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Joseph
Genesis 37-50 |
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Introduction |
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Joseph tests his brothers and they bring
Benjamin back to Egypt, although their
father, Israel was reluctant.
When his brothers arrive back
in Egypt, they were reunited with their
brother Simeon who was held in prison until
they returned. His brothers then presents
their youngest, Benjamin, to Joseph, who
holds a fest for them. Joseph allows them to
buy food, but again puts them through a
test.
After this he finally reveals himself and
they are re-united. Pharaoh orders Joseph to
bring his fathers household into Egypt to
live off the best of the land. His brothers
go back to Canaan and tells their father
that Joseph is alive!
Find out how this turns out! |
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Joseph is Alive! |
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When
Joseph's brothers arrive the land of
Canaan, they tell Israel that Joseph is still
alive, and that in fact, it is he who is ruler
of all the land of Egypt. They recount to him
all that Joseph had told them. And when he sees
the wagons that Joseph had sent for his
transport, the spirit of their father Jacob is
revived.
He declares that he must see his
son Joseph before he dies. |
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Jacob Goes To Egypt |
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Israel sets out with all that
is his and at Beer-sheba, he offers
sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac.
There God speaks to Israel in a vision by
night. The LORD tells Jacob to be not afraid
to go down to Egypt, for there He will make
him a great nation. He also tells Jacob that
He will not only go down to Egypt with him;
He will also bring him back here, after
Joseph dies.
So Jacob departs from Beer-sheba, and the
sons of Israel put their father and their
wives and children on the wagons that
Pharaoh had sent for his transport. They
take with them their livestock and |
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the possessions they had acquired in the
land of
Canaan. Thus Jacob and all his descendants
migrate to Egypt, with his sons and his
grandsons, his daughters and his granddaughters
with him.
Israel sends Judah ahead to Joseph, so that
he might meet him in Goshen. On his arrival
in the region of Goshen, Joseph rides to
meet his father Israel. As soon as he sees
him, he embraces his father and weeps a long
time in his arms.
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Then Israel
tells Joseph that now he can
die for he has seen for himself that Joseph
is still alive.
Joseph then says to his brothers and his
father's household that he will go and
inform Pharaoh that his brothers and his
father's household have come. He also tells
them that when the Pharaoh summons them and
asks what their occupation is, they must
answer that they are his servants and, like
their ancestors, have been keepers of
livestock from the beginning until now in
order that they may stay in the region of
Goshen, since all shepherds are abhorrent to
the Egyptians.
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Joseph Presents His Father and Brothers to
Pharaoh |
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Joseph goes to tell Pharaoh that his father
and his brothers have come from the land of
Canaan, with their flocks and herds and
everything else they own; and they are now in
the region of Goshen.
He
then presents to Pharaoh his brothers and when
Pharaoh asks them what their occupation is they
answer that they are his servants, and like
their ancestors, are shepherds, and have come
from Canaan where there is severe famine. They
then petition Pharaoh to let them to settle in
the region of Goshen.
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Pharaoh says to Joseph that
they may settle in the region of Goshen. He also
tells Joseph that if he knows of any of them who
are qualified, Joseph may put them in charge of
Pharaoh’s own livestock.
Then Joseph brings his
father Jacob and presents him to Pharaoh. After
Jacob has paid his respects to Pharaoh, Pharaoh
asks him how old he is. Jacob replies that he is
a hundred and thirty years old.
Then Jacob bids Pharaoh
farewell and leaves. As Pharaoh had ordered,
Joseph settles his father and brothers and gives
them holdings in Egypt on the pick of the land,
in the region of Rameses. And Joseph sustains
his father and brothers and his father's whole
household with food.
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Egypt Falls into Slavery
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Due to the extreme severity of the famine the
lands of Egypt and Canaan languish from hunger.
Joseph gathers in, as payment for the rations
that are being dispensed. All the money that is
to be found in Egypt and Canaan, and he puts it
in Pharaoh's palace.
When all the money in Egypt and Canaan are
spent, all the Egyptians come to Joseph,
pleading for food. Joseph replies for them to
give him their livestock in return for bread. So
they bring their livestock to Joseph, and he
sells them food in return for their horses,
their flocks of sheep and herds of cattle, and
their donkeys. Thus he gets them through that
year with bread in exchange for all their
livestock.
When their money and livestock are gone, they
come back to Joseph and offer themselves and
their lands to Pharaoh in exchange for food.
Thus Joseph acquires all the farm land of Egypt
for Pharaoh and the people in the whole of Egypt
are reduced to slavery.
Joseph gives to them seed for sowing the land
with the condition that when the harvest is in,
they must give a fifth of it to Pharaoh, while
they keep four-fifths as seed for their fields
and as food for themselves and their families.
Thus Joseph makes it a law for the land in Egypt
that a fifth of its produce should go to
Pharaoh. |
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Israel Blesses the Sons of Joseph
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Israel settles in the land of Egypt, in the
region of Goshen. There they acquire property,
are fertile, and increase greatly.
Jacob lives in the land of Egypt for seventeen
years until he is a hundred and forty-seven
years. When Israel is about to die, he calls his
son Joseph and makes him swear not to let Jacob
be buried in Egypt but be brought to be buried
with his ancestors.
Some time afterward, Joseph is told that his
father’s health is failing. So he takes along
with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.
When Jacob is told that his son Joseph has come
to you, he rallies his strength and sits up in
bed.
Jacob then tells Joseph that God Almighty
appeared to him at Luz in the land of Canaan,
and blessing him the LORD said the He will make
me fertile and numerous and raise you into an
assembly of tribes. Jacob also tells Joseph that
the LORD promised to give the land of Canaan to
his descendants as a permanent possession.
