Old Testament

Genesis 47-48

^47:1Then Joseph went in and told Pharaoh, and said, "My father and my brothers, with their flocks, their herds, and all that they own, have come out of the land of Canaan; and, behold, they are in the land of Goshen." ^47:2From among his brothers he took five men, and presented them to Pharaoh. ^47:3Pharaoh said to his brothers, "What is your occupation?"

They said to Pharaoh, "Your servants are shepherds, both we, and our fathers." ^47:4They said to Pharaoh, "We have come to sojourn in the land, for there is no pasture for your servants' flocks. For the famine is severe in the land of Canaan. Now therefore, please let your servants dwell in the land of Goshen."

^47:5Pharaoh spoke to Joseph, saying, "Your father and your brothers have come to you. ^47:6The land of Egypt is before you. Make your father and your brothers dwell in the best of the land. Let them dwell in the land of Goshen. If you know any able men among them, then put them in charge of my cattle."

^47:7Joseph brought in Jacob, his father, and set him before Pharaoh, and Jacob blessed Pharaoh. ^47:8Pharaoh said to Jacob, "How many are the days of the years of your life?"

^47:9Jacob said to Pharaoh, "The days of the years of my pilgrimage are one hundred thirty years. Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage." ^47:10Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from the presence of Pharaoh.

^47:11Joseph placed his father and his brothers, and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded. ^47:12Joseph nourished his father, his brothers, and all of his father's household, with bread, according to their families.

^47:13There was no bread in all the land; for the famine was very severe, so that the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan fainted by reason of the famine. ^47:14Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, for the grain which they bought: and Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh's house. ^47:15When the money was all spent in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came to Joseph, and said, "Give us bread, for why should we die in your presence? For our money fails."

^47:16Joseph said, "Give your cattle; and I will give you for your cattle, if money fails."

^47:17They brought their cattle to Joseph, and Joseph gave them bread in exchange for the horses, and for the flocks, and for the herds, and for the donkeys: and he fed them with bread in exchange for all their cattle for that year. ^47:18When that year was ended, they came to him the second year, and said to him, "We will not hide from my lord how our money is all spent, and the herds of cattle are my lord's. There is nothing left in the sight of my lord, but our bodies, and our lands. ^47:19Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants to Pharaoh. Give us seed, that we may live, and not die, and that the land won't be desolate."

^47:20So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh, for the Egyptians sold every man his field, because the famine was severe on them, and the land became Pharaoh's. ^47:21As for the people, he moved them to the cities from one end of the border of Egypt even to the other end of it. ^47:22Only he didn't buy the land of the priests, for the priests had a portion from Pharaoh, and ate their portion which Pharaoh gave them. That is why they didn't sell their land. ^47:23Then Joseph said to the people, "Behold, I have bought you and your land today for Pharaoh. Behold, here is seed for you, and you shall sow the land. ^47:24It will happen at the harvests, that you shall give a fifth to Pharaoh, and four parts will be your own, for seed of the field, for your food, for them of your households, and for food for your little ones."

^47:25They said, "You have saved our lives! Let us find favor in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh's servants."

^47:26Joseph made it a statute concerning the land of Egypt to this day, that Pharaoh should have the fifth. Only the land of the priests alone didn't become Pharaoh's.

^47:27Israel lived in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen; and they got themselves possessions therein, and were fruitful, and multiplied exceedingly. ^47:28Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years. So the days of Jacob, the years of his life, were one hundred forty-seven years. ^47:29The time drew near that Israel must die, and he called his son Joseph, and said to him, "If now I have found favor in your sight, please put your hand under my thigh, and deal kindly and truly with me. Please don't bury me in Egypt, ^47:30but when I sleep with my fathers, you shall carry me out of Egypt, and bury me in their burying place."

He said, "I will do as you have said."

^47:31He said, "Swear to me,"

and he swore to him. Israel bowed himself on the bed's head.

