Thematic Bible: History of israel in


Thematic Bible



You are to say, Your servants have been keepers of cattle from our early days up to now, like our fathers; in this way you will be able to have the land of Goshen for yourselves; because keepers of sheep are unclean in the eyes of the Egyptians.

And Joseph made a place for his father and his brothers, and gave them a heritage in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had given orders.

And so Israel was living among the Egyptians in the land of Goshen; and they got property there, and became very great in numbers and in wealth.


And Joseph put his head down on his father's face, weeping and kissing him. And Joseph gave orders to his servants who had the necessary knowledge, to make his father's body ready, folding it in linen with spices, and they did so. And the forty days needed for making the body ready went by: and there was weeping for him among the Egyptians for seventy days. read more.
And when the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph said to the servants of Pharaoh, If now you have love for me, say these words to Pharaoh: My father made me take an oath, saying, When I am dead, put me to rest in the place I have made ready for myself in the land of Canaan. So now let me go and put my father in his last resting-place, and I will come back again. And Pharaoh said, Go up and put your father to rest, as you gave your oath to him. So Joseph went up to put his father in his last resting-place; and with him went all the servants of Pharaoh, and the chief men of his house and all the chiefs of the land of Egypt, And all the family of Joseph, and his brothers and his father's people: only their little ones and their flocks and herds they did not take with them from the land of Goshen. And carriages went up with him and horsemen, a great army. And they came to the grain-floor of Atad on the other side of Jordan, and there they gave the last honours to Jacob, with great and bitter sorrow, weeping for their father for seven days. And when the people of the land, the people of Canaan, at the grain-floor of Atad, saw their grief, they said, Great is the grief of the Egyptians: so the place was named Abel-mizraim, on the other side of Jordan. So his sons did as he had given them orders to do: For they took him into the land of Canaan and put him to rest in the hollow rock in the field of Machpelah, which Abraham got with the field, for a resting-place, from Ephron the Hittite at Mamre.

And when Jacob had come to the end of these words to his sons, stretching himself on his bed, he gave up his spirit, and went the way of his people.


Then Moses and Aaron went and got together all the chiefs of the children of Israel: And Aaron said to them all the words the Lord had said to Moses, and did the signs before all the people. And the people had faith in them; and hearing that the Lord had taken up the cause of the children of Israel and had seen their troubles, with bent heads they gave him worship.

Then Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh and they did as the Lord had said: and Aaron put his rod down on the earth before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a snake.


By faith he went out of Egypt, not being turned from his purpose by fear of the wrath of the king; for he kept on his way, as seeing him who is unseen.

And at the end of four hundred and thirty years, to the very day, all the armies of the Lord went out of the land of Egypt.


And some traders from Midian went by; so pulling Joseph up out of the hole, they gave him to the Ishmaelites for twenty bits of silver, and they took him to Egypt.

Now Joseph was taken down to Egypt; and Potiphar the Egyptian, a captain of high position in Pharaoh's house, got him for a price from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there.


