In three more days Pharaoh will decapitate you and impale you on a pole. Then the birds will eat your flesh from you.”

Pharaoh was enraged with his servants, and he put me in prison in the house of the captain of the guards – me and the chief baker.

Joseph named the firstborn Manasseh, saying, “Certainly God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father’s house.”

He turned away from them and wept. When he turned around and spoke to them again, he had Simeon taken from them and tied up before their eyes.

So tell my father about all my honor in Egypt and about everything you have seen. But bring my father down here quickly!”

Joseph also provided food for his father, his brothers, and all his father’s household, according to the number of their little children.

Joseph said to the people, “Since I have bought you and your land today for Pharaoh, here is seed for you. Cultivate the land.

After these things Joseph was told, “Your father is weakening.” So he took his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim with him.

Joseph positioned them; he put Ephraim on his right hand across from Israel’s left hand, and Manasseh on his left hand across from Israel’s right hand. Then Joseph brought them closer to his father.

So now, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your little children.” Then he consoled them and spoke kindly to them.

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.”

The Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt. I have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.

So I will extend my hand and strike Egypt with all my wonders that I will do among them, and after that he will release you.

“So you are to speak to him and put the words in his mouth. And as for me, I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and I will teach you both what you must do.

Then Moses took his wife and sons and put them on a donkey and headed back to the land of Egypt, and Moses took the staff of God in his hand.

I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, where they were living as resident foreigners.

I have also heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are enslaving, and I have remembered my covenant.

For by now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with plague, and you would have been destroyed from the earth.

Those of Pharaoh’s servants who feared the word of the Lord hurried to bring their servants and livestock into the houses,

So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh, and he said to them, “Go, serve the Lord your God. Exactly who is going with you?”