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Genesis 47

Settlement in Goshen.

1Joseph went and told Pharaoh, “My father and my 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.”

2He then presented to Pharaoh five of his brothers whom he had selected from their full number.

3When Pharaoh asked them, “What is your occupation?” they answered, “We, your servants, like our ancestors, are shepherds.

4We have come,” they continued, “in order to sojourn in this land, for there is no pasture for your servants’ flocks, because the famine has been severe in the land of Canaan. So now please let your servants settle in the region of Goshen.”^a

5Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Now that your father and your brothers have come to you,

6the land of Egypt is at your disposal; settle your father and brothers in the pick of the land. Let them settle in the region of Goshen. And if you know of capable men among them, put them in charge of my livestock.”

7Then Joseph brought his father Jacob and presented him to Pharaoh. And Jacob blessed Pharaoh.

8Then Pharaoh asked Jacob, “How many years have you lived?”

9Jacob replied: “The years I have lived as a wayfarer amount to a hundred and thirty. Few and hard have been these years of my life, and they do not compare with the years that my ancestors lived as wayfarers.”^*

10Then Jacob blessed Pharaoh and withdrew from his presence.

11Joseph settled his father and brothers and gave them a holding in Egypt on the pick of the land, in the region of Rameses,^* as Pharaoh had ordered.

12And Joseph provided food for his father and brothers and his father’s whole household, down to the youngest.

Joseph’s Land Policy.

13Since there was no food in all the land because of the extreme severity of the famine, and the lands of Egypt and Canaan were languishing from hunger,

14Joseph gathered in, as payment for the grain that they were buying, all the money that was to be found in Egypt and Canaan, and he put it in Pharaoh’s house.

15When all the money in Egypt and Canaan was spent, all the Egyptians came to Joseph, pleading, “Give us food! Why should we perish in front of you? For our money is gone.”

16“Give me your livestock if your money is gone,” replied Joseph. “I will give you food in return for your livestock.”

17So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and he gave them food in exchange for their horses, their flocks of sheep and herds of cattle, and their donkeys. Thus he supplied them with food in exchange for all their livestock in that year.

18That year ended, and they came to him in the next one and said: “We cannot hide from my lord that, with our money spent and our livestock made over to my lord, there is nothing left to put at my lord’s disposal except our bodies and our land.

19Why should we and our land perish before your very eyes? Take us and our land in exchange for food, and we will become Pharaoh’s slaves and our land his property; only give us seed, that we may survive and not perish, and that our land may not turn into a waste.”

20So Joseph acquired all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh. Each of the Egyptians sold his field, since the famine weighed heavily upon them. Thus the land passed over to Pharaoh,

21and the people were reduced to slavery, from one end of Egypt’s territory to the other.

22Only the priests’ lands Joseph did not acquire. Since the priests had a fixed allowance from Pharaoh and lived off the allowance Pharaoh had granted them, they did not have to sell their land.

23Joseph told the people: “Now that I have acquired you and your land for Pharaoh, here is your seed for sowing the land.

24But when the harvest is in, you must give a fifth of it to Pharaoh, while you keep four-fifths as seed for your fields and as food for yourselves and your households and as food for your children.”

25“You have saved our lives!” they answered. “We have found favor with my lord; now we will be Pharaoh’s slaves.”

26Thus Joseph made it a statute for the land of Egypt, which is still in force, that a fifth of its produce should go to Pharaoh. Only the land of the priests did not pass over to Pharaoh.

Israel Blesses Ephraim and Manasseh.

27Thus Israel settled in the land of Egypt, in the region of Goshen. There they acquired holdings, were fertile, and multiplied greatly.^b

28^* Jacob lived in the land of Egypt for seventeen years; the span of his life came to a hundred and forty-seven years.

29When the time approached for Israel to die, he called his son Joseph and said to him: “If it pleases you, put your hand under my thigh as a sign of your enduring fidelity to me; do not bury me in Egypt.

30When I lie down with my ancestors, take me out of Egypt and bury me in their burial place.”^c “I will do as you say,” he replied.

31But his father demanded, “Swear it to me!” So Joseph swore to him. Then Israel bowed at the head of the bed.^*

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Genesis 48

^* Some time afterward, Joseph was informed, “Your father is failing.” So he took along with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.

2When Jacob was told, “Your son Joseph has come to you,” Israel rallied his strength and sat up in bed.

3^a Jacob then said to Joseph: “God Almighty appeared to me at Luz^* in the land of Canaan, and blessing me,

4he said, ‘I will make you fertile and multiply you and make you into an assembly of peoples, and I will give this land to your descendants after you as a permanent possession.’

5So now your two sons who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I joined you here, shall be mine; Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine as much as Reuben and Simeon are mine.

6Progeny born to you after them shall remain yours; but their heritage shall be recorded in the names of their brothers.