And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, Pharaoh's heart is unchanged; he will not let the people go. Go to Pharaoh in the morning; when he goes out to the water, you will be waiting for him by the edge of the Nile, with the rod which was turned into a snake in your hand; And say to him, The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to you, saying, Let my people go so that they may give me worship in the waste land; but up to now you have not given ear to his words. read more.
So the Lord says, By this you may be certain that I am the Lord; see, by the touch of this rod in my hand the waters of the Nile will be turned to blood; And the fish in the Nile will come to destruction, and the river will send up a bad smell, and the Egyptians will not be able, for disgust, to make use of the water of the Nile for drinking. And the Lord said, Say to Aaron, Let the rod in your hand be stretched out over the waters of Egypt, and over the rivers and the streams and the pools, and over every stretch of water, so that they may be turned to blood; and there will be blood through all the land of Egypt, in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone. And Moses and Aaron did as the Lord had said; and when his rod had been lifted up and stretched out over the waters of the Nile before the eyes of Pharaoh and his servants, all the water in the Nile was turned to blood; And the fish in the Nile came to destruction, and a bad smell went up from the river, and the Egyptians were not able to make use of the water of the Nile for drinking; and there was blood through all the land of Egypt. And the wonder-workers of Egypt did the same with their secret arts: but Pharaoh's heart was made hard, and he would not give ear to them, as the Lord had said. Then Pharaoh went into his house, and did not take even this to heart. And all the Egyptians made holes round about the Nile to get drinking-water, for they were not able to make use of the Nile water. And seven days went past, after the Lord had put his hand on the Nile. And this is what the Lord said to Moses: Go to Pharaoh and say to him, The Lord says, Let my people go so that they may give me worship. And if you will not let them go, see, I will send frogs into every part of your land: The Nile will be full of frogs, and they will come up into your house and into your bedrooms and on your bed, and into the houses of your servants and your people, and into your ovens and into your bread-basins. The frogs will come up over you and your people and all your servants. And the Lord said to Moses, Say to Aaron, Let the rod in your hand be stretched out over the streams and the waterways and the pools, causing frogs to come up on the land of Egypt. And when Aaron put out his hand over the waters of Egypt, the frogs came up and all the land of Egypt was covered with them. And the wonder-workers did the same with their secret arts, making frogs come up over the land of Egypt. Then Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron and said, Make prayer to the Lord that he will take away these frogs from me and my people; and I will let the people go and make their offering to the Lord. And Moses said, I will let you have the honour of saying when I am to make prayer for you and your servants and your people, that the frogs may be sent away from you and your houses, and be only in the Nile. And he said, By tomorrow. And he said, Let it be as you say: so that you may see that there is no other like the Lord our God. And the frogs will be gone from you and from your houses and from your servants and from your people and will be only in the Nile. Then Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh; and Moses made prayer to the Lord about the frogs which he had sent on Pharaoh. And the Lord did as Moses said; and there was an end of all the frogs in the houses and in the open spaces and in the fields. And they put them together in masses, and a bad smell went up from the land. But when Pharaoh saw that there was peace for a time, he made his heart hard and did not give ear to them, as the Lord had said. And the Lord said to Moses, Say to Aaron, Let your rod be stretched out over the dust of the earth so that it may become insects through all the land of Egypt. And they did so; and Aaron, stretching out the rod in his hand, gave a touch to the dust of the earth, and insects came on man and on beast; all the dust of the earth was changed into insects through all the land of Egypt. And the wonder-workers with their secret arts, attempting to make insects, were unable to do so: and there were insects on man and on beast. Then the wonder-workers said to Pharaoh, This is the finger of God: but Pharaoh's heart was hard, and he did not give ear to them, as the Lord had said. And the Lord said to Moses, Get up early in the morning and take your place before Pharaoh when he comes out to the water; and say to him, This is what the Lord says: Let my people go to give me worship. For if you do not let my people go, see, I will send clouds of flies on you and on your servants and on your people and into their houses; and the houses of the Egyptians and the land where they are will be full of flies. And at that time I will make a division between your land and the land of Goshen where my people are, and no flies will be there; so that you may see that I am the Lord over all the earth. And I will put a division between my people and your people; tomorrow this sign will be seen. And the Lord did so; and great clouds of flies came into the house of Pharaoh and into his servants' houses, and all the land of Egypt was made waste because of the flies. And Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron and said, Go and make your offering to your God here in the land. And Moses said, It is not right to do so; for we make our offerings of that to which the Egyptians give worship; and if we do so before their eyes, certainly we will be stoned. But we will go three days' journey into the waste land and make an offering to the Lord our God as he may give us orders. Then Pharaoh said, I will let you go to make an offering to the Lord your God in the waste land; but do not go very far away, and make prayer for me. And Moses said, When I go out from you I will make prayer to the Lord that the cloud of flies may go away from Pharaoh and from his people and from his servants tomorrow: only let Pharaoh no longer by deceit keep back the people from making their offering to the Lord. Then Moses went out from Pharaoh and made prayer to the Lord. And the Lord did as Moses said, and took away the cloud of flies from Pharaoh and from his servants and from his people; not one was to be seen. But again Pharaoh made his heart hard and did not let the people go. Then the Lord said to Moses, Go in to Pharaoh and say to him, This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: Let my people go so that they may give me worship. For if you will not let them go, but still keep them in your power, Then the hand of the Lord will put on your cattle in the field, on the horses and the asses and the camels, on the herds and the flocks, a very evil disease. And the Lord will make a division between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt; there will be no loss of any of the cattle of Israel. And the time was fixed by the Lord, and he said, Tomorrow the Lord will do this thing in the land. And on the day after, the Lord did as he had said, causing the death of all the cattle of Egypt, but there was no loss of any of the cattle of Israel. And Pharaoh sent and got word that there was no loss of any of the cattle of Israel. But the heart of Pharaoh was hard and he did not let the people go. And the Lord said to Moses and to Aaron, Take in your hand a little dust from the fire and let Moses send it in a shower up to heaven before the eyes of Pharaoh. And it will become small dust over all the land of Egypt, and will be a skin-disease bursting out in wounds on man and beast through all the land of Egypt. So they took some dust from the fire, and placing themselves before Pharaoh, Moses sent it out in a shower up to heaven; and it