LECTIO 1

A new king, who knew nothing of Joseph, came to power in Egypt.
He said to his subjects, “Look how numerous and powerful the Israelite people are growing, more so than we ourselves!
Come, let us deal shrewdly with them to stop their increase; otherwise, in time of war they too may join our enemies to fight against us, and so leave our country.”
Accordingly, taskmasters were set over the Israelites to oppress them with forced labor. Thus they had to build for Pharaoh the supply cities of Pithom and Raamses.
Yet the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread. The Egyptians, then, dreaded the Israelites
and reduced them to cruel slavery,
making life bitter for them with hard work in mortar and brick and all kinds of field work–the whole cruel fate of slaves.
Pharaoh then commanded all his subjects, “Throw into the river every boy that is born to the Hebrews, but you may let all the girls live.”

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Thus says the LORD: Just as from the heavens the rain and snow come down and do not return there till they have watered the earth, making it fertile and fruitful, giving seed to the one who sows and bread to the one who eats,
So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; It shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it.

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Jacob gave his sons this charge: “Since I am about to be taken to my kindred, bury me with my fathers in the cave that lies in the field of Ephron the Hittite,
the cave in the field of Machpelah, facing on Mamre, in the land of Canaan, the field that Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite for a burial ground.
There Abraham and his wife Sarah are buried, and so are Isaac and his wife Rebekah, and there, too, I buried Leah–
the field and the cave in it that had been purchased from the Hittites.”
Now that their father was dead, Joseph’s brothers became fearful and thought, “Suppose Joseph has been nursing a grudge against us and now plans to pay us back in full for all the wrong we did him!”
So they approached Joseph and said: “Before your father died, he gave us these instructions: ‘You shall say to Joseph, Jacob begs you to forgive the criminal wrongdoing of your brothers, who treated you so cruelly.’ Please, therefore, forgive the crime that we, the servants of your father’s God, committed.” When they spoke these words to him, Joseph broke into tears.
Then his brothers proceeded to fling themselves down before him and said, “Let us be your slaves!”
But Joseph replied to them: “Have no fear. Can I take the place of God?
Even though you meant harm to me, God meant it for good, to achieve his present end, the survival of many people.
Therefore have no fear. I will provide for you and for your children.” By thus speaking kindly to them, he reassured them.
Joseph remained in Egypt, together with his father’s family. He lived a hundred and ten years.
He saw Ephraim’s children to the third generation, and the children of Manasseh’s son Machir were also born on Joseph’s knees.
Joseph said to his brothers: “I am about to die. God will surely take care of you and lead you out of this land to the land that he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”
Then, putting the sons of Israel under oath, he continued, “When God thus takes care of you, you must bring my bones up with you from this place.”
Joseph died at the age of a hundred and ten.

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Israel set out with all that was his. When he arrived at Beer-sheba, he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac.
There God, speaking to Israel in a vision by night, called, “Jacob! Jacob!” “Here I am,” he answered.
Then he said: “I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you a great nation.
Not only will I go down to Egypt with you; I will also bring you back here, after Joseph has closed your eyes.”
So Jacob departed from Beer-sheba, and the sons of Israel put their father and their wives and children on the wagons that Pharaoh had sent for his transport.
They took with them their livestock and the possessions they had acquired in the land of Canaan. Thus Jacob and all his descendants migrated to Egypt.
His sons and his grandsons, his daughters and his granddaughters–all his descendants–he took with him to Egypt.
Israel had sent Judah ahead to Joseph, so that he might meet him in Goshen. On his arrival in the region of Goshen,
Joseph hitched the horses to his chariot and rode to meet his father Israel in Goshen. As soon as he saw him, he flung himself on his neck and wept a long time in his arms.
And Israel said to Joseph, “At last I can die, now that I have seen for myself that Joseph is still alive.”

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Judah approached Joseph and said: “I beg you, my lord, let your servant speak earnestly to my lord, and do not become angry with your servant, for you are the equal of Pharaoh.
My lord asked your servants, ‘Have you a father, or another brother?’
So we said to my lord, ‘We have an aged father, and a young brother, the child of his old age. This one’s full brother is dead, and since he is the only one by that mother who is left, his father dotes on him.’
Then you told your servants, ‘Bring him down to me that my eyes may look on him.’
But you told your servants, ‘Unless your youngest brother comes back with you, you shall not come into my presence again.’
When we returned to your servant our father, we reported to him the words of my lord. “Later, our father told us to come back and buy some food for the family.
So we reminded him, ‘We cannot go down there; only if our youngest brother is with us can we go, for we may not see the man if our youngest brother is not with us.’
Then your servant our father said to us, ‘As you know, my wife bore me two sons.
One of them, however, disappeared, and I had to conclude that he must have been torn to pieces by wild beasts; I have not seen him since.
If you now take this one away from me too, and some disaster befalls him, you will send my white head down to the nether world in grief.’
Joseph could no longer control himself in the presence of all his attendants, so he cried out, “Have everyone withdraw from me!” Thus no one else was about when he made himself known to his brothers.
But his sobs were so loud that the Egyptians heard him, and so the news reached Pharaoh’s palace. “I am Joseph,” he said to his brothers. “Is my father still in good health?” But his brothers could give him no answer, so dumbfounded were they at him. “Come closer to me,” he told his brothers. When they had done so, he said: “I am your brother Joseph, whom you once sold into Egypt.
But now do not be distressed, and do not reproach yourselves for having sold me here. It was really for the sake of saving lives that God sent me here ahead of you.”

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When hunger came to be felt throughout the land of Egypt and the people cried to Pharaoh for bread, Pharaoh directed all the Egyptians to go to Joseph and do whatever he told them.
When the famine had spread throughout the land, Joseph opened all the cities that had grain and rationed it to the Egyptians, since the famine had gripped the land of Egypt.
In fact, all the world came to Joseph to obtain rations of grain, for famine had gripped the whole world.
Thus, since there was famine in the land of Canaan also, the sons of Israel were among those who came to procure rations.
It was Joseph, as governor of the country, who dispensed the rations to all the people. When Joseph’s brothers came and knelt down before him with their faces to the ground,
he recognized them as soon as he saw them. But he concealed his own identity from them and spoke sternly to them. “Where do you come from?” he asked them. They answered, “From the land of Canaan, to procure food.”
With that, he locked them up in the guardhouse for three days.
On the third day Joseph said to them: “Do this, and you shall live; for I am a God-fearing man.
If you have been honest, only one of your brothers need be confined in this prison, while the rest of you may go and take home provisions for your starving families.
But you must come back to me with your youngest brother. Your words will thus be verified, and you will not die.” To this they agreed.
To one another, however, they said: “Alas, we are being punished because of our brother. We saw the anguish of his heart when he pleaded with us, yet we paid no heed; that is why this anguish has now come upon us.” “Didn’t I tell you,” broke in Reuben, “not to do wrong to the boy? But you wouldn’t listen! Now comes the reckoning for his blood.”
They did not know, of course, that Joseph understood what they said, since he spoke with them through an interpreter.
But turning away from them, he wept.

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