But Hamor made this appeal to them: “My son Shechem is in love with your daughter. Please give her to him as his wife.

He asked the men who were there, “Where is the cult prostitute who was at Enaim by the road?” But they replied, “There has been no cult prostitute here.”

After three months Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar has turned to prostitution, and as a result she has become pregnant.” Judah said, “Bring her out and let her be burned!”

While she was giving birth, one child put out his hand, and the midwife took a scarlet thread and tied it on his hand, saying, “This one came out first.”

This is what she said to him: “That Hebrew slave you brought to us tried to humiliate me,

When his master heard his wife say, “This is the way your slave treated me,” he became furious.

So he asked Pharaoh’s officials, who were with him in custody in his master’s house, “Why do you look so sad today?”

Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I had a dream, and there is no one who can interpret it. But I have heard about you, that you can interpret dreams.”

They returned to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan and told him all the things that had happened to them, saying,

Indeed, your servant pledged security for the boy with my father, saying, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, then I will bear the blame before my father all my life.’

Now it was reported in the household of Pharaoh, “Joseph’s brothers have arrived.” It pleased Pharaoh and his servants.

They told him, “Joseph is still alive and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt!” Jacob was stunned, for he did not believe them.

So he blessed them that day, saying, “By you will Israel bless, saying, ‘May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.’” So he put Ephraim before Manasseh.

Joseph made the sons of Israel swear an oath. He said, “God will surely come to you. Then you must carry my bones up from this place.”

Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “All sons that are born you must throw into the river, but all daughters you may let live.”

So the slave masters of the people and their foremen went to the Israelites and said, “Thus says Pharaoh: ‘I am not giving you straw.

The Israelite foremen saw that they were in trouble when they were told, “You must not reduce the daily quota of your bricks.”

But Moses replied to the Lord, “If the Israelites did not listen to me, then how will Pharaoh listen to me, since I speak with difficulty?”

he said to him, “I am the Lord. Tell Pharaoh king of Egypt all that I am telling you.”

Tell him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to you to say, “Release my people, that they may serve me in the desert!” But until now you have not listened.