One Year Pray for America Bible - Flipbook - Page 106
January 25
16 So
they sent this message to Jo
seph: “Before your father died, he
instructed us 17 to say to you: ‘Please
forgive your brothers for the great
wrong they did to y
ou—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. 18 Then 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?
20 You intended to harm me, but God
intended it all for good. He brought me
to this position so I could save the lives
on’t be afraid.
of many people. 21 No, d
I will continue to take care of you and
your children.” So he reassured them
by speaking kindly to them.
22 So Jo
seph and his brothers and
their families continued to live in
Egypt. Joseph lived to the age of 110.
23 He 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 Jo
seph made the sons of
Israel swear an oath, and he said,
“When God c omes to help you and lead
you back, you must take my bones with
you.” 26 So Joseph died at the age of 110.
The Egyptians embalmed him, and his
body was placed in a coffin in Egypt.
1:1 These are the names of the sons of
Israel (that is, Jacob) who moved to
Egypt with their father, each with his
family: 2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Ju
dah, 3 Issachar, Zebulun, Benjamin,
4 Dan, Naph
tali, Gad, and Asher. 5 In
all, Jacob had seventy* descendants
in Egypt, including Joseph, who was
already there.
6 In time, Joseph and all of his broth-
96
ers died, ending that entire generation.
their descendants, the Israelites,
had many children and grandchildren.
In fact, they multiplied so greatly that
they became extremely powerful and
filled the land.
8 Eventually, a new king came to
power in Egypt who knew nothing
about Joseph or what he had done.
9 He said to his people, “Look, the
people of Israel now outnumber us
and are stronger than we are. 10 We
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.*”
11 So the Egyptians made the Israel
ites 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. 12 But 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.
14 They 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.
18 So 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.”
20 So God was good to the midwives,
7 But
