Old Testament

Genesis 49-50

^49:1Jacob called to his sons, and said: "Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which will happen to you in the days to come.

 ^49:2Assemble yourselves, and hear, you sons of Jacob;
      Listen to Israel, your father.

 ^49:3"Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength;
      The pre-eminence of dignity, and the pre-eminence of power.

 ^49:4Boiling over as water, you shall not have the pre-eminence;
      Because you went up to your father's bed;
      Then defiled it. He went up to my couch.

 ^49:5"Simeon and Levi are brothers;
      Weapons of violence are their swords.

 ^49:6My soul, don't come into their council;
      My glory, don't be united to their assembly;

 For in their anger they killed a man,
      In their self-will they hamstrung an ox.

 ^49:7Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce;
      Their wrath, for it was cruel.

 I will divide them in Jacob,
      Scatter them in Israel.

 ^49:8"Judah, your brothers will praise you:
      Your hand will be on the neck of your enemies;
      Your father's sons will bow down before you.

 ^49:9Judah is a lion's whelp.
      From the prey, my son, you have gone up.

 He stooped down, he couched as a lion,
      As a lioness. Who will rouse him up?

 ^49:10The scepter will not depart from Judah,
      Nor the ruler's staff from between his feet,

 Until Shiloh comes.
      To him will the obedience of the peoples be.

 ^49:11Binding his foal to the vine,
      His donkey's colt to the choice vine;

 He has washed his garments in wine,
      His robes in the blood of grapes:

 ^49:12His eyes will be red with wine,
      His teeth white with milk.

 ^49:13"Zebulun will dwell at the haven of the sea.
      He will be for a haven of ships.
      His border will be on Sidon.

 ^49:14"Issachar is a strong donkey,
      Couching down between the sheepfolds.

 ^49:15He saw a resting-place, that it was good,
      The land, that it was pleasant;

 He bowed his shoulder to bear,
      And became a servant doing forced labor.

 ^49:16"Dan will judge his people,
      As one of the tribes of Israel.

 ^49:17Dan will be a serpent in the way,
      An adder in the path,

 That bites the horse's heels,
      So that his rider falls backward.

 ^49:18I have waited for your salvation, Yahweh.

 ^49:19"Gad, a troop will press on him;
      But he will press on their heel.

 ^49:20Out of Asher his bread will be fat,
      He will yield royal dainties.

 ^49:21"Naphtali is a doe set free,
      Who bears beautiful fawns.

 ^49:22"Joseph is a fruitful bough,
      A fruitful bough by a spring;
      His branches run over the wall.

 ^49:23The archers have sorely grieved him,
      Shot at him, and persecute him:

 ^49:24But his bow abode in strength,
      The arms of his hands were made strong,
      By the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob,
      (From there is the shepherd, the stone of Israel),

 ^49:25Even by the God of your father, who will help you,
      By the Almighty, who will bless you,

 With blessings of heaven above,
      Blessings of the deep that couches beneath,
      Blessings of the breasts, and of the womb.

 ^49:26The blessings of your father
      Have prevailed above the blessings of the ancient mountains,
      Than the bounty of the age-old hills.

 They will be on the head of Joseph,
      On the crown of the head of him who is separated from his brothers.

 ^49:27"Benjamin is a ravenous wolf.
      In the morning she will devour the prey.
      At evening he will divide the spoil."

^49:28All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father spoke to them and blessed them. He blessed everyone according to his blessing. ^49:29He charged them, and said to them, "I am to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, ^49:30in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a burying-place. ^49:31There they buried Abraham and Sarah, his wife. There they buried Isaac and Rebekah, his wife, and there I buried Leah: ^49:32the field and the cave that is therein, which was purchased from the children of Heth." ^49:33When Jacob made an end of charging his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the spirit, and was gathered to his people.

^50:1Joseph fell on his father's face, wept on him, and kissed him. ^50:2Joseph commanded his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father; and the physicians embalmed Israel. ^50:3Forty days were fulfilled for him, for that is how many the days it takes to embalm. The Egyptians wept for him for seventy days.

^50:4When the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph spoke to the house of Pharaoh, saying, "If now I have found favor in your eyes, please speak in the ears of Pharaoh, saying, ^50:5'My father made me swear, saying, "Behold, I am dying. Bury me in my grave which I have dug for myself in the land of Canaan." Now therefore, please let me go up and bury my father, and I will come again.'"

^50:6Pharaoh said, "Go up, and bury your father, just like he made you swear."