Jacob tells Joseph that his two sons, therefore,
who were born to him in the land of Egypt before
he joined him here, shall be his; Ephraim and
Manasseh shall be his as much as Reuben and
Simeon are his. |
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Upon seeing Joseph’s sons, Jacob asks Joseph
to bring them to him so he could bless them.
When Joseph brings his sons close to him, he
kisses and embraces them. Then Israel says
to Joseph that he never expected to see his
face again, and now God has allowed me to
see his descendants as well.
Joseph removes them from his father's knees
and bows down before him with his face to
the ground. Then Joseph takes the two,
Ephraim with his right hand, to Israel's
left, and Manasseh with his left hand, to
Israel's right, and leads them to him. But
Israel, crossing his hands, puts out his
right hand and laid it on the head of
Ephraim, although he was the younger, and
his left hand on the head of Manasseh,
although he was the first-born. |
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Then he blesses them with
these words: "May the God in whose ways my
fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, The God who
has been my shepherd from my birth to this day,
The Angel who has delivered me from all harm,
bless these boys That in them my name be
recalled, and the names of my fathers, Abraham
and Isaac, And they may become teeming
multitudes upon the earth!"
When Joseph saw that his
father had laid his right hand on Ephraim's
head, this seems wrong to him; so he takes hold
of his father's hand, to remove it from
Ephraim's head to Manasseh's. But his father
resists telling him that he knows but although
the older brother shall be come a tribe, the
younger brother shall surpass him, and his
descendants shall become a multitude of nations.
Then Israel says to Joseph
that he is about to die. But God will be with
him and will restore him to the land of his
fathers. Jacob also tells Joseph that he will
give him, as to the one above his brothers,
Shechem, which he captured from the Amorites
with his sword and bow.
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The Death of
Jacob |
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Jacob calls his sons and tells them to gather
around, that he may tell them what is to happen
to them in days to come. After that, he tells
his sons his desire to be buried with his
fathers in the cave that lies in the field of
Ephron the Hittite, the cave in the field of
Machpelah, facing on Mamre, in the land of
Canaan, the field that Abraham bought from
Ephron the Hittite for a burial ground. There
Abraham and his wife Sarah are buried, and so
are Isaac and his wife Rebekah, and there, too,
Jacob buried Leah.
When Jacob
dies, Joseph weeps and mourns. He orders the
physicians in his service to embalm his
father. And |
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with Pharaoh’s
permission, Joseph brings his father back to the
land of Canaan to be buried as he wished in the
tomb of his ancestors.
As Pharaoh ordered
Joseph brings to the land of Canaan the senior
members of Pharaoh’s court, all the other
dignitaries of Egypt, as well as Joseph's whole
household, his brothers, and his father's
household, except for the children. When
Joseph’s very large retinue arrives at the cave
in the field of Machpelah, Joseph holds a solemn
memorial service.
After Joseph
buries his father he returns to Egypt, together
with his brothers and all who had gone up with
him for the burial of his father. Now that their
father is dead, his brothers become fearful that
Joseph may take action against them for the
wrong that they did him. So they ask forgiveness
for what they did and offer themselves up to
Joseph as slaves.
But Joseph
forgives them saying this was all a part of the
LORD’s plan. He promises his fathers household
that he will provide for them. |
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Joseph remains
in Egypt, together with his father's family.
He lives to be a hundred and ten years. He
sees Ephraim's children to the third
generation, and the children of Manasseh's
son Machir are also born on Joseph's knees.
When Joseph
is about to die he makes his brothers
promise him that when the LORD leads them
out of Egypt as He promised, that they must
also takes his bones with them. |
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Joseph dies at the
age of a hundred and ten. He is embalmed and
laid to rest in a coffin in Egypt. |
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For the
Complete Story of Joseph, please use this
links. |
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When Joseph is sold to Ishmaelites
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Joseph
Becomes a Caretaker of all Egypt
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Joseph Meets His Brothers in Egypt
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Samson and Delilah and Other Old Testament
Stories (Discovering the Bible)
(Hardcover) by Victoria Parker (Author), Retold
by Victoria Parker (Author)
This book provides known Bible stories from
Israel in the Promised land to the Story of
Ruth. It has the stories we grew up with but it
adds historical and religious facts to each
story. It tells the stories gearing them toward
elementary school children. |
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Moses Great Lives Series: Volume 4 ,
by Charles R. Swindoll. This book presents the
Bible's real Moses-the Moses who tried to
decline his assignment from God; the Moses who
dazzled Pharoh; the Moses who received the Ten
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weak; the Moses who was the greatest leader of
God's people in all of history. Through his
faith and selfless dedication, Moses continually
chose to follow God's will through difficult and
seemingly impossible situations.
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Jacob and Esau
by Harriette Augusta Curtiss and F. Homer
Curtiss (Paperback - Dec 30, 2005) |
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The Prophecy of Isaiah: An Introduction &
Commentary
by J. A. Motyer
Recipient of a Christianity Today 1994 Critics
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of God's future restoration of Israel and the
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and teaching Isaiah, Alec Motyer presents a
wealth of commentary and perspective on this
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Saint of the Day: Lives, Lessons, and Feasts
(Paperback)
by Leonard Foley (Editor), Pat McCloskey
(Editor) |
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Lives of the
Saints You Should Know by Margaret R. Bunson,
Matthew E. Bunson |
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New Illustrated Book of Saints
Author: Catholic Book Publishing Company |
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One Hundred Saints: Their Lives and Likenesses
Drawn from Butler's
This is a coffee-table collection of 100 popular
saints illustrated with art works taken from
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alphabetically in a valuable table of contents,
with a larger list of patron saints following
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availability of
atypical art works. Entries are generally based
on the 1926-38 edition of Butler's Lives of the
Saints, with the length of each entry varying
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