became a skin-disease bursting out on man and on beast. And the wonder-workers were not able to take their places before Moses, because of the disease; for the disease was on the wonder-workers and on all the Egyptians. And the Lord made Pharaoh's heart hard, and he would not give ear to them, as the Lord had said. And the Lord said to Moses, Get up early in the morning and take your place before Pharaoh, and say to him, This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: Let my people go so that they may give me worship. For this time I will send all my punishments on yourself and on your servants and on your people; so that you may see that there is no other like me in all the earth. For if I had put the full weight of my hand on you and your people, you would have been cut off from the earth: But, for this very reason, I have kept you from destruction, to make clear to you my power, and so that my name may be honoured through all the earth. Are you still uplifted in pride against my people so that you will not let them go? Truly, tomorrow about this time I will send down an ice-storm, such as never was in Egypt from its earliest days till now. Then send quickly and get in your cattle and all you have from the fields; for if any man or beast in the field has not been put under cover, the ice-storm will come down on them with destruction. Then everyone among the servants of Pharaoh who had the fear of the Lord, made his servants and his cattle come quickly into the house: And he who gave no attention to the word of the Lord, kept his servants and his cattle in the field. And the Lord said to Moses, Now let your hand be stretched out to heaven so that there may be an ice-storm on all the land of Egypt, on man and on beast and on every plant of the field through all the land of Egypt. And Moses put out his rod to heaven: and the Lord sent thunder, and an ice-storm, and fire running down on the earth; the Lord sent an ice-storm on the land of Egypt. So there was an ice-storm with fire running through it, coming down with great force, such as never was in all the land of Egypt from the time when it became a nation. And through all the land of Egypt the ice-storm came down on everything which was in the fields, on man and on beast; and every green plant was crushed and every tree of the field broken. Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, there was no ice-storm. Then Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron, and said to them, I have done evil this time: the Lord is upright, and I and my people are sinners. Make prayer to the Lord; for there has been enough of these thunderings of God and this ice-storm; and I will let you go and will keep you no longer. And Moses said, When I am gone outside the town, my hands will be stretched out to the Lord; the thunders and the ice-storm will come to an end, so that you may see that the earth is the Lord's. But as for you and your servants, I am certain that even now the fear of the Lord God will not be in your hearts. And the flax and the barley were damaged, for the barley was almost ready to be cut and the flax was in flower. But the rest of the grain-plants were undamaged, for they had not come up. So Moses went out of the town, and stretching out his hands made prayer to God: and the thunders and the ice-storm came to an end; and the fall of rain was stopped. But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the ice-storm and the thunders were ended, he went on sinning, and made his heart hard, he and his servants. And the heart of Pharaoh was hard, and he did not let the people go, as the Lord had said by the mouth of Moses. And the Lord said to Moses, Go in to Pharaoh: for I have made his heart and the hearts of his servants hard, so that I may let my signs be seen among them: And so that you may be able to give to your son and to your son's son the story of my wonders in Egypt, and the signs which I have done among them; so that you may see that I am the Lord. Then Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh, and said to him, This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: How long will you be lifted up in your pride before me? let my people go so that they may give me worship. For if you will not let my people go, tomorrow I will send locusts into your land: And the face of the earth will be covered with them, so that you will not be able to see the earth: and they will be the destruction of everything which up to now has not been damaged, everything which was not crushed by the ice-storm, and every tree still living in your fields. And your houses will be full of them, and the houses of your servants and of all the Egyptians; it will be worse than anything your fathers have seen or their fathers, from the day when they were living on the earth till this day. And so he went out from Pharaoh. And Pharaoh's servants said to him, How long is this man to be the cause of evil to us? let the men go so that they may give worship to the Lord their God: are you not awake to Egypt's danger? Then Moses and Aaron came in again before Pharaoh: and he said to them, Go and give worship to the Lord your God: but which of you are going? And Moses said, We will go with our young and our old, with our sons and our daughters, with our flocks and our herds; for we are to keep a feast to the Lord. And he said to them, May the Lord be with you, if I will let you and your little ones go! take care, for your purpose clearly is evil. Not so; but let your males go and give worship to the Lord, as your desire is. This he said, driving them out from before him. And the Lord said to Moses, Let your hand be stretched out over the land of Egypt so that the locusts may come up on the land for the destruction of every green plant in the land, even everything untouched by the ice-storm. And Moses' rod was stretched out over the land of Egypt, and the Lord sent an east wind over the land all that day and all the night; and in the morning the locusts came up with the east wind. And the locusts went up over all the land of Egypt, resting on every part of the land, in very great numbers; such an army of locusts had never been seen before, and never will be again. For all the face of the earth was covered with them, so that the land was black; and every green plant and all the fruit of the trees which was untouched by the ice-storm they took for food: not one green thing, no plant or tree, was to be seen in all the land of Egypt. Then Pharaoh quickly sent for Moses and Aaron, and said, I have done evil against the Lord your God and against you. Let me now have forgiveness for my sin this time only, and make prayer to the Lord your God that he will take away from me this death only. So he went out from Pharaoh and made prayer to the Lord. And the Lord sent a very strong west wind, which took up the locusts, driving them into the Red Sea; not one locust was to be seen in any part of Egypt. But the Lord made Pharaoh's heart hard, and he did not let the children of Israel go. And the Lord said to Moses, Let your hand be stretched out to heaven, and all the land of Egypt will be dark, so that men will be feeling their way about in the dark. And when Moses' hand was stretched out, dark night came over all the land of Egypt for three days; They were not able to see one another, and no one got up from his place for three days: but where the children of Israel were living it was light. Then Pharaoh sent for Moses, and said, Go and give worship to the Lord; only let your flocks and your herds be kept here: your little ones may go with you. But Moses said, You will have to let us take burned offerings to put before the Lord our God. So our cattle will have to go with us, not one may be kept back; for they are needed for the worship of the Lord our God; we have no knowledge what offering we have to give till we come to the place. But the Lord made Pharaoh's heart hard, and he would not let them go. And Pharaoh said to him, Go away from me, take care that you come not again before me; for the day when you see my face again will be your last. And Moses said, You say truly; I will not see your face again.


