Genesis chapter 47. Jacob's family settles in Goshen. Sir Joseph went in and told Pharaoh, My father and my brothers, with their flocks and herds, and all that they possess, have come from the land of Canaan. They are now in the land of Goshen. And from among his brothers, he took five men and presented them to Pharaoh. Pharaoh said to his brothers, What is your occupation? And they said to Pharaoh, Your servants are shepherds, as our fathers were. They 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. And now please let your servants dwell in the land of Goshen. Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, Your father and your brothers have come to you. The land of Egypt is before you. Settle your father and your brothers in the best of the land. Let them settle in the land of Goshen. And if you know any able men among them, put them in charge of my livestock. Then Joseph brought in Jacob, his father, and stood him before Pharaoh, and Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and Pharaoh said to Jacob, How many are the days of the years of your life? And Jacob said to Pharaoh, The days of the years of my Sojourning are 130 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 and the days of their Sojourning. And Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from the presence of Pharaoh. Then Joseph settled his fathers and his brothers and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, and the best of the land, and the land of Ramesses, as Pharaoh had commanded. And Joseph provided his father, his brothers, and all his fathers household with food, according to the number of their dependents. Joseph and the famine. Now there was no food in all the land, for the famine was very severe, so that the land of Egypt and the land of Canon languished by reason of the famine. And Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canon, and exchanged for the grain that they bought. And Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh's house. And when the money was all spent in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canon, all the Egyptians came to Joseph and said, Give us food. Why should we die before your eyes? For our money is gone. And Joseph answered, Give your livestock, and I will give you food in exchange for your livestock if your money is gone. So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and Joseph gave them food in exchange for the horses, the flocks, the herds and the donkeys. He supplied them with food in exchange for all their livestock that year. And when that year was ended, they came to him the following year and said to him, We will not hide from my Lord that our money is all spent. The herds of livestock are my lords. There is nothing left in the sight of my Lord, but our bodies in our land. Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our land, by us and our land for food, and we with our land will be servants to Pharaoh? And give us seed that we may live and not die, and that the land may not be desolate. So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh, for all the Egyptians sold their fields because the famine was severe on them. The land became Pharaoh's. As for the people, he made servants of them from one end of Egypt to the other. Only the land of the priests he did not buy for the priests had a fixed allowance from Pharaoh and lived on the allowance that Pharaoh gave them. Therefore they did not sell their land. Then Joseph said to the people, Behold, I have this day bought you in your land for Pharaoh. Now here is seed for you, and you shall sow the land. And at the harvest you shall give a fifth to Pharaoh, and for this shall be your own, as seed for the field and as food for yourselves in your household and as food for your little ones. And they said, you have saved our lives. May it please my Lord, we will be servants to Pharaoh. So Joseph made it a statue concerning the land of Egypt, and it stands to the day that Pharaoh should have the fifth, the land of the priests alone did not become Pharaoh's. Thus Israel settled in the land of Egypt in the land of Goshen, and they gained possessions in it, and were fruitful and multiplied greatly. And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt 17 years, so the days of Jacob, the years of his life, were 147 years. And when the time drew near that Israel must die, he called his son Joseph and said to him, if now I have found favor in your sight, put your hand under my thigh and promised to deal kindly and truly with me. Do not bury me in Egypt, but let me die with my fathers, carry me out of Egypt, and bury me in their burying place. He answered, I will do as you have said, and he said, swear to me, and he swore to him, then Israel bowed himself upon the head of his bed. Genesis chapter 48, Jacob blesses Ephraim and Manasseh. After this Joseph was told, behold your father is ill, so he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. And it was told to Jacob, your son Joseph has come to you, then Israel summoned his strength and sat up in bed. And Jacob said to Joseph, God Almighty appeared to me at Les, in the land of Canaan and Blesmy, and said to me, behold, I will make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will make of you a company of peoples, and we'll give this land to your offspring after you for an everlasting possession. And now your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, are mine. Ephraim and Manasseh, shall be mine, as Rubin and Simeonar, and the children that you fathered after them shall be yours. They shall be called by the name of their brothers and their inheritance. As for me, when I came from Patten, to my sorrow Rachel died in the land of Canaan on the way, when there was still some distance to go to Ephraath. And I buried her there on the way to Ephraath, without his Bethlehem. When Israel saw Joseph's sons, he said, who are these? Joseph said to his father, they are my sons, whom God has given me here, and he said, bring them to me, please, that I may bless them. Now the eyes of Israel were dim with age so that he could not see. So Joseph brought them near him, and he kissed them and embraced them. And Israel said to Joseph, I never expected to see your face and behold, God has let me see your offspring also. Then Joseph removed them from his knees, and he bowed himself with his face to the earth, and Joseph took them both. Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel's left hand, a manasseh in his left hand, towards Israel's right hand, and brought them near him. And Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on the head of Ephraim, who was the younger and his left hand on the head of manasseh crossing his hands for manasseh was the first born, and he blessed Joseph and said, the God before whom my father's Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd, all my life long, to this day. The angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the boys, and in them let my name be carried on, and the name of my father's Abraham and Isaac, and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth. When Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim, it displeased him, and he took his father's hand and moved it from Ephraim's head to manasseh's head, and Joseph said to his father, not this way, my father since this one is the first born, put your right hand on his head, but his father refused and said, I know my son, I know. He also shall become a people, and he also shall be great. Nevertheless, his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his offspring shall become a multitude of nations. So he blessed them that day, saying, by you Israel pronounced blessings, saying, God make you as Ephraim and his manasseh, thus he put Ephraim before manasseh, then Israel said to Joseph, behold, I am about to die, but God will be with you, and will bring you again to the land of your fathers. Moreover, I have given to you rather than to your brothers, one mountain slope that I took from the hand of the emirites with my sword and with my bow. Matthew chapter 17, the Transfiguration. And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John his brother and led them up a high mountain by themselves, and he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light, and behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah talking with him. And Peter said to Jesus, Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish I will make three tents here, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah, he was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, this is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased, listen to him. When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified, but Jesus came and touched them, saying rise and have no fear, and when they lifted their eyes, they saw no one, but Jesus only. And as they were coming down the mountain, Jesus commanded them, tell no one the vision, until the Son of Man is raised from the dead, and the disciples asked him, then why did the scribes say that first Elijah must come? He answered, Elijah does come, and he will restore all things, but I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they pleased, so also the Son of Man will certainly suffer at their hands, then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them, of John the Baptist. Jesus heals a boy with a demon, and when they came to the crowd, a man came up to him and kneeling before him said, Lord, have mercy on my son, for he has seizures and he suffers terribly, for often he falls into the fire and often into the water, and I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him, and Jesus answered, oh, faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me, and Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the boy was healed instantly. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, why could we not cast it out? And he said to them, because of your little faith, for truly I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, move from here to there, and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you. Jesus again foretells death and resurrection. As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, the son of man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day, and they were greatly distressed. The temple tax. When they came from Capernaum, the collectors of two drachmet tax went up to Peter and said, does your teacher not pay the tax? He said yes. And when he came into the house, Jesus spoke to him first, saying, what do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tax? From their sons or from others? And when he said, from others, Jesus said to him, then the sons are free. However, not to give offense to them, go to the sea and cast a hook, and take the first fish that comes up. And when you open its mouth, you will find a shuckle. Take that and give it to them for me and for yourself. Psalm chapter 18 verses one through six, the Lord is my rock and my fortress. I love you, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, and whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised and I am saved from my enemies. The cords of death encompassed me. The torrents of destruction assailed me. The cords of shield entangled me. The snares of death confronted me. In my distress, I called upon the Lord. To my God, I cried for help. From his temple, he heard my voice and my cry to him reached his ears.
