was overcome by affection for his brother and was at the point of tears. So he went to his room and wept there.

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.

He instructed the servant who was over his household, "Fill the sacks of the men with as much food as they can carry and put each man's money in the mouth of his sack.

They had not gone very far from the city when Joseph said to the servant who was over his household, "Pursue the men at once! When you overtake them, say to them, 'Why have you repaid good with evil?

Then the man searched. He began with the oldest and finished with the youngest. The cup was found in Benjamin's sack!

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

Judah replied, "What can we say to my lord? What can we speak? How can we clear ourselves? God has exposed the sin of your servants! We are now my lord's slaves, we and the one in whose possession the cup was found."

But Joseph said, "Far be it from me to do this! The man in whose hand the cup was found will become my slave, but the rest of you may go back to your father in peace."

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.'

Joseph was no longer able to control himself before all his attendants, so he cried out, "Make everyone go out from my presence!" No one remained with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers.

Now it was reported in the household of Pharaoh, "Joseph's brothers have arrived." It pleased Pharaoh and his servants.

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 there was no food in all the land because the famine was very severe; the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan wasted away because of the famine.

When the money from the lands of Egypt and Canaan was used up, all the Egyptians came to Joseph and said, "Give us food! Why should we die before your very eyes because our money has run out?"

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.

So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh. Each of the Egyptians sold his field, for the famine was severe. So the land became Pharaoh's.

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

When Jacob was told, "Your son Joseph has just come to you," Israel regained strength and sat up on his bed.

But as for me, when I was returning from Paddan, Rachel died -- to my sorrow -- in the land of Canaan. It happened along the way, some distance from Ephrath. So I buried her there on the way to Ephrath" (that is, Bethlehem).

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.

Israel stretched out his right hand and placed it on Ephraim's head, although he was the younger. Crossing his hands, he put his left hand on Manasseh's head, for Manasseh was the firstborn.

Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce, and their fury, for it was cruel. I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel!

Binding his foal to the vine, and his colt to the choicest vine, he will wash his garments in wine, his robes in the blood of grapes.

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

When the Canaanites who lived in the land saw them mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, they said, "This is a very sad occasion for the Egyptians." That is why its name was called Abel Mizraim, which is beyond the Jordan.

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.

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

All the people who were directly descended from Jacob numbered seventy. But Joseph was already in Egypt,

The Israelites, however, were fruitful, increased greatly, multiplied, and became extremely strong, so that the land was filled with them.

They made their lives bitter by hard service with mortar and bricks and by all kinds of service in the fields. Every kind of service the Israelites were required to give was rigorous.

The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah,

A man from the household of Levi married a woman who was a descendant of Levi.

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.

Then the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself by the Nile, while her attendants were walking alongside the river, and she saw the basket among the reeds. She sent one of her attendants, took it,

He looked this way and that and saw that no one was there, and then he attacked the Egyptian and concealed the body in the sand.

When he went out the next day, there were two Hebrew men fighting. So he said to the one who was in the wrong, "Why are you attacking your fellow Hebrew?"

The man replied, "Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? Are you planning to kill me like you killed that Egyptian?" Then Moses was afraid, thinking, "Surely what I did has become known."

Now Moses was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to the mountain of God, to Horeb.

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!

He added, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." Then Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

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!

He said, "Put your hand back into your robe." So he put his hand back into his robe, and when he brought it out from his robe -- there it was, restored like the rest of his skin!

Pharaoh was thinking, "The people of the land are now many, and you are giving them rest from their labor."

The slave masters were pressuring them, saying, "Complete your work for each day, just like when there was straw!"

I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name 'the Lord' I was not known to them.

Now these are the names of the sons of Levi, according to their records: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. (The length of Levi's life was 137 years.)

The sons of Kohath were Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel. (The length of Kohath's life was 133 years.)

Amram married his father's sister Jochebed, and she bore him Aaron and Moses. (The length of Amram's life was 137 years.)