Now Joseph was thirty years old when he came before Pharaoh, king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from before the face of Pharaoh and went through all the land of Egypt. Now in the seven good years the earth gave fruit in masses. And Joseph got together all the food of those seven years, and made a store of food in the towns: the produce of the fields round every town was stored up in the town. read more.
So he got together a store of grain like the sand of the sea; so great a store that after a time he gave up measuring it, for it might not be measured. And before the time of need, Joseph had two sons, to whom Asenath, the daughter of Poti-phera, priest of On, gave birth. And to the first he gave the name Manasseh, for he said, God has taken away from me all memory of my hard life and of my father's house. And to the second he gave the name Ephraim, for he said, God has given me fruit in the land of my sorrow. And so the seven good years in Egypt came to an end. Then came the first of the seven years of need as Joseph had said: and in every other land they were short of food; but in the land of Egypt there was bread. And when all the land of Egypt was in need of food, the people came crying to Pharaoh for bread; and Pharaoh said to the people, Go to Joseph, and whatever he says to you, do it. And everywhere on the earth they were short of food; then Joseph, opening all his store-houses, gave the people of Egypt grain for money; so great was the need of food in the land of Egypt.


Then Pharaoh sent for Joseph, and they took him quickly out of prison; and when his hair had been cut and his dress changed, he came before Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said to Joseph, I have had a dream, and no one is able to give me the sense of it; now it has come to my ears that you are able to give the sense of a dream when it is put before you. Then Joseph said, Without God there will be no answer of peace for Pharaoh. read more.
Then Pharaoh said, In my dream I was by the side of the Nile: And out of the Nile came seven cows, fat and good-looking, and their food was the river-grass; Then after them came seven other cows, very thin and poor-looking, worse than any I ever saw in the land of Egypt; And the thin cows made a meal of the seven fat cows who came up first; And even with the fat cows inside them they seemed as bad as before. And so I came out of my sleep. And again in a dream I saw seven heads of grain, full and good, coming up on one stem: And then I saw seven other heads, dry, thin, and wasted by the east wind, coming up after them: And the seven thin heads made a meal of the seven good heads; and I put this dream before the wise men, but not one of them was able to give me the sense of it. Then Joseph said, These two dreams have the same sense: God has made clear to Pharaoh what he is about to do. The seven fat cows are seven years, and the seven good heads of grain are seven years: the two have the same sense. The seven thin and poor-looking cows who came up after them are seven years; and the seven heads of grain, dry and wasted by the east wind, are seven years when there will be no food. As I said to Pharaoh before, God has made clear to him what he is about to do. Seven years are coming in which there will be great wealth of grain in Egypt; And after that will come seven years when there will not be enough food; and the memory of the good years will go from men's minds; and the land will be made waste by the bad years; And men will have no memory of the good time because of the need which will come after, for it will be very bitter. And this dream came to Pharaoh twice, because this thing is certain, and God will quickly make it come about.


And news of these things went through Pharaoh's house, and it was said that Joseph's brothers were come; and it seemed good to Pharaoh and his servants. And Pharaoh said to Joseph, Say to your brothers, Put your goods on your beasts and go back to the land of Canaan; And get your father and your families and come back to me: and I will give you all the good things of Egypt, and the fat of the land will be your food. read more.
And say to them, This you are to do: take carts from the land of Egypt for your little ones and for your wives, and get your father and come back. And take no thought for your goods, for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours.


