Genesis 50

1 Then Joseph fell on his father's face and wept over him and kissed him.2 And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel.3 Forty days were required for it, for that is how many are required for embalming. And the Egyptians wept for him seventy days.

4 
And when the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh, saying, If now I have found favor in your eyes, please speak in the ears of Pharaoh, saying,5 My father made me swear, saying, I am about to die: in my tomb that I hewed out for myself in the land of Canaan, there shall you bury me. Now therefore, let me please go up and bury my father. Then I will return.6 And Pharaoh answered, Go up, and bury your father, as he made you swear.7 So Joseph went up to bury his father. With him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his household, and all the elders of the land of Egypt,8 as well as all the household of Joseph, his brothers, and his father's household. Only their children, their flocks, and their herds were left in the land of Goshen.9 And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen. It was a very great company.10 When they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, they lamented there with a very great and grievous lamentation, and he made a mourning for his father seven days.11 When the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning on the threshing floor of Atad, they said, This is a grievous mourning by the Egyptians. Therefore the place was named Abel-mizraim; it is beyond the Jordan.12 Thus his sons did for him as he had commanded them,13 for his sons carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field at Machpelah, to the east of Mamre, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite to possess as a burying place.14 After he had buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt with his brothers and all who had gone up with him to bury his father.

15 
When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him.16 So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, Your father gave this command before he died,17 Say to Joseph, Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you. And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father. Joseph wept when they spoke to him.18 His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, Behold, we are your servants.19 But Joseph said to them, Do not fear, for am I in the place of God?20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.21 So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones. Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.

22 
So Joseph remained in Egypt, he and his father's house. Joseph lived 110 years.23 And Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third generation. The children also of Machir the son of Manasseh were counted as Joseph's own.24 And Joseph said to his brothers, I am about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.25 Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.26 So Joseph died, being 110 years old. They embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.

Exodus 1

1 These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each with his household:2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah,3 Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin,4 Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher.5 All the descendants of Jacob were seventy persons; Joseph was already in Egypt.6 Then Joseph died, and all his brothers and all that generation.7 But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them.

8 
Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.9 And he said to his people, Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us.10 Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and, if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.11 Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens. They built for Pharaoh store cities, Pithom and Raamses.12 But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad. And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel.13 So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves14 and made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field. In all their work they ruthlessly made them work as slaves.

15 
Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah,16 When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live.17 But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live.18 So the king of Egypt called the midwives and said to them, Why have you done this, and let the male children live?19 The midwives said to Pharaoh, Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.20 So God dealt well with the midwives. And the people multiplied and grew very strong.21 And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families.22 Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.

Exodus 2

1 Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman.2 The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months.3 When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank.4 And his sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him.5 Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her young women walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant woman, and she took it.6 When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby was crying. She took pity on him and said, This is one of the Hebrews' children.7 Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, Shall I go and call you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?8 And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Go. So the girl went and called the child's mother.9 And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages. So the woman took the child and nursed him.10 When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, Because, she said, I drew him out of the water.

11 
One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people.12 He looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.13 When he went out the next day, behold, two Hebrews were struggling together. And he said to the man in the wrong, Why do you strike your companion?14 He answered, Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian? Then Moses was afraid, and thought, Surely the thing is known.15 When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian. And he sat down by a well.

16 
Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came and drew water and filled the troughs to water their father's flock.17 The shepherds came and drove them away, but Moses stood up and saved them, and watered their flock.18 When they came home to their father Reuel, he said, How is it that you have come home so soon today?19 They said, An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds and even drew water for us and watered the flock.20 He said to his daughters, Then where is he? Why have you left the man? Call him, that he may eat bread.21 And Moses was content to dwell with the man, and he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah.22 She gave birth to a son, and he called his name Gershom, for he said, I have been a sojourner in a foreign land.

23 
During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God.24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.25 God saw the people of Israel--and God knew.