One Year Bible.

Jacob Blesses His Sons

¹Then Jacob called for his sons and said, “Gather around so that I can tell you what will happen to you in the days to come:

²Come together and listen, O sons of Jacob;

listen to your father Israel.

³Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might,

and the beginning of my strength,

excelling in honor,

excelling in power.

⁴Uncontrolled as the waters,

you will no longer excel,

because you went up to your father’s bed,

onto my couch, and defiled it.

⁵Simeon and Levi are brothers;

their swords are weapons of violence.

⁶May I never enter their council;

may I never join their assembly.

For they kill men in their anger,

and hamstring oxen on a whim.

⁷Cursed be their anger, for it is strong,

and their wrath, for it is cruel!

I will disperse them in Jacob

and scatter them in Israel.

⁸Judah, your brothers shall praise you.

Your hand shall be on the necks of your enemies;

your father’s sons shall bow down to you.

⁹Judah is a young lion—

my son, you return from the prey.

Like a lion he crouches and lies down;

like a lioness, who dares to rouse him?

¹⁰The scepter will not depart from Judah,

nor the staff from between his feet,

until Shiloh comes

and the allegiance of the nations is his.

¹¹He ties his donkey to the vine,

his colt to the choicest branch.

He washes his garments in wine,

his robes in the blood of grapes.

¹²His eyes are darker than wine,

and his teeth are whiter than milk.

¹³Zebulun shall dwell by the seashore

and become a harbor for ships;

his border shall extend to Sidon.

¹⁴Issachar is a strong donkey,

lying down between the sheepfolds.

¹⁵He saw that his resting place was good

and that his land was pleasant,

so he bent his shoulder to the burden

and submitted to labor as a servant.

¹⁶Dan shall provide justice for his people

as one of the tribes of Israel.

¹⁷He will be a snake by the road,

a viper in the path

that bites the horse’s heels

so that its rider tumbles backward.

¹⁸I await Your salvation, O LORD.

¹⁹Gad will be attacked by raiders,

but he will attack their heels.

²⁰Asher’s food will be rich;

he shall provide royal delicacies.

²¹Naphtali is a doe set free

that bears beautiful fawns.

²²Joseph is a fruitful vine—

a fruitful vine by a spring,

whose branches scale the wall.

²³The archers attacked him with bitterness;

they aimed at him in hostility.

²⁴Yet he steadied his bow,

and his strong arms were tempered

by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob,

in the name of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel,

²⁵by the God of your father who helps you,

and by the Almighty who blesses you,

with blessings of the heavens above,

with blessings of the depths below,

with blessings of the breasts and womb.

²⁶The blessings of your father have surpassed

the blessings of the ancient mountains

and the bounty of the everlasting hills.

May they rest on the head of Joseph,

on the brow of the prince of his brothers.

²⁷Benjamin is a ravenous wolf;

in the morning he devours the prey,

in the evening he divides the plunder.”

²⁸These are the tribes of Israel, twelve in all, and this was what their father said to them. He blessed them, and he blessed each one with a suitable blessing.

The Death of Jacob

²⁹Then Jacob instructed them, “I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite. ³⁰The cave is in the field of Machpelah near Mamre, in the land of Canaan. This is the field Abraham purchased from Ephron the Hittite as a burial site. ³¹There Abraham and his wife Sarah are buried, there Isaac and his wife Rebekah are buried, and there I buried Leah. ³²The field and the cave that is in it were purchased from the Hittites.”

³³When Jacob had finished instructing his sons, he pulled his feet into the bed and breathed his last, and he was gathered to his people.

Mourning and Burial for Jacob

¹Then Joseph fell upon his father’s face, wept over him, and kissed him.

²And Joseph directed the physicians in his service to embalm his father Israel. So they embalmed him, ³taking the forty days required to complete the embalming. And the Egyptians mourned for him seventy days.

⁴When the days of mourning had passed, Joseph said to Pharaoh’s court, “If I have found favor in your eyes, please tell Pharaoh that ⁵my father made me swear an oath when he said, ‘I am about to die. You must bury me in the tomb that I dug for myself in the land of Canaan.’ Now let me go and bury my father, and then return.”

⁶Pharaoh replied, “Go up and bury your father, as he made you swear to do.”

⁷Then Joseph went to bury his father, and all the servants of Pharaoh accompanied him — the elders of Pharaoh’s household and all the elders of the land of Egypt — ⁸along with all of Joseph’s household, and his brothers, and his father’s household. Only their children and flocks and herds were left in Goshen.

⁹Chariots and horsemen alike went up with him, and it was an exceedingly large procession. ¹⁰When they reached the threshing floor of Atad, which is across the Jordan, they lamented and wailed loudly, and Joseph mourned for his father seven days.

¹¹When the Canaanites of the land saw the mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, they said, “This is a solemn ceremony of mourning by the Egyptians.” Thus the place across the Jordan is called Abel-mizraim.