Now there was no food to be had in all the land, so that all Egypt and Canaan were wasted from need of food. And all the money in Egypt and in the land of Canaan which had been given for grain, came into the hands of Joseph: and he put it in Pharaoh's house. And when all the money in Egypt and Canaan was gone, the Egyptians came to Joseph, and said, Give us bread; would you have us come to destruction before your eyes? for we have no more money. read more.
And Joseph said, Give me your cattle; I will give you grain in exchange for your cattle if your money is all gone. So they took their cattle to Joseph and he gave them bread in exchange for their horses and flocks and herds and asses, so all that year he gave them food in exchange for their cattle. And when that year was ended, they came to him in the second year, and said, We may not keep it from our lord's knowledge that all our money is gone, and all the herds of cattle are my lord's; there is nothing more to give my lord but our bodies and our land; Are we to come to destruction before your eyes, we and our land? take us and our land and give us bread; and we and our land will be servants to Pharaoh; and give us seed so that we may have life and the land may not become waste. So Joseph got all the land in Egypt for Pharaoh; for every Egyptian gave up his land in exchange for food, because of their great need; so all the land became Pharaoh's. And as for the people, he made servants of them, town by town, from one end of Egypt to the other. Only he did not take the land of the priests, for the priests had their food given them by Pharaoh, and having what Pharaoh gave them, they had no need to give up their land. Then Joseph said to the people, I have made you and your land this day the property of Pharaoh; here is seed for you to put in your fields. And when the grain is cut, you are to give a fifth part to Pharaoh, and four parts will be yours for seed and food, and for your families and your little ones. And they said to him, Truly you have kept us from death; may we have grace in your eyes, and we will be Pharaoh's servants. Then Joseph made a law which is in force to this day, that Pharaoh was to have the fifth part; only the land of the priests did not become his.


And now let Pharaoh make search for a man of wisdom and good sense, and put him in authority over the land of Egypt. Let Pharaoh do this, and let him put overseers over the land of Egypt to put in store a fifth part of the produce of the land in the good years. And let them get together all the food in those good years and make a store of grain under Pharaoh's control for the use of the towns, and let them keep it. read more.
And let that food be kept in store for the land till the seven bad years which are to come in Egypt; so that the land may not come to destruction through need of food.


And Pharaoh said to Joseph, See, I have put you over all the land of Egypt. Then Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand and put it on Joseph's hand, and he had him clothed with the best linen, and put a chain of gold round his neck; And he made him take his seat in the second of his carriages; and they went before him crying, Make way! So he made him ruler over all the land of Egypt. read more.
Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, I am Pharaoh; and without your order no man may do anything in all the land of Egypt.


And these two had a dream on the same night; the chief wine-servant and the chief bread-maker of the king of Egypt, who were in prison, the two of them had dreams with a special sense. And in the morning when Joseph came to them he saw that they were looking sad. And he said to the servants of Pharaoh who were in prison with him, Why are you looking so sad? read more.
Then they said to him, We have had a dream, and no one is able to give us the sense. And Joseph said, Does not the sense of dreams come from God? what was your dream? Then the chief wine-servant gave Joseph an account of his dream, and said, In my dream I saw a vine before me; And on the vine were three branches; and it seemed as if it put out buds and flowers, and from them came grapes ready for cutting. And Pharaoh's cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes and crushing them into Pharaoh's cup, gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand. Then Joseph said, This is the sense of your dream: the three branches are three days; After three days Pharaoh will give you honour, and put you back into your place, and you will give him his cup as you did before, when you were his wine-servant. But keep me in mind when things go well for you, and be good to me and say a good word for me to Pharaoh and get me out of this prison: For truly I was taken by force from the land of the Hebrews; and I have done nothing for which I might be put in prison. Now when the chief bread-maker saw that the first dream had a good sense, he said to Joseph, I had a dream; and in my dream there were three baskets of white bread on my head; And in the top basket were all sorts of cooked meats for Pharaoh; and the birds were taking them out of the baskets on my head. Then Joseph said, This is the sense of your dream: the three baskets are three days; After three days Pharaoh will take you out of prison, hanging you on a tree, so that your flesh will be food for birds.


And after a time, his master's wife, looking on Joseph with desire, said to him, Be my lover. But he would not, and said to her, You see that my master keeps no account of what I do in his house, and has put all his property in my control; So that no one has more authority in this house than I have; he has kept nothing back from me but you, because you are his wife; how then may I do this great wrong, sinning against God? read more.
And day after day she went on requesting Joseph to come to her and be her lover, but he would not give ear to her. Now one day he went into the house to do his work; and not one of the men of the house was inside. And pulling at his coat, she said, Come to my bed; but slipping out of his coat, he went running away. And when she saw that he had got away, letting her keep his coat, She sent for the men of her house and said to them, See, he has let a Hebrew come here and make sport of us; he came to my bed, and I gave a loud cry; And hearing it he went running out without his coat. And she kept his coat by her, till his master came back. Then she gave him the same story, saying, The Hebrew servant whom you have taken into our house came in to make sport of me; And when I gave a loud cry he went running out without his coat. And hearing his wife's account of what his servant had done, he became very angry. And Joseph's master took him and put him in prison, in the place where the king's prisoners were kept in chains, and he was there in the prison-house.


