After Rachel had given birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me on my way so that I can go home to my own country.

When Jacob saw them, he exclaimed, “This is the camp of God!” So he named that place Mahanaim.

You can make the bride price and the gift I must bring very expensive, and I’ll give whatever you ask of me. Just give me the young woman as my wife!”

Only on this one condition will these men consent to live with us and become one people: They demand that every male among us be circumcised just as they are circumcised.

When Joseph reached his brothers, they stripped him of his tunic, the special tunic that he wore.

But remember me when it goes well for you, and show me kindness. Make mention of me to Pharaoh and bring me out of this prison,

When they had eaten them, no one would have known that they had done so, for they were just as bad-looking as before. Then I woke up.

Then the seven years of famine began, just as Joseph had predicted. There was famine in all the other lands, but throughout the land of Egypt there was food.

When they finished eating the grain they had brought from Egypt, their father said to them, “Return, buy us a little more food.”

May the sovereign God grant you mercy before the man so that he may release your other brother and Benjamin! As for me, if I lose my children I lose them.”

So Joseph settled his father and his brothers. He gave them territory in the land of Egypt, in the best region of the land, the land of Rameses, just as Pharaoh had commanded.

But the midwives feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them; they let the boys live.

But the magicians of Egypt did the same by their secret arts, and so Pharaoh’s heart remained hard, and he refused to listen to Moses and Aaron – just as the Lord had predicted.

But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and did not listen to them, just as the Lord had predicted.

The magicians said to Pharaoh, “It is the finger of God!” But Pharaoh’s heart remained hard, and he did not listen to them, just as the Lord had predicted.

But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not listen to them, just as the Lord had predicted to Moses.

So Pharaoh’s heart remained hard, and he did not release the Israelites, as the Lord had predicted through Moses.

He said to them, “The Lord will need to be with you if I release you and your dependents! Watch out! Trouble is right in front of you!

When you enter the land that the Lord will give to you, just as he said, you must observe this ceremony.

So all the Israelites did exactly as the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron.