Malcom: Welcome To Immerse: The Daily Bible Reading Experience.
Day 100
as they neared their destination, Jacob sent Judah ahead to meet Joseph and
get directions to the region of Goshen, and when they finally arrived there,
Joseph prepared his chariot and traveled to Goshen to meet his father Jacob.
When Joseph arrived, he embraced his father and wept,
holding him for a long time.
Finally, Jacob said to Joseph, Now I am ready to die since I have seen your
face again and know you are still alive.
And Joseph said to his brothers and to his father's entire family, I will go
to Pharaoh and tell him, my brothers and my father's entire family have
come to me from the land of Canaan.
These men are shepherds and they raise livestock.
They have brought with them their flocks and herds and everything they own.
Then he said, when Pharaoh calls for you and asks you about your occupation,
you must tell him we, your servants have raised livestock all our lives,
as our ancestors have always done.
When you tell him this, he will let you live here in the region of Goshen
for the Egyptians despise shepherds.
Then Joseph went to see Pharaoh and told him, my father and my brothers
have arrived from the land of Canaan.
They have come with all their flocks and herds and possessions, and they
are now in the region of Goshen.
Joseph took five of his brothers with him and presented them to
Pharaoh, and Pharaoh asked the brothers, what is your occupation?
They replied, we your servants are shepherds, just like our ancestors.
We have come to live here in Egypt for a while, for there is no
pasture for our flocks in Canaan.
The famine is very severe there.
So please, we request permission to live in the region of Goshen.
Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, now that your father and brothers have joined
you here, choose any place in the entire land of Egypt for them to live.
Give them the best land of Egypt.
Let them live in the region of Goshen, and if any of them have special skills,
put them in charge of my livestock too.
Then Joseph brought in his father Jacob and presented him to Pharaoh.
And Jacob blessed Pharaoh.
How old are you?
Pharaoh asked him.
Jacob replied, I have traveled this earth for 130 hard years, but
my life has been short compared to the lives of my ancestors.
Then Jacob blessed Pharaoh again before leaving his court.
So Joseph assigned the best land of Egypt, the region of Rames to his father and
his brothers, and he settled them there.
Justice Pharaoh had commanded.
And Joseph provided food for his father and his brothers, and amounts appropriate
to the number of their dependents, including the smallest children.
Meanwhile, the famine became so severe that all the food was used up
and people were starving throughout the lands of Egypt and Canaan
by selling grain to the people.
Joseph eventually collected all the money in Egypt and Canaan, and he
put the money in Pharaoh's treasury.
When the people of Egypt and Canaan ran out of money, all the Egyptians
came to Joseph, our money is gone.
They cried, but please give us food or we will die.
Before your very eyes, Joseph replied, since your money is
gone, bring me your livestock.
I will give you food in exchange for your livestock.
So they brought their livestock to Joseph in exchange for food.
In exchange for their horses, flocks of sheep and goats,
herds of cattle and donkeys.
Joseph provided them with food for another year, but that year ended and
the next year they came again and said, we cannot hide the truth from you.
My Lord.
Our money is gone and all our livestock and cattle are yours.
We have nothing left to give, but our bodies and our land.
Why should we die before your very eyes?
By us and our land.
In exchange for food, we offer our land and ourselves as slaves.
For Pharaoh, just give us grain so we may live and not die.
And so the land does not become empty and desolate.
So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh.
All the Egyptians sold him their fields because the famine was so severe.
And soon all the land belonged to Pharaoh.
As for the people, he made them all slaves from one end of Egypt to the other.
The only land he did not buy was the land belonging to the priests.
They received an allotment of food directly from Pharaoh, so they
didn't need to sell their land.
Then Joseph said to the people, look, today I have bought you
and your land for Pharaoh.
I will provide you with seed so you can plant the fields.
Then when you harvest it, one fifth of your crop will belong to Pharaoh.
You may keep the remaining four fifths as seed for your fields and as food for
you, your household and your little ones.
You have saved our lives.
They exclaimed.
May it please you, my Lord, to let us be pharaoh's servants.
Joseph then issued a decree still in effect in the land of Egypt
that Pharaoh should receive.
One fifth of all the crops grown on his land.
Only the land belonging to the priests was not given to Pharaoh.
Meanwhile, the people of Israel settled in the region of Goshen in Egypt.
There they acquired property and they were fruitful, and
their population grew rapidly.
Jacob lived for 17 years after his arrival in Egypt, so he lived 147 years and all.
As the time of his death, drew near Jacob, called for his son Joseph, and
said to him, Please do me this favor, put your hand under my thigh and swear
that you will treat me with unveiling love by honoring this last request.
Do not bury me in Egypt when I die.
Please take my body out of Egypt and bury me with my ancestors.
So Joseph promised I will do as you ask, swear that you will do it.
Jacob insisted.
So Joseph gave his oath and Jacob bowed humbly at the head of his bed.
One day, not long after this word came to Joseph, your father is failing rapidly.
So Joseph went to visit his father and he took with him his two sons and Raam.
When Joseph arrived, Jacob was told Your son Joseph has come to see you.
So Jacob gathered his strength and sat up in his bed.
Jacob said to Joseph, God Almighty, appeared to me at Lu in the
land of Canaan and blessed me.
He said to me, I will make you fruitful and I will multiply your descendants.
I will make you a multitude of nations and I will give this land
of Canaan to your descendants after you as an everlasting possession.
Now I am claiming is my own sons, these two boys of yours, Ry Am and
Manasa, who were born here in the land of Egypt before I arrived.
They will be my sons just as Ruben and Simeon are.
But any children born to you in the future will be your own, and they will
inherit land within the territories of their brothers, Rahi and Manasa.
Long ago, as I was returning from Padden, Arum, Rachel died in the land of Canaan.
We were still on the way some distance from F Rath, that is Bethlehem.
So with great sorrow, I buried her there beside the road to F Rath.
Then Jacob looked over at the two boys.
Are these your sons?
He asked, yes.
Joseph told him, these are the sons God has given me here in
Egypt, and Jacob said, bring them closer to me so I can bless them.
Jacob was half blind because of his age and could hardly see, so Joseph
brought the boys close to him and Jacob kissed and embraced them.
Then Jacob said to Joseph, I never thought I would see your face again.
But now God has let me see your children too.
Joseph moved the boys who were at their grandfather's knees, and he
bowed with his face to the ground.
Then he positioned the boys in front of Jacob with his right hand.
He directed Raim toward Jacob's left hand, and with his left hand
he put at Jacob's right hand.
But Jacob crossed his arms as he reached out to lay his hands on the boy's heads.
He put his right hand on the head of Raim.
Though he was the younger boy and his left hand on the head of Manasa,
though he was the first born.
Then he blessed Joseph and said, may the God before whom my grandfather
Abraham and my father Isaac, walked the God who has been my shepherd
all my life to this very day.
The angel who has redeemed me from all harm, may he bless these boys.
May they preserve my name and the names of Abraham and Isaac, and
may their descendants multiply greatly throughout the earth.
But Joseph was upset when he saw that his father placed his
right hand on Ephraim's head.
So Joseph lifted it to move it from Ephraim's head to Manasses head.
No, my father, he said, this one is the firstborn.
Put your right hand on his head, but his father refused.
I know my son, I know he replied.
Manso will also become a great people, but his younger brother will become
even greater and his descendants will become a multitude of nations.
So Jacob blessed the boys that day with this blessing.
The people of Israel will use your names.
When they give a blessing, they will say, may God make you as prosperous
as Ephraim and Manasa in this way, Jacob put Ephraim ahead of Manasa.
Then Jacob said to Joseph, look, I am about to die, but God will be
with you and will take you back to Canaan, the land of your ancestors.
And beyond what I have given your brothers.
I am giving you an extra portion of the land that I took from the
Amorites with my sword and bow.
This concludes today's immerse reading experience.
Thank you for joining us.