Then Joseph went to Pharaoh, and said, My father and my brothers with their flocks and their herds and all they have, are come from Canaan, and are now in the land of Goshen. And he took five of his brothers to Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said to them, What is your business? And they said, Your servants are keepers of sheep, as our fathers were before us. read more.
And they said to Pharaoh, We have come to make a living in this land, because we have no grass for our flocks in the land of Canaan; so now let your servants make a place for themselves in the land of Goshen. And Pharaoh said to Joseph, Let them have the land of Goshen; and if there are any able men among them, put them over my cattle. And Jacob and his sons came to Joseph in Egypt, and when word of it came to the ears of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, he said to Joseph, Your father and brothers have come to you; all the land of Egypt is before you; let your father and your brothers have the best of the land for their resting-place. Then Joseph made his father Jacob come before Pharaoh, and Jacob gave him his blessing. And Pharaoh said to him, How old are you? And Jacob said, The years of my wanderings have been a hundred and thirty; small in number and full of sorrow have been the years of my life, and less than the years of the wanderings of my fathers. And Jacob gave Pharaoh his blessing, and went out from before him.


And in the middle of the night the Lord sent death on every first male child in the land of Egypt, from the child of Pharaoh on his seat of power to the child of the prisoner in the prison; and the first births of all the cattle. Then Pharaoh got up in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians; and a great cry went up from Egypt; for there was not a house where someone was not dead.


Now go quickly to my father, and say to him, Your son Joseph says, God has made me ruler over all the land of Egypt: come down to me straight away: The land of Goshen will be your living-place, and you will be near me; you and your children and your children's children, and your flocks and herds and all you have: And there I will take care of you, so that you and your family may not be in need, for there are still five bad years to come.


And the children of Israel had done as Moses had said; and they got from the Egyptians ornaments of silver and of gold, and clothing: And the Lord had given the people grace in the eyes of the Egyptians so that they gave them whatever was requested. So they took away all their goods from the Egyptians.


And he sent for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, Get up and go out from among my people, you and the children of Israel; go and give worship to the Lord as you have said. And take your flocks and your herds as you have said, and be gone; and give me your blessing. And the Egyptians were forcing the people on, to get them out of the land quickly; for they said, We are all dead men.


And word came to Pharaoh of the flight of the people: and the feeling of Pharaoh and of his servants about the people was changed, and they said, Why have we let Israel go, so that they will do no more work for us? So he had his war-carriage made ready and took his people with him: And he took six hundred carriages, all the carriages of Egypt, and captains over all of them. read more.
And the Lord made the heart of Pharaoh hard, and he went after the children of Israel: for the children of Israel had gone out without fear. But the Egyptians went after them, all the horses and carriages of Pharaoh, and his horsemen, and his army, and overtook them in their tents by the sea, by Pihahiroth, before Baal-zephon. And when Pharaoh came near, the children of Israel, lifting up their eyes, saw the Egyptians coming after them, and were full of fear; and their cry went up to God. And they said to Moses, Was there no resting-place for the dead in Egypt, that you have taken us away to come to our death in the waste land? why have you taken us out of Egypt? Did we not say to you in Egypt, Let us be as we are, working for the Egyptians? for it is better to be the servants of the Egyptians than to come to our death in the waste land. But Moses said, Keep where you are and have no fear; now you will see the salvation of the Lord which he will give you today; for the Egyptians whom you see today you will never see again. The Lord will make war for you, you have only to keep quiet. And the Lord said to Moses, Why are you crying out to me? give the children of Israel the order to go forward. And let your rod be lifted up and your hand stretched out over the sea, and it will be parted in two; and the children of Israel will go through on dry land. And I will make the heart of the Egyptians hard, and they will go in after them: and I will be honoured over Pharaoh and over his army, his war-carriages, and his horsemen. And the Egyptians will see that I am the Lord, when I get honour over Pharaoh and his war-carriages and his horsemen. Then the angel of God, who had been before the tents of Israel, took his place at their back; and the pillar of cloud, moving from before them, came to rest at their back: And it came between the army of Egypt and the army of Israel; and there was a dark cloud between them, and they went on through the night; but the one army came no nearer to the other all the night. And when Moses' hand was stretched out over the sea, the Lord with a strong east wind made the sea go back all night, and the waters were parted in two and the sea became dry land. And the children of Israel went through the sea on dry land: and the waters were a wall on their right side and on their left. Then the Egyptians went after them into the middle of the sea, all Pharaoh's horses and his war-carriages and his horsemen. And in the morning watch, the Lord, looking out on the armies of the Egyptians from the pillar of fire and cloud, sent trouble on the army of the Egyptians; And made the wheels of their war-carriages stiff, so that they had hard work driving them: so the Egyptians said, Let us go in flight from before the face of Israel, for the Lord is fighting for them against the Egyptians.


