Joseph Provides for His Brothers and Family
1 Then Joseph could not pcontrol himself before all those who stood by him. He cried, “Make everyone go out from me.” So no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. 2 And he wept aloud, so that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it. 3 And Joseph said to his brothers, q“I am Joseph! Is my father still alive?” But his brothers could not answer him, for they were dismayed at his presence.
4 So Joseph said to his brothers, “Come near to me, please.” And they came near. And he said, “I am your brother, Joseph, rwhom you sold into Egypt. 5 And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, sfor God sent me before you to preserve life. 6 For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are tyet five years in which there will be neither uplowing nor harvest. 7 And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. 8 So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and vruler over all the land of Egypt. 9 Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, ‘Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me; do not tarry. 10 wYou shall dwell in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children and your children’s children, and your flocks, your herds, and all that you have. 11 xThere I will provide for you, for there are yet five years of famine to come, so that you and your household, and all that you have, do not come to poverty.’ 12 And now your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see, that it is ymy mouth that speaks to you. 13 You must tell my father of all my honor in Egypt, and of all that you have seen. Hurry and zbring my father down here.” 14 Then he fell upon his brother Benjamin’s neck and wept, and Benjamin wept upon his neck. 15 And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them. After that his brothers talked with him.
16 When the report was heard in Pharaoh’s house, “Joseph’s brothers have come,” it pleased Pharaoh and his servants. 17 And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Say to your brothers, ‘Do this: load your beasts and go back to the land of Canaan, 18 and take your father and your households, and come to me, and aI will give you the best of the land of Egypt, and you shall eat the fat of the land.’ 19 And you, Joseph, are commanded to say, ‘Do this: take bwagons from the land of Egypt for your little ones and for your wives, and bring your father, and come. 20 Have no concern for1 your goods, for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours.’”
21 The sons of Israel did so: and Joseph gave them bwagons, according to the command of Pharaoh, and gave them provisions for the journey. 22 To each and all of them he gave ca change of clothes, but to Benjamin he gave three hundred shekels2 of silver and dfive changes of clothes. 23 To his father he sent as follows: ten donkeys loaded with the good things of Egypt, and ten female donkeys loaded with grain, bread, and provision for his father on the journey. 24 Then he sent his brothers away, and as they departed, he said to them, e“Do not quarrel on the way.”
25 So they went up out of Egypt and came to the land of Canaan to their father Jacob. 26 And they told him, “Joseph is still alive, and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt.” And his heart became numb, for he did not believe them. 27 But when they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said to them, and when he saw fthe wagons that Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of their father Jacob revived. 28 And Israel said, “It is enough; Joseph my son is still alive. I will go and see him before I die.”
Joseph Brings His Family to Egypt
1 So Israel took his journey with all that he had and came to gBeersheba, and offered sacrifices hto the God of his father Isaac. 2 And God spoke to Israel iin visions of the night and said, “Jacob, Jacob.” And he said, “Here I am.” 3 Then he said, “I am God, jthe God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will kmake you into a great nation. 4 I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also lbring you up again, and mJoseph’s hand shall close your eyes.”
5 Then Jacob set out from Beersheba. The sons of Israel carried Jacob their father, their little ones, and their wives, in the wagons nthat Pharaoh had sent to carry him. 6 They also took their livestock and their goods, which they had gained in the land of Canaan, and ocame into Egypt, Jacob and all his offspring with him, 7 his sons, and his sons’ sons with him, his daughters, and his sons’ daughters. All his offspring he brought with him into Egypt.
8 pNow qthese are the names of the descendants of Israel, who came into Egypt, Jacob and his sons. rReuben, Jacob’s firstborn, 9 and the sons of Reuben: Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi. 10 The sons of Simeon: Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul, the son of a Canaanite woman. 11 The sons of sLevi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. 12 The sons of tJudah: Er, Onan, Shelah, Perez, and Zerah (but uEr and Onan died in the land of Canaan); and the sons of vPerez were Hezron and Hamul. 13 wThe sons of Issachar: Tola, Puvah, Yob, and Shimron. 14 The sons of Zebulun: Sered, Elon, and Jahleel. 15 These are the sons of Leah, xwhom she bore to Jacob in Paddan-aram, together with his daughter Dinah; altogether his sons and his daughters numbered thirty-three.
