If one of us has it, he will die, and the rest of us will become my lord's slaves!"

He replied, "You have suggested your own punishment! The one who has it will become my slave, but the rest of you will go free."

Joseph said to them, "What did you think you were doing? Don't you know that a man like me can find out things like this by divination?"

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."

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.

My lord asked his servants, 'Do you have a father or a brother?'

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.'

We said to my lord, 'The boy cannot leave his father. If he leaves his father, his father will die.'

But you said to your servants, 'If your youngest brother does not come down with you, you will not see my face again.'

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

"Then your servant my father said to us, 'You know that my wife gave me two sons.

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.'

"So now, when I return to your servant my father, and the boy is not with us -- his very life is bound up in his son's life.

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.

For how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? I couldn't bear to see my father's pain."

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.

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.

Joseph said to his brothers, "Come closer to me," so they came near. Then he said, "I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt.

Now, do not be upset and do not be angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me ahead of you to preserve life!

God sent me ahead of you to preserve you on the earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.

So now, it is not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me an adviser to Pharaoh, lord over all his household, and ruler over all the land of Egypt.

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!

You will live in the land of Goshen, and you will be near me -- you, your children, your grandchildren, your flocks, your herds, and everything you have.

You and my brother Benjamin can certainly see with your own eyes that I really am the one who speaks to you.

So tell my father about all my honor in Egypt and about everything you have seen. But bring my father down here quickly!"

Get your father and your households and come to me! Then I will give you the best land in Egypt and you will eat the best of the land.'

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

Israel said to Joseph, "Now let me die since I have seen your face and know that you are still alive."

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

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."

Joseph went and told Pharaoh, "My father, my brothers, their flocks and herds, and all that they own have arrived from the land of Canaan. They are now in the land of Goshen."

The land of Egypt is before you; settle your father and your brothers in the best region of the land. They may live in the land of Goshen. If you know of any highly capable men among them, put them in charge of my livestock."

Jacob said to Pharaoh, "All the years of my travels are 130. All the years of my life have been few and painful; the years of my travels are not as long as those of my ancestors."

Why should we die before your very eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land in exchange for food, and we, with our land, will become Pharaoh's slaves. Give us seed that we may live and not die. Then the land will not become desolate."

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,

but when I rest with my fathers, carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burial place." Joseph said, "I will do as you say."

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.

Jacob said to Joseph, "The sovereign God appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me.

He said to me, 'I am going to make you fruitful and will multiply you. I will make you into a group of nations, and I will give this land to your descendants as an everlasting possession.'

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).

Joseph said to his father, "They are the sons God has given me in this place." His father said, "Bring them to me so I may bless them."

Israel said to Joseph, "I never expected to see you again, but now God has allowed me to see your children too."

Then he blessed Joseph and said, "May the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked -- the God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day,

the Angel who has protected me from all harm -- bless these boys. May my name be named in them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac. May they grow into a multitude on the earth."

Joseph said to his father, "Not so, my father, for this is the firstborn. Put your right hand on his head."

But his father refused and said, "I know, my son, I know. He too will become a nation and he too will become great. In spite of this, his younger brother will be even greater and his descendants will become a multitude of nations."

So he blessed them that day, saying, "By you will Israel bless, saying, 'May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.'" So he put Ephraim before Manasseh.

As one who is above your brothers, I give to you the mountain slope, which I took from the Amorites with my sword and my bow."

Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might and the beginning of my strength, outstanding in dignity, outstanding in power.

You are destructive like water and will not excel, for you got on your father's bed, then you defiled it -- he got on my couch!

O my soul, do not come into their council, do not be united to their assembly, my heart, for in their anger they have killed men, and for pleasure they have hamstrung oxen.

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?

May Dan be a snake beside the road, a viper by the path, that bites the heels of the horse so that its rider falls backward.

Then he instructed them, "I am about to go to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite.

My father made me swear an oath. He said, "I am about to die. Bury me in my tomb that I dug for myself there in the land of Canaan." Now let me go and bury my father; then I will return.'"

As for you, you meant to harm me, but God intended it for a good purpose, so he could preserve the lives of many people, as you can see this day.

Joseph made the sons of Israel swear an oath. He said, "God will surely come to you. Then you must carry my bones up from this place."

"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."

Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, "All sons that are born you must throw into the river, but all daughters you may let live."

Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, "Shall I go and get a nursing woman for you from the Hebrews, so that she may nurse the child for you?"

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.

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."

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."

The Lord said, "I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt. I have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.

And now indeed the cry of the Israelites has come to me, and I have also seen how severely the Egyptians oppress them.

So now go, and I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt."

Moses said to God, "If I go to the Israelites and tell them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' -- what should I say to them?"

God said to Moses, "I am that I am." And he said, "You must say this to the Israelites, 'I am has sent me to you.'"

God also said to Moses, "You must say this to the Israelites, 'The Lord -- the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob -- has sent me to you. This is my name forever, and this is my memorial from generation to generation.'

"Go and bring together the elders of Israel and tell them, 'The Lord, the God of your fathers, appeared to me -- the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob -- saying, "I have attended carefully to you and to what has been done to you in Egypt,

"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.'

So I will extend my hand and strike Egypt with all my wonders that I will do among them, and after that he will release you.

Moses answered again, "And if they do not believe me or pay attention to me, but say, 'The Lord has not appeared to you'?"

"that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you."

"If they do not believe you or pay attention to the former sign, then they may believe the latter sign.

Then Moses said to the Lord, "O my Lord, I am not an eloquent man, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant, for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue."

But Moses said, "O my Lord, please send anyone else whom you wish to send!"

"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."

You must say to Pharaoh, 'Thus says the Lord, "Israel is my son, my firstborn,

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!"'"

But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off the foreskin of her son and touched it to Moses' feet, and said, "Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me."

Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, 'Release my people so that they may hold a pilgrim feast to me in the desert.'"

And they said, "The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Let us go a three-day journey into the desert so that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God, so that he does not strike us with plague or the sword."

and they said to them, "May the Lord look on you and judge, because you have made us stink in the opinion of Pharaoh and his servants, so that you have given them an excuse to kill us!"

Moses returned to the Lord, and said, "Lord, why have you caused trouble for this people? Why did you ever send me?

Then the Lord said to Moses, "Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh, for compelled by my strong hand he will release them, and by my strong hand he will drive them out of his land."

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

I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, where they were living as resident foreigners.

I have also heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are enslaving, and I have remembered my covenant.

But Moses replied to the Lord, "If the Israelites did not listen to me, then how will Pharaoh listen to me, since I speak with difficulty?"

But Moses said before the Lord, "Since I speak with difficulty, why should Pharaoh listen to me?"

But I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and although I will multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt,

Pharaoh will not listen to you. I will reach into Egypt and bring out my regiments, my people the Israelites, from the land of Egypt with great acts of judgment.

Then the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord, when I extend my hand over Egypt and bring the Israelites out from among them.

Tell him, 'The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to you to say, "Release my people, that they may serve me in the desert!" But until now you have not listened.

Thus says the Lord: "By this you will know that I am the Lord: I am going to strike the water of the Nile with the staff that is in my hand, and it will be turned into blood.