Then Joseph, unable to keep back his feelings before those who were with him, gave orders for everyone to be sent away, and no one was present when he made clear to his brothers who he was. And so loud was his weeping, that it came to the ears of the Egyptians and all Pharaoh's house. And Joseph said to his brothers, I am Joseph: is my father still living? But his brothers were not able to give him an answer for they were troubled before him. read more.
Then Joseph said to his brothers, Come near to me. And they came near, And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom you sent into Egypt. Now do not be troubled or angry with yourselves for sending me away, because God sent me before you to be the saviour of your lives. For these two years have been years of need, and there are still five more years to come in which there will be no ploughing or cutting of grain. God sent me before you to keep you and yours living on earth so that you might become a great nation. So now it was not you who sent me here, but God: and he has made me as a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and ruler over all the land of Egypt.


And the Lord was with Joseph, and he did well; and he was living in the house of his master the Egyptian. And his master saw that the Lord was with him, making everything he did go well. And having a high opinion of Joseph as his servant, he made him the overseer of his house and gave him control over all he had. read more.
And from the time when he made him overseer and gave him control of all his property, the blessing of the Lord was with the Egyptian, because of Joseph; the blessing of the Lord was on all he had, in the house and in the field. And he gave Joseph control of all his property, keeping no account of anything, but only the food which was put before him. Now Joseph was very beautiful in form and face.


And when Joseph saw his brothers, it was clear to him who they were, but he made himself strange to them, and talking roughly to them, said, Where do you come from? And they said, From the land of Canaan, to get food. Now though Joseph saw that these were his brothers, they had no idea who he was.


Now Jacob, hearing that there was grain in Egypt, said to his sons, Why are you looking at one another? And he said, I have had news that there is grain in Egypt: go down there and get grain for us, so that life and not death may be ours. So Joseph's ten brothers went down to get grain from Egypt. read more.
But Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph's brother, with them, for fear, as he said, that some evil might come to him. And the sons of Israel came with all the others to get grain: for they were very short of food in the land of Canaan. Now Joseph was ruler over all the land, and it was he who gave out the grain to all the people of the land; and Joseph's brothers came before him and went down on their faces to the earth.


And the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew women who gave help at the time of childbirth (the name of the one was Shiphrah and the name of the other Puah), When you are looking after the Hebrew women in childbirth, if it is a son you are to put him to death; but if it is a daughter, she may go on living. But the women had the fear of God, and did not do as the king of Egypt said, but let the male children go on living. read more.
And the king of Egypt sent for the women, and said to them, Why have you done this, and let the male children go on living? And they said to Pharaoh, Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are strong, and the birth takes place before we come to them. And the blessing of God was on these women: and the people were increased in number and became very strong. And because the women who took care of the Hebrew mothers had the fear of God, he gave them families. And Pharaoh gave orders to all his people, saying, Every son who comes to birth is to be put into the river, but every daughter may go on living.


And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, Let this month be to you the first of months, the first month of the year. Say to all the children of Israel when they are come together, In the tenth day of this month every man is to take a lamb, by the number of their fathers' families, a lamb for every family: read more.
And if the lamb is more than enough for the family, let that family and its nearest neighbour have a lamb between them, taking into account the number of persons and how much food is needed for every man. Let your lamb be without a mark, a male in its first year: you may take it from among the sheep or the goats: Keep it till the fourteenth day of the same month, when everyone who is of the children of Israel is to put it to death between sundown and dark. Then take some of the blood and put it on the two sides of the door and over the door of the house where the meal is to be taken. And let your food that night be the flesh of the lamb, cooked with fire in the oven, together with unleavened bread and bitter-tasting plants. Do not take it uncooked or cooked with boiling water, but let it be cooked in the oven; its head with its legs and its inside parts. Do not keep any of it till the morning; anything which is not used is to be burned with fire. And take your meal dressed as if for a journey, with your shoes on your feet and your sticks in your hands: take it quickly: it is the Lord's Passover. For on that night I will go through the land of Egypt, sending death on every first male child, of man and of beast, and judging all the gods of Egypt: I am the Lord. And the blood will be a sign on the houses where you are: when I see the blood I will go over you, and no evil will come on you for your destruction, when my hand is on the land of Egypt. And this day is to be kept in your memories: you are to keep it as a feast to the Lord through all your generations, as an order for ever. For seven days let your food be unleavened bread; from the first day no leaven is to be seen in your houses: whoever takes bread with leaven in it, from the first till the seventh day, will be cut off from Israel. And on the first day there is to be a holy meeting and on the seventh day a holy meeting; no sort of work may be done on those days but only to make ready what is necessary for everyone's food. So keep the feast of unleavened bread; for on this very day I have taken your armies out of the land of Egypt: this day, then, is to be kept through all your generations by an order for ever. In the first month, from the evening of the fourteenth day, let your food be unleavened bread till the evening of the twenty-first day of the month. For seven days no leaven is to be seen in your houses: for whoever takes bread which is leavened will be cut off from the people of Israel, if he is from another country or if he is an Israelite by birth. Take nothing which has leaven in it; wherever you are living let your food be unleavened cakes. Then Moses sent for the chiefs of Israel, and said to them, See that lambs are marked out for yourselves and your families, and let the Passover lamb be put to death. And take some hyssop and put it in the blood in the basin, touching the two sides and the top of the doorway with the blood from the basin; and let not one of you go out of his house till the morning. For the Lord will go through the land, sending death on the Egyptians; and when he sees the blood on the two sides and the top of the door, the Lord will go over your door and will not let death come in for your destruction. And you are to keep this as an order to you and to your sons for ever. And when you come into the land which the Lord will make yours, as he gave his word, you are to keep this act of worship. And when your children say to you, What is the reason of this act of worship? Then you will say, This is the offering of the Lord's Passover; for he went over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he sent death on the Egyptians, and kept our families safe. And the people gave worship with bent heads. And the children of Israel went and did so; as the Lord had given orders to Moses and Aaron, so they did.


Now when Moses had become a man, one day he went out to his people and saw how hard their work was; and he saw an Egyptian giving blows to a Hebrew, one of his people. And turning this way and that, and seeing no one, he put the Egyptian to death, covering his body with sand.


Then Jacob went on from Beer-sheba; and the sons of Jacob took their father and their little ones and their wives in the carts which Pharaoh had sent for them. And they took their cattle and all the goods which they had got in the land of Canaan, and came to Egypt, even Jacob and all his seed: His sons and his sons' sons, his daughters and his daughters' sons and all his family he took with him into Egypt.


Now Pharaoh's daughter came down to the Nile to take a bath, while her women were walking by the riverside; and she saw the basket among the river-plants, and sent her servant-girl to get it. And opening it, she saw the child, and he was crying. And she had pity on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews' children. Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, May I go and get you one of the Hebrew women to give him the breast? read more.
And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Go. And the girl went and got the child's mother. And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Take the child away and give it milk for me, and I will give you payment. And the woman took the child and gave it milk at her breast. And when the child was older, she took him to Pharaoh's daughter and he became her son, and she gave him the name Moses, Because, she said, I took him out of the water.


Now these are the names of the sons of Israel who came into Egypt; every man and his family came with Jacob. Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah; Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin; read more.
Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. All the offspring of Jacob were seventy persons: and Joseph had come to Egypt before them. Then Joseph came to his end, and all his brothers, and all that generation. And the children of Israel were fertile, increasing very greatly in numbers and in power; and the land was full of them. Now a new king came to power in Egypt, who had no knowledge of Joseph. And he said to his people, See, the people of Israel are greater in number and in power than we are: Let us take care for fear that their numbers may become even greater, and if there is a war, they may be joined with those who are against us, and make an attack on us, and go up out of the land. So they put overseers of forced work over them, in order to make their strength less by the weight of their work. And they made store-towns for Pharaoh, Pithom and Raamses. But the more cruel they were to them, the more their number increased, till all the land was full of them. And the children of Israel were hated by the Egyptians. And they gave the children of Israel even harder work to do: And made their lives bitter with hard work, making building-material and bricks, and doing all sorts of work in the fields under the hardest conditions.


And he said to Abram, Truly, your seed will be living in a land which is not theirs, as servants to a people who will be cruel to them for four hundred years;


And the angel of the Lord was seen by him in a flame of fire coming out of a thorn-tree: and he saw that the tree was on fire, but it was not burned up. And Moses said, I will go and see this strange thing, why the tree is not burned up, And when the Lord saw him turning to one side to see, God said his name out of the tree, crying, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. read more.
And he said, Do not come near: take off your shoes from your feet, for the place where you are is holy. And he said, I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses kept his face covered for fear of looking on God. And God said, Truly, I have seen the grief of my people in Egypt, and their cry because of their cruel masters has come to my ears; for I have knowledge of their sorrows; And I have come down to take them out of the hands of the Egyptians, guiding them out of that land into a good land and wide, into a land flowing with milk and honey; into the place of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. For now, truly, the cry of the children of Israel has come to me, and I have seen the cruel behaviour of the Egyptians to them. Come, then, and I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may take my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.


So they took what their father said for the man, and twice as much money in their hands, and Benjamin, and went on their journey to Egypt, and came before Joseph.


And when she was no longer able to keep him secret, she made him a basket out of the stems of water-plants, pasting sticky earth over it to keep the water out; and placing the baby in it she put it among the plants by the edge of the Nile. And his sister took her place at a distance to see what would become of him.


Now when Pharaoh had news of this, he would have put Moses to death. But Moses went in flight from Pharaoh into the land of Midian: and he took his seat by a water-spring.


And she became with child and gave birth to a Son; and when she saw that he was a beautiful child, she kept him secretly for three months.



Basic English, produced by Mr C. K. Ogden of the Orthological Institute - public domain