16 The sons of Gad: Ziphion, Haggi, Shuni, Ezbon, Eri, Arodi, and Areli. 17 yThe sons of Asher: Imnah, Ishvah, Ishvi, Beriah, with Serah their sister. And the sons of Beriah: Heber and Malchiel. 18 zThese are the sons of Zilpah, awhom Laban gave to Leah his daughter; and these she bore to Jacob—sixteen persons.
19 The sons of Rachel, Jacob’s wife: Joseph and Benjamin. 20 And bto Joseph in the land of Egypt were born Manasseh and Ephraim, whom Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera the priest of cOn, bore to him. 21 And dthe sons of Benjamin: Bela, Becher, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ehi, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim, and Ard. 22 These are the sons of Rachel, who were born to Jacob—fourteen persons in all.
23 The son3 of Dan: Hushim. 24 eThe sons of Naphtali: Jahzeel, Guni, Jezer, and Shillem. 25 fThese are the sons of Bilhah, gwhom Laban gave to Rachel his daughter, and these she bore to Jacob—seven persons in all.
26 All the persons belonging to Jacob who came into Egypt, who were his own descendants, not including Jacob’s sons’ wives, were sixty-six persons in all. 27 And the sons of Joseph, who were born to him in Egypt, were two. hAll the persons of the house of Jacob who came into Egypt were seventy.
Jacob and Joseph Reunited
28 He had sent Judah ahead of him to Joseph to show the way before him in Goshen, and they came iinto the land of Goshen. 29 Then Joseph prepared his chariot and went up to meet Israel his father in Goshen. He presented himself to him and jfell on his neck and wept on his neck a good while. 30 Israel said to Joseph, k“Now let me die, since I have seen your face and know that you are still alive.” 31 Joseph said to his brothers and to his father’s household, l“I will go up and tell Pharaoh and will say to him, ‘My brothers and my father’s household, who were in the land of Canaan, have come to me. 32 mAnd the men are shepherds, for they have been keepers of livestock, and they have brought their flocks and their herds and all that they have.’ 33 When Pharaoh calls you and says, m‘What is your occupation?’ 34 you shall say, m‘Your servants have been keepers of livestock nfrom our youth even until now, both we and our fathers,’ in order that you may dwell oin the land of Goshen, for every shepherd is pan abomination to the Egyptians.”
Laborers in the Vineyard
1 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. 2 After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius1 a day, he sent them into his vineyard. 3 And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, 4 and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ 5 So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. 6 And gabout the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ 7 They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’ 8 And hwhen evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his iforeman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’ 9 And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. 10 Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. 11 And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, 12 saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and jthe scorching heat.’ 13 But he replied to one of them, k‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? 14 Take lwhat belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. 15 mAm I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or ndo you begrudge my generosity?’2 16 So othe last will be first, and the first last.”
Jesus Foretells His Death a Third Time
17 pAnd as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside, and on the way he said to them, 18 “See, qwe are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will rcondemn him to death 19 and sdeliver him over to the Gentiles tto be mocked and flogged and ucrucified, and he will be raised on vthe third day.”
A Mother’s Request
20 wThen xthe mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to him with her sons, and ykneeling before him she asked him for something. 21 And he said to her, “What do you want?” She said to him, “Say that these two sons of mine zare to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, ain your kingdom.” 22 Jesus answered, b“You do not know what you are asking. Are you able cto drink the cup that I am to drink?” They said to him, “We are able.” 23 He said to them, d“You will drink emy cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to grant, fbut it is for those for whom it has been gprepared by my Father.” 24 And when the ten heard it, they were indignant at the two brothers. 25 But Jesus called them to him and said, h“You know that the rulers of the Gentiles ilord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 26 jIt shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant,3 27 and whoever would be first among you must be your slave,4 28 even as the Son of Man came not to be served but kto serve, and lto give his life as a ransom for mmany.”
Jesus Heals Two Blind Men
29 nAnd as they went out of Jericho, a great crowd followed him. 30 And behold, there were two blind men sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was passing by, they cried out, “Lord,5 have mercy on us, oSon of David!” 31 The crowd prebuked them, telling them to be silent, but they cried out all the more, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!” 32 And stopping, Jesus called them and said, “What do you want me to do for you?” 33 They said to him, “Lord, let our eyes be opened.” 34 And Jesus in pity touched their eyes, and immediately they recovered their sight and followed him.