^48:1It happened after these things, that one said to Joseph, "Behold, your father is sick." He took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. ^48:2One told Jacob, and said, "Behold, your son Joseph comes to you," and Israel strengthened himself, and sat on the bed. ^48:3Jacob said to Joseph, "God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and blessed me, ^48:4and said to me, 'Behold, I will make you fruitful, and multiply you, and I will make of you a company of peoples, and will give this land to your seed after you for an everlasting possession.' ^48:5Now your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you into Egypt, are mine; Ephraim and Manasseh, even as Reuben and Simeon, will be mine. ^48:6Your issue, who you become the father of after them, will be yours. They will be called after the name of their brothers in their inheritance. ^48:7As for me, when I came from Paddan, Rachel died by me in the land of Canaan in the way, when there was still some distance to come to Ephrath, and I buried her there in the way to Ephrath (the same is Bethlehem)."

^48:8Israel saw Joseph's sons, and said, "Who are these?"

^48:9Joseph said to his father, "They are my sons, whom God has given me here."

He said, "Please bring them to me, and I will bless them." ^48:10Now the eyes of Israel were dim for age, so that he couldn't see. He brought them near to him; and he kissed them, and embraced them. ^48:11Israel said to Joseph, "I didn't think I would see your face, and, behold, God has let me see your seed also." ^48:12Joseph brought them out from between his knees, and he bowed himself with his face to the earth. ^48:13Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel's left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel's right hand, and brought them near to him. ^48:14Israel stretched out his right hand, and laid it on Ephraim's head, who was the younger, and his left hand on Manasseh's head, guiding his hands knowingly, for Manasseh was the firstborn. ^48:15He blessed Joseph, and said, "The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God who has fed me all my life long to this day, ^48:16the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads, and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac. Let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth."

^48:17When Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim, it displeased him. He held up his father's hand, to remove it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's head. ^48:18Joseph said to his father, "Not so, my father; for this is the firstborn; put your right hand on his head."

^48:19His father refused, and said, "I know, my son, I know. He also will become a people, and he also will be great. However, his younger brother will be greater than he, and his seed will become a multitude of nations." ^48:20He blessed them that day, saying, "In you will Israel bless, saying, 'God make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh'" He set Ephraim before Manasseh. ^48:21Israel said to Joseph, "Behold, I am dying, but God will be with you, and bring you again to the land of your fathers. ^48:22Moreover I have given to you one portion above your brothers, which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow."

New Testament

Mark 2

^2:1When he entered again into Capernaum after some days, it was heard that he was in the house. ^2:2Immediately many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even around the door; and he spoke the word to them. ^2:3Four people came, carrying a paralytic to him. ^2:4When they could not come near to him for the crowd, they removed the roof where he was. When they had broken it up, they let down the mat that the paralytic was lying on. ^2:5Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven you."

^2:6But there were some of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts, ^2:7"Why does this man speak blasphemies like that? Who can forgive sins but God alone?"

^2:8Immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, said to them, "Why do you reason these things in your hearts? ^2:9Which is easier, to tell the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven;' or to say, 'Arise, and take up your bed, and walk?' ^2:10But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins" -- he said to the paralytic -- ^2:11"I tell you, arise, take up your mat, and go to your house."

^2:12He arose, and immediately took up the mat, and went out in front of them all; so that they were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, "We never saw anything like this!"

^2:13He went out again by the seaside. All the multitude came to him, and he taught them. ^2:14As he passed by, he saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting at the tax office, and he said to him, "Follow me." And he arose and followed him.

^2:15It happened, that he was reclining at the table in his house, and many tax collectors and sinners sat down with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many, and they followed him. ^2:16The scribes and the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with the sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, "Why is it that he eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?"

^2:17When Jesus heard it, he said to them, "Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."

^2:18John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting, and they came and asked him, "Why do John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples don't fast?"

^2:19Jesus said to them, "Can the groomsmen fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they can't fast. ^2:20But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then will they fast in that day. ^2:21No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, or else the patch shrinks and the new tears away from the old, and a worse hole is made. ^2:22No one puts new wine into old wineskins, or else the new wine will burst the skins, and the wine pours out, and the skins will be destroyed; but they put new wine into fresh wineskins."

^2:23It happened that he was going on the Sabbath day through the grain fields, and his disciples began, as they went, to pluck the ears of grain. ^2:24The Pharisees said to him, "Behold, why do they do that which is not lawful on the Sabbath day?"

^2:25He said to them, "Did you never read what David did, when he had need, and was hungry -- he, and they who were with him? ^2:26How he entered into the house of God when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the show bread, which it is not lawful to eat except for the priests, and gave also to those who were with him?" ^2:27He said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. ^2:28Therefore the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath."