NLT One Year Bible - Flipbook - Page 96
J A N U A R Y
2 5
16So they sent this message to Joseph:
“Before your father died, he instructed
us 17 to say to you: ‘Please forgive your
brothers for the great wrong they did to
you—for their sin in treating you so cruelly.’ So we, the servants of the God of
your father, beg you to forgive our sin.”
When Joseph received the message,
he broke down and wept. 18Then his
brothers came and threw themselves
down before Joseph. “Look, we are your
slaves!” they said.
19 But Joseph replied, “Don’t be afraid
of me. Am I God, that I can punish you?
20You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me
to this position so I could save the lives
of many people. 21No, don’t be afraid. I
will continue to take care of you and
your children.” So he reassured them by
speaking kindly to them.
22 So Joseph and his brothers and their
families continued to live in Egypt. Joseph lived to the age of 110. 23He lived to
see three generations of descendants of
his son Ephraim, and he lived to see the
birth of the children of Manasseh’s son
Makir, whom he claimed as his own.*
24“Soon I will die,” Joseph told his
brothers, “but God will surely come to
help you and lead you out of this land of
Egypt. He will bring you back to the land
he solemnly promised to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.”
25 Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear an oath, and he said, “When
God comes to help you and lead you
back, you must take my bones with
you.” 26So Joseph died at the age of 110.
The Egyptians embalmed him, and his
body was placed in a coffin in Egypt.
1:1These are the names of the sons of Is-
rael (that is, Jacob) who moved to Egypt
with their father, each with his family:
2Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, 3Issachar,
Zebulun, Benjamin, 4Dan, Naphtali, Gad,
and Asher. 5 In all, Jacob had seventy*
descendants in Egypt, including Joseph,
who was already there.
6In time, Joseph and all of his brothers died, ending that entire generation.
92
7 But
their descendants, the Israelites,
had many children and grandchildren.
In fact, they multiplied so greatly that
they became extremely powerful and
filled the land.
8Eventually, a new king came to power
in Egypt who knew nothing about Joseph
or what he had done. 9He said to his people, “Look, the people of Israel now outnumber us and are stronger than we are.
10We must make a plan to keep them
from growing even more. If we don’t, and
if war breaks out, they will join our enemies and fight against us. Then they will
escape from the country.*”
11So the Egyptians made the Israelites their slaves. They appointed brutal
slave drivers over them, hoping to wear
them down with crushing labor. They
forced them to build the cities of
Pithom and Rameses as supply centers
for the king. 12But the more the Egyptians oppressed them, the more the
Israelites multiplied and spread, and
the more alarmed the Egyptians became.13 So the Egyptians worked the
people of Israel without mercy. 14They
made their lives bitter, forcing them to
mix mortar and make bricks and do all
the work in the fields. They were ruthless in all their demands.
15 Then Pharaoh, the king of Egypt,
gave this order to the Hebrew midwives,
Shiphrah and Puah: 16“When you help
the Hebrew women as they give birth,
watch as they deliver.* If the baby is a
boy, kill him; if it is a girl, let her live.”
17 But because the midwives feared God,
they refused to obey the king’s orders.
They allowed the boys to live, too.
18So the king of Egypt called for the
midwives. “Why have you done this?”
he demanded. “Why have you allowed
the boys to live?”
19“The Hebrew women are not like
the Egyptian women,” the midwives replied. “They are more vigorous and have
their babies so quickly that we cannot
get there in time.”
20So God was good to the midwives,
and the Israelites continued to multiply,
growing more and more powerful. 21And