^50:7Joseph went up to bury his father; and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, all the elders of the land of Egypt, ^50:8all the house of Joseph, his brothers, and his father's house. Only their little ones, their flocks, and their herds, they left in the land of Goshen. ^50:9There went up with him both chariots and horsemen. It was a very great company. ^50:10They came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, and there they lamented with a very great and sore lamentation. He mourned for his father seven days. ^50:11When the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning in the floor of Atad, they said, "This is a grievous mourning by the Egyptians." Therefore, the name of it was called Abel Mizraim, which is beyond the Jordan. ^50:12His sons did to him just as he commanded them, ^50:13for his sons carried him into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which Abraham bought with the field, for a possession of a burying-place, from Ephron the Hittite, before Mamre. ^50:14Joseph returned into Egypt - he, and his brothers, and all that went up with him to bury his father, after he had buried his father.

^50:15When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, "It may be that Joseph will hate us, and will fully pay us back for all of the evil which we did to him. ^50:16They sent a message to Joseph, saying, "Your father commanded before he died, saying, ^50:17"So will you tell Joseph, 'Now please forgive the disobedience of your brothers, and their sin, because they did evil to you.' Now, please forgive the disobedience of the servants of the God of your father." Joseph wept when they spoke to him. ^50:18His brothers also went and fell down before his face; and they said, "Behold, we are your servants." ^50:19Joseph said to them, "Don't be afraid, for am I in the place of God? ^50:20As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save many people alive. ^50:21Now therefore don't be afraid. I will nourish you and your little ones." He comforted them, and spoke kindly to them.

^50:22Joseph lived in Egypt, he, and his father's house. Joseph lived one hundred ten years. ^50:23Joseph saw Ephraim's children to the third generation. The children also of Machir, the son of Manasseh, were born on Joseph's knees. ^50:24Joseph said to his brothers, "I am dying, but God will surely visit you, and bring you up out of this land to the land which he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob." ^50:25Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, "God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here." ^50:26So Joseph died, being one hundred ten years old, and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.

New Testament

Mark 3

^3:1He entered again into the synagogue, and there was a man there who had his hand withered. ^3:2They watched him, whether he would heal him on the Sabbath day, that they might accuse him. ^3:3He said to the man who had his hand withered, "Stand up." ^3:4He said to them, "Is it lawful on the Sabbath day to do good, or to do harm? To save a life, or to kill?" But they were silent. ^3:5When he had looked around at them with anger, being grieved at the hardening of their hearts, he said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out, and his hand was restored as healthy as the other. ^3:6The Pharisees went out, and immediately conspired with the Herodians against him, how they might destroy him.

^3:7Jesus withdrew to the sea with his disciples, and a great multitude followed him from Galilee, from Judea, ^3:8from Jerusalem, from Idumaea, beyond the Jordan, and those from around Tyre and Sidon. A great multitude, hearing what great things he did, came to him. ^3:9He spoke to his disciples that a little boat should stay near him because of the crowd, so that they wouldn't press on him. ^3:10For he had healed many, so that as many as had diseases pressed on him that they might touch him. ^3:11The unclean spirits, whenever they saw him, fell down before him, and cried, "You are the Son of God!" ^3:12He sternly warned them that they should not make him known.

^3:13He went up into the mountain, and called to himself those whom he wanted, and they went to him. ^3:14He appointed twelve, that they might be with him, and that he might send them out to preach, ^3:15and to have authority to heal sicknesses and to cast out demons: ^3:16Simon, to whom he gave the name Peter; ^3:17James the son of Zebedee; John, the brother of James, and he surnamed them Boanerges, which means, Sons of Thunder; ^3:18Andrew; Philip; Bartholomew; Matthew; Thomas; James, the son of Alphaeus; Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot; ^3:19and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him.

He came into a house. ^3:20The multitude came together again, so that they could not so much as eat bread. ^3:21When his friends heard it, they went out to seize him: for they said, "He is insane." ^3:22The scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, "He has Beelzebul," and, "By the prince of the demons he casts out the demons."

^3:23He summoned them, and said to them in parables, "How can Satan cast out Satan? ^3:24If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. ^3:25If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. ^3:26If Satan has risen up against himself, and is divided, he can't stand, but has an end. ^3:27But no one can enter into the house of the strong man to plunder, unless he first binds the strong man; and then he will plunder his house. ^3:28Most assuredly I tell you, all of the sons of men's sins will be forgiven them, including their blasphemies with which they may blaspheme; ^3:29but whoever may blaspheme against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin" ^3:30-- because they said, "He has an unclean spirit."

^3:31His mother and his brothers came, and standing outside, they sent to him, calling him. ^3:32A multitude was sitting around him, and they told him, "Behold, your mother, your brothers, and your sisters are outside looking for you."

^3:33He answered them, "Who are my mother and my brothers?" ^3:34Looking around at those who sat around him, he said, "Behold, my mother and my brothers! ^3:35For whoever does the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother."