The men are shepherds; they take care of livestock. They have brought their flocks and their herds and all that they have.’

Joseph went and told Pharaoh, “My father, my brothers, their flocks and herds, and all that they own have arrived from the land of Canaan. They are now in the land of Goshen.”

Joseph said to his father, “They are the sons God has given me in this place.” His father said, “Bring them to me so I may bless them.”

Then he blessed Joseph and said, “May the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked – the God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day,

As one who is above your brothers, I give to you the mountain slope, which I took from the Amorites with my sword and my bow.”

Jacob called for his sons and said, “Gather together so I can tell you what will happen to you in the future.

Then he instructed them, “I am about to go to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite.

When they came to the threshing floor of Atad on the other side of the Jordan, they mourned there with very great and bitter sorrow. There Joseph observed a seven day period of mourning for his father.

They made their lives bitter by hard service with mortar and bricks and by all kinds of service in the fields. Every kind of service the Israelites were required to give was rigorous.

God said, “Do not approach any closer! Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”

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.

And now indeed the cry of the Israelites has come to me, and I have also seen how severely the Egyptians oppress them.

God said to Moses, “I am that I am.” And he said, “You must say this to the Israelites, ‘I am has sent me to you.’”

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.

Aaron spoke all the words that the Lord had spoken to Moses and did the signs in the sight of the people,

and they said to them, “May the Lord look on you and judge, because you have made us stink in the opinion of Pharaoh and his servants, so that you have given them an excuse to kill us!”

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh, for compelled by my strong hand he will release them, and by my strong hand he will drive them out of his land.”

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.