7^b I do this because, when I was returning from Paddan, your mother Rachel died, to my sorrow, during the journey in Canaan, while we were still a short distance from Ephrath; and I buried her there on the way to Ephrath [now Bethlehem].”^*

8When Israel saw Joseph’s sons, he asked, “Who are these?”

9“They are my sons,” Joseph answered his father, “whom God has given me here.” “Bring them to me,” said his father, “that I may bless them.”

10Now Israel’s eyes were dim from age; he could not see well. When Joseph brought his sons close to him, he kissed and embraced them.

11Then Israel said to Joseph, “I never expected to see your face again, and now God has allowed me to see your descendants as well!”

12Joseph removed them from his father’s knees and bowed down before him with his face to the ground.

13Then Joseph took the two, Ephraim with his right hand, to Israel’s left, and Manasseh with his left hand, to Israel’s right, and brought them up to him.

14But Israel, crossing his hands, put 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 firstborn.

15Then he blessed them with these words:

“May the God in whose presence

my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked,

The God who has been my shepherd

from my birth to this day,^c

16The 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!”

17When Joseph saw that his father had laid his right hand on Ephraim’s head, this seemed wrong to him; so he took hold of his father’s hand, to remove it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s,

18saying, “That is not right, father; the other one is the firstborn; lay your right hand on his head!”

19But his father refused. “I know it, son,” he said, “I know. That one too shall become a people, and he too shall be great. Nevertheless, his younger brother shall surpass him, and his descendants shall become a multitude of nations.”

20So he blessed them that day and said, “By you shall the people of Israel pronounce blessings, saying, ‘God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.’” Thus he placed Ephraim before Manasseh.^d

21Then Israel said to Joseph: “I am about to die. But God will be with you and will restore you to the land of your ancestors.

22^e As for me, I give to you, as to the one above his brothers, Shechem, which I captured from the Amorites with my sword and bow.”^*

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Genesis 49

Jacob called his sons and said: “Gather around, that I may tell you what is to happen to you in days to come.

2“Assemble and listen, sons of Jacob,

listen to Israel, your father.

3“You, Reuben, my firstborn,

my strength and the first fruit of my vigor,

excelling in rank and excelling in power!

4Turbulent as water, you shall no longer excel,

for you climbed into your father’s bed

and defiled my couch to my sorrow.^a

5^* “Simeon and Levi, brothers indeed,

weapons of violence are their knives.^*

6Let not my person enter their council,

or my honor be joined with their company;

For in their fury they killed men,

at their whim they maimed oxen.^b

7Cursed be their fury so fierce,

and their rage so cruel!

I will scatter them in Jacob,

disperse them throughout Israel.

8“You, Judah, shall your brothers praise

—your hand on the neck of your enemies;

the sons of your father shall bow down to you.

9Judah is a lion’s cub,

you have grown up on prey, my son.

He crouches, lies down like a lion,

like a lioness—who would dare rouse him?^c

10The scepter shall never depart from Judah,

or the mace from between his feet,

Until tribute comes to him,^*

and he receives the people’s obedience.

11He tethers his donkey to the vine,

his donkey’s foal to the choicest stem.

In wine he washes his garments,

his robe in the blood of grapes.^*

12His eyes are darker than wine,

and his teeth are whiter than milk.

13“Zebulun shall dwell by the seashore;

he will be a haven for ships,

and his flank shall rest on Sidon.

14“Issachar is a rawboned donkey,

crouching between the saddlebags.

15When he saw how good a settled life was,

and how pleasant the land,

He bent his shoulder to the burden

and became a toiling serf.

16“Dan shall achieve justice^* for his people

as one of the tribes of Israel.

17Let Dan be a serpent by the roadside,

a horned viper by the path,

That bites the horse’s heel,

so that the rider tumbles backward.

18“I long for your deliverance, O LORD!^*

19“Gad shall be raided by raiders,

but he shall raid at their heels.^*

20“Asher’s produce is rich,

and he shall furnish delicacies for kings.

21“Naphtali is a hind let loose,

which brings forth lovely fawns.

22“Joseph is a wild colt,

a wild colt by a spring,

wild colts on a hillside.

23Harrying him and shooting,

the archers opposed him;

24But his bow remained taut,

and his arms were nimble,

By the power of the Mighty One of Jacob,

because of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel,

25The God of your father, who helps you,^*

God Almighty, who blesses you,

With the blessings of the heavens above,

the blessings of the abyss that crouches below,

The blessings of breasts and womb,

26the blessings of fresh grain and blossoms,

the blessings of the everlasting mountains,

the delights of the eternal hills.

May they rest on the head of Joseph,

on the brow of the prince among his brothers.

27“Benjamin is a ravenous wolf;

mornings he devours the prey,

and evenings he distributes the spoils.”

Farewell and Death.

28All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father said about them, as he blessed them. To each he gave a suitable blessing.

29Then he gave them this charge: “Since I am about to be gathered to my people, bury me with my ancestors in the cave that lies in the field of Ephron the Hittite,

30the 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.^d

31There Abraham and his wife Sarah are buried, and so are Isaac and his wife Rebekah, and there, too, I buried Leah—

32the field and the cave in it that had been purchased from the Hittites.”

33When Jacob had finished giving these instructions to his sons, he drew his feet into the bed, breathed his last, and was gathered to his people.

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Genesis 50

Jacob’s Funeral.

1Joseph flung himself upon his father and wept over him as he kissed him.

2Then Joseph ordered the physicians in his service to embalm his father. When the physicians embalmed Israel,

3they spent forty days at it, for that is the full period of embalming; and the Egyptians mourned him for seventy days.

4When the period of mourning was over, Joseph spoke to Pharaoh’s household. “If you please, appeal to Pharaoh, saying:

5My father made me swear: ‘I am dying. Bury me in my grave that I have prepared for myself in the land of Canaan.’ So now let me go up to bury my father. Then I will come back.”^a

6Pharaoh replied, “Go and bury your father, as he made you promise on oath.”

7So Joseph went up to bury his father; and with him went all of Pharaoh’s officials who were senior members of his household and all the other elders of the land of Egypt,

8as well as Joseph’s whole household, his brothers, and his father’s household; only their children and their flocks and herds were left in the region of Goshen.

9Chariots, too, and horsemen went up with him; it was a very imposing retinue.

10When they arrived at Goren-ha-atad,^* which is beyond the Jordan, they held there a very great and solemn memorial service; and Joseph observed seven days of mourning for his father.

11When the Canaanites who inhabited the land saw the mourning at Goren-ha-atad, they said, “This is a solemn funeral on the part of the Egyptians!” That is why the place was named Abel-mizraim. It is beyond the Jordan.

12Thus Jacob’s sons did for him as he had instructed them.

13They carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave in the field of Machpelah, facing on Mamre, the field that Abraham had bought for a burial ground from Ephron the Hittite.^b

14After Joseph had buried his father he returned to Egypt, together with his brothers and all who had gone up with him for the burial of his father.

Plea for Forgiveness.

15^* Now that their father was dead, Joseph’s brothers became fearful and thought, “Suppose Joseph has been nursing a grudge against us and now most certainly will pay us back in full for all the wrong we did him!”

16So they sent to Joseph and said: “Before your father died, he gave us these instructions:

17‘Thus you shall say to Joseph: Please forgive the criminal wrongdoing of your brothers, who treated you harmfully.’ So now please forgive the crime that we, the servants of the God of your father, committed.” When they said this to him, Joseph broke into tears.

18Then his brothers also proceeded to fling themselves down before him and said, “We are your slaves!”

19But Joseph replied to them: “Do not fear. Can I take the place of God?

20Even though you meant harm to me, God meant it for good, to achieve this present end, the survival of many people.^c

21So now, do not fear. I will provide for you and for your children.” By thus speaking kindly to them, he reassured them.^d

22Joseph remained in Egypt, together with his father’s household. He lived a hundred and ten years.

23He saw Ephraim’s children to the third generation, and the children of Manasseh’s son Machir were also born on Joseph’s knees.^e

Death of Joseph.

24Joseph said to his brothers: “I am about to die. God will surely take care of you and lead you up from this land to the land that he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”^f

25Then, putting the sons of Israel under oath, he continued, “When God thus takes care of you, you must bring my bones up from this place.”^g

26Joseph died at the age of a hundred and ten. He was embalmed and laid to rest in a coffin in Egypt.^h

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Mark 7 :24-37

The Syrophoenician Woman’s Faith.

24^h From that place he went off to the district of Tyre.^* He entered a house and wanted no one to know about it, but he could not escape notice.

25Soon a woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him. She came and fell at his feet.

26The woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth, and she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter.ⁱ

27He said to her, “Let the children be fed first.^* For it is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.”

28She replied and said to him, “Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s scraps.”

29Then he said to her, “For saying this, you may go. The demon has gone out of your daughter.”

30When the woman went home, she found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.

The Healing of a Deaf Man.

31^j Again he left the district of Tyre and went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, into the district of the Decapolis.

32And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment and begged him to lay his hand on him.

33He took him off by himself away from the crowd. He put his finger into the man’s ears and, spitting, touched his tongue;

34then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him, “Ephphatha!” (that is, “Be opened!”)

35And [immediately] the man’s ears were opened, his speech impediment was removed, and he spoke plainly.

36^* He ordered them not to tell anyone. But the more he ordered them not to, the more they proclaimed it.

37They were exceedingly astonished and they said, “He has done all things well. He makes the deaf hear and [the] mute speak.”^k

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