One Year Pray for America Bible - Flipbook - Page 98
January 23
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.”
7 Then Joseph brought in his father,
Jacob, and presented him to Pharaoh.
And Jacob blessed Pharaoh.
8 “How old are you?” Pharaoh asked
him.
9 Jacob replied, “I have traveled
this earth for 130 hard years. But my
life has been short compared to the
lives of my ancestors.” 10 Then Jacob
blessed Pharaoh again before leaving
his court.
11 So Joseph assigned the best land
of Egypt—the region of Rameses—
to his father and his brothers, and
he settled them there, just as Pha
raoh had commanded. 12 And Joseph
provided food for his father and his
brothers in amounts appropriate to
the number of their dependents, including the smallest children.
13 Meanwhile, the famine became so
severe that all the food was used up,
and people were starving throughout
the lands of Egypt and Canaan. 14 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. 15 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!”
16 Jo
s eph replied, “Since your
money is gone, bring me your livestock. I will give you food in exchange
for your livestock.” 17 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.
18 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. 19 Why should we die before
your very eyes? Buy us and our land in
88
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.”
20 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. 21 As for
the people, he made them all slaves,*
from one end of Egypt to the other.
22 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.
23 Then Jo
seph 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. 24 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 households, and
your little ones.”
25 “You have saved our lives!” they
exclaimed. “May it please you, my
lord, to let us be Pharaoh’s servants.”
26 Joseph then issued a decree still in
effect in the land of Egypt, that Pha
raoh should receive one-fifth of all the
crops grown on his land. Only the land
belonging to the priests was not given
to Pharaoh.
27 Meanwhile, the people of Is
rael
settled in the region of Goshen in
Egypt. There they acquired property,
and they were fruitful, and their population grew rapidly. 28 Jacob lived for
seventeen years after his arrival in
Egypt, so he lived 147 years in all.
29 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
unfailing love by honoring this last
request: Do not bury me in Egypt.
30 When I die, please take my body
out of Egypt and bury me with my
ancestors.”
