One Year Bible.

Jacob Settles in Goshen

¹So Joseph went and told Pharaoh: “My father and my brothers, with their flocks and herds and all they own, have come from the land of Canaan and are now in Goshen.”

²And he chose five of his brothers and presented them before Pharaoh.

³“What is your occupation?” Pharaoh asked Joseph’s brothers.

“Your servants are shepherds,” they replied, “both we and our fathers.”

⁴Then they said to Pharaoh, “We have come to live in the land for a time, because there is no pasture for the flocks of your servants, since the famine in the land of Canaan has been severe. So now, please allow your servants to settle in the land of Goshen.”

⁵Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Now that your father and brothers have come to you, ⁶the land of Egypt is before you; settle your father and brothers in the best part of the land. They may dwell in the land of Goshen. And if you know of any talented men among them, put them in charge of my own livestock.”

⁷Then Joseph brought in his father Jacob and presented him before Pharaoh, and Jacob blessed Pharaoh.

⁸“How many years have you lived?” Pharaoh asked.

⁹“My travels have lasted 130 years,” Jacob replied. “My years have been few and hard, and they have not matched the years of the travels of my fathers.”

¹⁰Then Jacob blessed Pharaoh and departed from his presence.

¹¹So Joseph settled his father and brothers in the land of Egypt and gave them property in the best part of the land, the district of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded. ¹²Joseph also provided his father and brothers and all his father’s household with food for their families.

The Famine Continues

¹³There was no food, however, in all that region, because the famine was so severe; the lands of Egypt and Canaan had been exhausted by the famine. ¹⁴Joseph collected all the money to be found in the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan in exchange for the grain they were buying, and he brought it into Pharaoh’s palace. ¹⁵When the money from the lands of Egypt and Canaan was gone, all the Egyptians came to Joseph and said, “Give us food. Why should we die before your eyes? For our funds have run out!”

¹⁶“Then bring me your livestock,” said Joseph. “Since the money is gone, I will sell you food in exchange for your livestock.” ¹⁷So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and he gave them food in exchange for their horses, their flocks and herds, and their donkeys. Throughout that year he provided them with food in exchange for all their livestock.

¹⁸When that year was over, they came to him the second year and said, “We cannot hide from our lord that our money is gone and all our livestock belongs to you. There is nothing left for our lord except our bodies and our land. ¹⁹Why should we perish before your eyes— we and our land as well? Purchase us and our land in exchange for food. Then we, along with our land, will be slaves to Pharaoh. Give us seed that we may live and not die, and that the land may not become desolate.”

²⁰So Joseph acquired for Pharaoh all the land in Egypt; the Egyptians, one and all, sold their fields because the famine was so severe upon them. The land became Pharaoh’s, ²¹and Joseph reduced the people to servitude from one end of Egypt to the other. ²²However, he did not acquire the priests’ portion of the land, for it had been given to them by Pharaoh. They ate the rations that Pharaoh supplied; so they did not sell their land.

²³Then Joseph said to the people, “Now that I have acquired you and your land for Pharaoh this day, here is seed for you to sow in the land. ²⁴At harvest time, you are to give a fifth of it to Pharaoh, and four-fifths will be yours as seed for the field and food for yourselves and your households and children.”

²⁵“You have saved our lives,” they said. “We have found favor in our lord’s eyes, and we will be Pharaoh’s servants.” ²⁶So Joseph established a law that a fifth of the produce belongs to Pharaoh, and it is in effect in the land of Egypt to this day. Only the priests’ land does not belong to Pharaoh.

The Israelites Prosper in Goshen

²⁷Now the Israelites settled in the land of Egypt, in the region of Goshen. They acquired property there and became fruitful and increased greatly in number. ²⁸And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years, and the length of his life was 147 years.

²⁹When the time drew near for Israel to die, he called his son Joseph and said to him, “If I have found favor in your eyes, put your hand under my thigh and promise to show me kindness and faithfulness. Do not bury me in Egypt, ³⁰but when I lie down with my fathers, carry me out of Egypt and bury me with them.”

Joseph answered, “I will do as you have requested.”

³¹“Swear to me,” Jacob said.

So Joseph swore to him, and Israel bowed in worship at the head of his bed.

Jacob Blesses Ephraim and Manasseh

¹Some time later Joseph was told, “Your father is ill.” So he set out with 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.

³Jacob said to Joseph, “God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and there He blessed me ⁴and told me, ‘Behold, I will make you fruitful and multiply you; I will make you a multitude of peoples, and will give this land to your descendants after you as an everlasting possession.’

⁵And now your two sons born to you in Egypt before I came to you here shall be reckoned as mine; Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine, just as Reuben and Simeon are mine. ⁶Any children born to you after them shall be yours, and they shall be called by the names of their brothers in the territory they inherit.

⁷Now as for me, when I was returning from Paddan, to my sorrow Rachel died along the way in the land of Canaan, some distance from Ephrath. So I buried her there beside the road to Ephrath” (that is, Bethlehem).

⁸When Israel saw the sons of Joseph, he asked, “Who are these?”

⁹Joseph said to his father, “They are the sons God has given me in this place.”

So Jacob said, “Please bring them to me, that I may bless them.”

¹⁰Now Israel’s eyesight was poor because of old age; he could hardly see. Joseph brought his sons to him, and his father kissed them and embraced them.

¹¹“I never expected to see your face again,” Israel said to Joseph, “but now God has let me see your children as well.”

¹²Then Joseph removed his sons from his father’s knees and bowed facedown.

¹³And Joseph took both of them— with Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel’s left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel’s right hand— and brought them close to him. ¹⁴But Israel stretched out his right hand and put it on the head of Ephraim, the younger; and crossing his hands, he put his left on Manasseh’s head, although Manasseh was the firstborn. ¹⁵Then he blessed Joseph and said:

“May the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked,

the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day,

¹⁶the angel who has redeemed me from all harm—

may He bless these boys.

And may they be called by my name

and the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac,

and may they grow into a multitude upon the earth.”

¹⁷When Joseph saw that his father had placed his right hand on Ephraim’s head, he was displeased and took his father’s hand to move it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s. ¹⁸“Not so, my father!” Joseph said. “This one is the firstborn; put your right hand on his head.”

¹⁹But his father refused. “I know, my son, I know!” he said. “He too shall become a people, and he too shall be great; nevertheless, his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his offspring shall become a multitude of nations.”

²⁰So that day Jacob blessed them and said:

“By you shall Israel pronounce this blessing:

‘May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.’”

So he put Ephraim before Manasseh.

²¹Then Israel said to Joseph, “Look, I am about to die, but God will be with you and bring you back to the land of your fathers. ²²And to you, as one who is above your brothers, I give the ridge of land that I took from the Amorites with my sword and bow.”

God’s Righteous Judgment

¹For the choirmaster: To the tune of “Do Not Destroy.” A Psalm of Asaph. A song.

We give thanks to You, O God;

we give thanks, for Your Name is near.

The people declare Your wondrous works.

²“When I choose a time,

I will judge fairly.

³When the earth and all its dwellers quake,

it is I who bear up its pillars.

Selah

⁴I say to the proud, ‘Do not boast,’

and to the wicked, ‘Do not lift up your horn.

⁵Do not lift up your horn against heaven

or speak with an outstretched neck.’”

⁶For exaltation comes neither from east nor west,

nor out of the desert,

⁷but it is God who judges;

He brings down one and exalts another.

⁸For a cup is in the hand of the LORD,

full of foaming wine mixed with spices.

He pours from His cup,

and all the wicked of the earth

drink it down to the dregs.

⁹But I will proclaim Him forever;

I will sing praise to the God of Jacob.

¹⁰“All the horns of the wicked I will cut off,

but the horns of the righteous will be exalted.”

The Living Stone and Chosen People

¹Rid yourselves, therefore, of all malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander. ²Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, ³now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.

⁴As you come to Him, the living stone, rejected by men but chosen and precious in God’s sight, ⁵you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. ⁶For it stands in Scripture:

“See, I lay in Zion a stone,

a chosen and precious cornerstone;

and the one who believes in Him

will never be put to shame.”

⁷To you who believe, then, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe,

“The stone the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone,”

⁸and,

“A stone of stumbling

and a rock of offense.”

They stumble because they disobey the word— and to this they were appointed.

⁹But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. ¹⁰Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

¹¹Beloved, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from the desires of the flesh, which war against your soul. ¹²Conduct yourselves with such honor among the Gentiles that, though they slander you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us.

Submission to Authorities

¹³Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to the king as the supreme authority, ¹⁴or to governors as those sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to praise those who do right. ¹⁵For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorance of foolish men.

¹⁶Live in freedom, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God. ¹⁷Treat everyone with high regard: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king.

¹⁸Servants, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but even to those who are unreasonable. ¹⁹For if anyone endures the pain of unjust suffering because he is conscious of God, this is to be commended. ²⁰How is it to your credit if you are beaten for doing wrong and you endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God.

Christ’s Example of Suffering

²¹For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in His footsteps:

²²“He committed no sin,

and no deceit was found in His mouth.”

²³When they heaped abuse on Him,

He did not retaliate;

when He suffered, He made no threats,

but entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly.

²⁴He Himself bore our sins

in His body on the tree,

so that we might die to sin

and live to righteousness.

“By His stripes you are healed.”

²⁵For “you were like sheep going astray,” but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.