PREVIOUSLY ON GENESIS: Jacob/Israel had a total of 12 sons. From Leah: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulon. From Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin. From Bilhah: Dan and Naphtali. From Zilpah: Gad and Asher.
37) Joseph, now 17 years old, is his father's favourite son. Jacob makes him a coat of many colours. Joseph's brothers hate Joseph.
Joseph tells his brothers about two recent dream of his: in the first, all of his brothers bowed down to him; in the second, the Sun, the Moon and the stars all bowed down to him. This doesn't make the brothers more fond of Joseph.
The brothers conspire to kill Joseph, but Reuben thinks he should be kept alive, just in case. So, instead of killing him, the brothers steal his colourful coat and throw him into a pit. Judah gets the idea of selling Joseph as a slave. The brothers sell Joseph to some passing Midianites.
The brothers kill a goat and dip the colourful coat in its blood. They take it to Jacob and ask to confirm whether it is Joseph's coat.
“It is my son's robe. A fierce animal has devoured him. Joseph is without doubt torn to pieces.”
And so Jacob went into mourning for his son, and could not be comforted.
The Midianites travel to Egypt and sell Joseph to Potiphar, captain of the Pharaoh's guard.
38) Judah gets married and has three sons: Er, Onan and Shelah.
Er marries a women named Tamar. 'But Er, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord put him to death.'
Judah tells Onan, “Go in to your brother's wife and perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her, and raise up offspring for your brother.”
Onan did not want to father children that would not be his, so every time he had sex with Tamar he would pull out at the end and ejaculate on to the floor. God kills him for doing this.
Judah tells Tamar that she can marry Shelah when he gets a bit older.
Time passes. Judah's wife dies. He decides to visit the city of Timnah.
Tamar learns that Judah is going to Timnah, and realises that Shelah would be grown up by now, and she should have married him. She takes off her widow's garments, covers herself with a veil, and waits at the entrance of Enaim, on the road to Timnah.
Judah sees her, mistakes her for a prostitute, and says, “Come, let me come in to you.”
“What will you give me, that you may come in to me?”
Judah promises to give her a young goat in exchange for sex. He gives her his signet, cord and staff as a guarantee. He goes in to her, and she conceives.
Tamar goes home and puts her widow's garments back on.
Later, Judah sends his friend Hirah to give the goat to the prostitute and get his stuff back, but Hirah can't find her and nobody in Enaim knows anything about her.
“Let her keep the things as her own, or we shall be laughed at." says Judah.
Three months later, Judah is told that Tamar has become pregnant from prostituting. “Bring her out, and let her be burned,” he says.
She sends the signet, cord and staff to Judah, asking him to identify them, because they belong to whoever made her pregnant. Awkward.
“She is more righteous than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah.”
[This chapter makes sense if you think of reproduction as each character's priority. Judah wants grandchildren and Onan is married, therefore Onan should produce offspring from Tamar. By pulling out early and wasting his sperm, Onan is not producing offspring, so God considers this to be wicked. Judah considers Tamar more righteous than him because her trickery made her pregnant and continued his bloodline, while he had forgotten his promise to marry her to Shelah.]
39) Joseph is a hard-working slave in Potiphar's house, and he is promoted to overseer of the house.
The master's wife wants Joseph to have sex with her, but he is having none of it. She repeatedly tries to seduce him, and fails every time.
One day she gets angry, and catches some of his garment as he flees from her. She tells her husband that Joseph wanted to have sex with her, but she screamed and he ran away, leaving some of his garment in her hand. Potiphar gets angry and puts him in prison.
'But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper of the prison put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners who were in the prison.'
40) Some time later, the Pharaoh imprisons both his cupbearer and his baker.
One night they both have strange dreams, and are troubled by them. Joseph interprets their dreams: after three days, the Pharaoh will restore the cupbearer to his position and hang the baker. Joseph asks the cupbearer to mention him to the Pharaoh.
Three days later, the Pharaoh restores the cupbearer to his position and hangs the baker. The cupbearer forgets to mention Joseph.
41) Two years later, the Pharaoh is troubled by strange dreams about seven thin cows eating seven plump cows, and seven thin ears of grain eating seven plump ears of grain. He can't find anyone to interpret them.
The cupbearer remembers Joseph, and tells the Pharaoh about his ability to interpret dreams.
The Pharaoh sends for Joseph and tells him his dreams. Joseph interprets the dreams: the seven plump cows/ears represent seven years of plenty to come; the seven thin cows/ears represent seven years of famine which will follow. Joseph advises that the Pharoah saves one-fifth of all produce during the seven plentiful years and store it up in preparation for the years of famine.