¹²So Jacob’s sons did as he had charged them. ¹³They carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave at Machpelah in the field near Mamre, which Abraham had purchased from Ephron the Hittite as a burial site.

¹⁴After Joseph had buried his father, he returned to Egypt with his brothers and all who had gone with him to bury his father.

Joseph Comforts His Brothers

¹⁵When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “What if Joseph bears a grudge? Then he will surely repay us for all the evil that we did to him.”

¹⁶So they sent word to Joseph, saying, “Before he died, your father commanded, ¹⁷‘This is what you are to say to Joseph: I beg you, please forgive the transgression and sin of your brothers, for they did you wrong.’ So now, Joseph, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.”

When their message came to him, Joseph wept. ¹⁸His brothers also came to him, bowed down before him, and said, “We are your slaves!”

¹⁹But Joseph replied, “Do not be afraid. Am I in the place of God? ²⁰As for you, what you intended against me for evil, God intended for good, in order to accomplish a day like this— to preserve the lives of many people. ²¹Therefore do not be afraid. I will provide for you and your little ones.” So Joseph reassured his brothers and spoke kindly to them.

The Death of Joseph

²²Now Joseph and his father’s household remained in Egypt, and Joseph lived to the age of 110. ²³He saw Ephraim’s sons to the third generation, and indeed the sons of Machir son of Manasseh were brought up on Joseph’s knees.

²⁴Then Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die, but God will surely visit you and bring you up from this land to the land He promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” ²⁵And Joseph made the sons of Israel take an oath and said, “God will surely attend to you, and then you must carry my bones up from this place.”

²⁶So Joseph died at the age of 110. And they embalmed his body and placed it in a coffin in Egypt.

Hezekiah’s Illness and Recovery

¹In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came to him and said, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Put your house in order, for you are about to die; you will not recover.’”

²Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, ³saying, “Please, O LORD, remember how I have walked before You faithfully and with wholehearted devotion; I have done what is good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

⁴And the word of the LORD came to Isaiah, saying, ⁵“Go and tell Hezekiah that this is what the LORD, the God of your father David, says: ‘I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life. ⁶And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city. ⁷This will be a sign to you from the LORD that He will do what He has promised: ⁸I will make the sun’s shadow that falls on the stairway of Ahaz go back ten steps.’”

So the sunlight went back the ten steps it had descended.

Hezekiah’s Song of Thanksgiving

⁹This is a writing by Hezekiah king of Judah after his illness and recovery:

¹⁰I said, “In the prime of my life

I must go through the gates of Sheol

and be deprived of the remainder of my years.”

¹¹I said, “I will never again see the LORD,

even the LORD, in the land of the living;

I will no longer look on mankind

with those who dwell in this world.

¹²My dwelling has been picked up and removed from me

like a shepherd’s tent.

I have rolled up my life like a weaver;

He cuts me off from the loom;

from day until night You make an end of me.

¹³I composed myself until the morning.

Like a lion He breaks all my bones;

from day until night You make an end of me.

¹⁴I chirp like a swallow or crane;

I moan like a dove.

My eyes grow weak as I look upward.

O Lord, I am oppressed; be my security.”

¹⁵What can I say?

He has spoken to me, and He Himself has done this.

I will walk slowly all my years

because of the anguish of my soul.

¹⁶O Lord, by such things men live,

and in all of them my spirit finds life.

You have restored me to health

and have let me live.

¹⁷Surely for my own welfare

I had such great anguish;

but Your love has delivered me from the pit of oblivion,

for You have cast all my sins behind Your back.

¹⁸For Sheol cannot thank You;

Death cannot praise You.

Those who descend to the Pit

cannot hope for Your faithfulness.

¹⁹The living, only the living, can thank You,

as I do today;

fathers will tell their children

about Your faithfulness.

²⁰The LORD will save me;

we will play songs on stringed instruments

all the days of our lives

in the house of the LORD.

²¹Now Isaiah had said, “Prepare a lump of pressed figs and apply it to the boil, and he will recover.”

²²And Hezekiah had asked, “What will be the sign that I will go up to the house of the LORD?”

Hezekiah Shows His Treasures

¹At that time Merodach-baladan son of Baladan king of Babylon sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah, for he had heard about Hezekiah’s illness and recovery. ²And Hezekiah welcomed the envoys gladly and showed them what was in his treasure house — the silver, the gold, the spices, and the precious oil, as well as his entire armory — all that was found in his storehouses. There was nothing in his palace or in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them.

³Then the prophet Isaiah went to King Hezekiah and asked, “Where did those men come from, and what did they say to you?”

“They came to me from a distant land,” Hezekiah replied, “from Babylon.”

⁴“What have they seen in your palace?” Isaiah asked.

“They have seen everything in my palace,” answered Hezekiah. “There is nothing among my treasures that I did not show them.”

⁵Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the LORD of Hosts: ⁶The time will surely come when everything in your palace and all that your fathers have stored up until this day will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the LORD. ⁷And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood, will be taken away to be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”

⁸But Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the LORD that you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “At least there will be peace and security in my lifetime.”