The Pharaoh makes Joseph his second in command, and all the people of Egypt bow to him.
The earth produced abundantly during the years of plenty, and grain was stored up in immeasurable quantities.
Joseph marries Asenath, daughter of Pentiphera priest of On, and has two sons: Manasseh and Ephraim.
Then the famine struck. 'So when the famine had spread over all the land, Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold to the Egyptians, for the famine was severe in the land of Egypt. Moreover, all the earth came to Egypt to Joseph to buy grain, because the famine was severe over all the earth.'
42) Joseph's brothers (excluding Benjamin, the youngest) travel to Egypt to buy grain. They meet with Joseph but do not recognise him. They bow down to him, and introduce themselves.
Joseph recognises them, but pretends otherwise. He accuses them of being spies, and says that they are not allowed to leave until he sees their youngest brother, Benjamin. He imprisons them for three days.
On the third day he releases nine of them, telling them to return home with some grain for the family, and to return with Benjamin. He keeps Simeon imprisoned.
Joseph tells his servants to replace his brothers' money, without the brothers knowing.
On the way home, they notice that their money has been replaced in their packs: they thought that they had bought the grain. Now they worry they might be thought of as thieves.
The brothers explain to Jacob that they need to return to Egypt with Benjamin in order to free Simeon. Jacob worries that he is going to lose two more sons. Reuben tells Jacob that if they fail to bring Benjamin back he may kill Reuben's two sons as compensation.
43) Jacob's family consumes the grain brought from Egypt, so they need more. Jacob tells his sons to get more food. Judah promises to bear the blame if Benjamin is not returned.
The brothers set off to Egypt, carrying double the necessary money: they intend to pay for the last lot of grain also. They reach Egypt and meet with Joseph, who invites them to lunch at his place.
The brothers are suspicious and think that Joseph is going to kill them. Simeon is released.
They go to Joseph's place and make pleasant conversation: Joseph enquires about their welfare and asks about their father. Then Joseph sees Benjamin, his youngest brother, and has to leave the room to cry.
Joseph returns, and the food is served. Benjamin is served five times as much as anyone else.
"And they drank and became intoxicated with him."
43) Joseph tells the steward of the house to return all his brothers' money, and to hide his silver cup in Benjamin's sack.
When morning comes, the brothers set off home. Joseph tells his steward to catch up them and bring them back here, accusing them of stealing his cup.
The steward does this. The brothers become confused and say, "Whichever of your servants is found with it shall die!" And then it is found in Benjamin's sack. The brothers return to the city.
They bow before Joseph again. Judah pleads to be taken in Benjamin's place.
45) Joseph cannot control himself anymore: he bursts into tears. He tells his brothers who he is:
“I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither uplowing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt."
He tells them to bring all the family to Egypt, where they can have lots of land. The Pharaoh hears about this and is pleased. He tells Joseph that his family may have the best land and goods in Egypt. The brothers return to Canaan, and tell Jacob the good news.
46) Jacob's entire family travels to Egypt. Seventy people in total.
47) Joseph tells the Pharaoh that his brothers have arrived; the Pharaoh goes to meet them.
"What is your profession?" the Pharaoh asks. (OK, in the ESV translation he says 'occupation', not 'profession'.)
The brothers explain that they are shepherds. The Pharaoh is cool with this. He gives them the best land in Egypt.
The famine continues, but now the citizens of Egypt have no money left. They exchange their animals for some of the stored grain. Then they run out of animals: the Pharaoh now owns them all. They exchange their land for some of the stored grain. Everyone except the priests sell their land to the Pharaoh for food. Joseph says:
“Behold, I have this day bought you and your land for Pharaoh. Now here is seed for you, and you shall sow the land. And at the harvests you shall give a fifth to Pharaoh, and four fifths shall be your own, as seed for the field and as food for yourselves and your households, and as food for your little ones.”
Joseph's family were fruitful and multiplied greatly.
48) Jacob is dying. Joseph takes he two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, to meet him. Jacob blesses Ephraim, the younger, saying that Ephraim's descendants will be greater than Manasseh's.
49) Jacob gathers all his sons and blesses them all, and predicts the future.
Jacob asks to be buried in the Cave of Machpelah (where Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, etc are buried.), then dies.
50) Joseph has the Egyptians embalm his father. Jacob is buried at the cave, as requested.
Joseph's brothers worry that he might hate them because they sold him into slavery, Joseph reassures them:
“Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? 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. So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.”
Joseph tells his brothers that God will come to them in the future, to bring them out of Egypt and back to the promised land, and has them promise to carry his body with them. Joseph dies at 110 years old, is embalmed, and put in a coffin in Egypt.
END OF GENESIS.
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