Genesis 50:15–21

¹THE wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion.

⁴¹¶ And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him: and Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then will I slay my brother Jacob.

⁴²And these words of Esau her elder son were told to Rebekah: and she sent and called Jacob her younger son, and said unto him, Behold, thy brother Esau, as touching thee, doth comfort himself, purposing to kill thee.

²¹¶ And they said one to another, We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear; therefore is this distress come upon us.

²²And Reuben answered them, saying, Spake I not unto you, saying, Do not sin against the child; and ye would not hear? therefore, behold, also his blood is required.

²¹A dreadful sound is in his ears: in prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him.

²²He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness, and he is waited for of the sword.

³⁶And upon them that are left alive of you I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; and the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee, as fleeing from a sword; and they shall fall when none pursueth.

⁵There were they in great fear: for God is in the generation of the righteous.

⁵There were they in great fear, where no fear was: for God hath scattered the bones of him that encampeth against thee: thou hast put them to shame, because God hath despised them.

²⁸Then there passed by Midianites merchantmen; and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmeelites for twenty pieces of silver: and they brought Joseph into Egypt.

¹⁷And he put them all together into ward three days.

¹⁵Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)

²⁵The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe.

³²And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.

¹⁴For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:

¹⁵But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

⁴And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt.

⁵Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.

⁸So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.

²⁵Even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee; and by the Almighty, who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb:

³¶ Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him.

⁴And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him.

¹³He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.

¹¹For they intended evil against thee: they imagined a mischievous device, which they are not able to perform.

¹²Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;

¹³Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.

¹⁰As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.

¹⁶And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.

⁴²Except the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely thou hadst sent me away now empty. God hath seen mine affliction and the labour of my hands, and rebuked thee yesternight.

²¹¶ And they said one to another, We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear; therefore is this distress come upon us.

²²And Reuben answered them, saying, Spake I not unto you, saying, Do not sin against the child; and ye would not hear? therefore, behold, also his blood is required.

²³And they knew not that Joseph understood them; for he spake unto them by an interpreter.

²⁴And he turned himself about from them, and wept; and returned to them again, and communed with them, and took from them Simeon, and bound him before their eyes.

²⁰But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.

¹⁶Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

²⁷He looketh upon men, and if any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not;

²⁸He will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light.

⁴¹And when the ten heard it, they began to be much displeased with James and John.

⁴²And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward.

³⁵So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.

⁴⁰And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

¹²And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

⁸Wherefore, though I might be much bold in Christ to enjoin thee that which is convenient,

⁹Yet for love’s sake I rather beseech thee, being such an one as Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ.

¹⁰I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds:

¹¹Which in time past was to thee unprofitable, but now profitable to thee and to me:

¹²Whom I have sent again: thou therefore receive him, that is, mine own bowels:

¹³Whom I would have retained with me, that in thy stead he might have ministered unto me in the bonds of the gospel:

¹⁴But without thy mind would I do nothing; that thy benefit should not be as it were of necessity, but willingly.

¹⁵For perhaps he therefore departed for a season, that thou shouldest receive him for ever;

¹⁶Not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved, specially to me, but how much more unto thee, both in the flesh, and in the Lord?

¹⁷If thou count me therefore a partner, receive him as myself.

¹⁸If he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee ought, put that on mine account;

¹⁹I Paul have written it with mine own hand, I will repay it: albeit I do not say to thee how thou owest unto me even thine own self besides.

²⁰Yea, brother, let me have joy of thee in the Lord: refresh my bowels in the Lord.

⁷For, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf.

⁸And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words.

⁹¶ And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me.

¹⁰And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?

¹¹And his brethren envied him; but his father observed the saying.

²⁹Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee: be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother’s sons bow down to thee: cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee.

⁶And Joseph was the governor over the land, and he it was that sold to all the people of the land: and Joseph’s brethren came, and bowed down themselves before him with their faces to the earth.

¹⁴¶ And Judah and his brethren came to Joseph’s house; for he was yet there: and they fell before him on the ground.

³And Joseph said unto his brethren, I am Joseph; doth my father yet live? And his brethren could not answer him; for they were troubled at his presence.

¹⁹Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.

²And Jacob’s anger was kindled against Rachel: and he said, Am I in God’s stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb?

⁵Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.

⁷And it came to pass, when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he rent his clothes, and said, Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man doth send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy? wherefore consider, I pray you, and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me.

³⁰For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people.

³⁵To me belongeth vengeance, and recompence; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.

¹⁹How much less to him that accepteth not the persons of princes, nor regardeth the rich more than the poor? for they all are the work of his hands.

²⁰In a moment shall they die, and the people shall be troubled at midnight, and pass away: and the mighty shall be taken away without hand.

²¹For his eyes are upon the ways of man, and he seeth all his goings.

²²There is no darkness, nor shadow of death, where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves.

²³For he will not lay upon man more than right; that he should enter into judgment with God.

²⁴He shall break in pieces mighty men without number, and set others in their stead.

²⁵Therefore he knoweth their works, and he overturneth them in the night, so that they are destroyed.

²⁶He striketh them as wicked men in the open sight of others;

²⁷Because they turned back from him, and would not consider any of his ways:

²⁸So that they cause the cry of the poor to come unto him, and he heareth the cry of the afflicted.

²⁹When he giveth quietness, who then can make trouble? and when he hideth his face, who then can behold him? whether it be done against a nation, or against a man only:

²⁷But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid.

³⁷But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit.

³⁸And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts?

²⁸And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

⁷¹It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.

⁵Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.

⁶For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest.

⁷And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.

⁸So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.

¹⁸And when they saw him afar off, even before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him.

¹⁹And they said one to another, Behold, this dreamer cometh.

²⁰Come now therefore, and let us slay him, and cast him into some pit, and we will say, Some evil beast hath devoured him: and we shall see what will become of his dreams.

²³Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:

¹⁶Moreover he called for a famine upon the land: he brake the whole staff of bread.

¹⁷He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant:

¹³The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go.

¹⁴But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you;

¹⁵And killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses.

²⁶Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.

⁴And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him.

⁵Every day they wrest my words: all their thoughts are against me for evil.

⁷Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few.

¹⁰Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain.

¹²And Joseph nourished his father, and his brethren, and all his father’s household, with bread, according to their families.

⁹Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing.

¹⁰And thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen, and thou shalt be near unto me, thou, and thy children, and thy children’s children, and thy flocks, and thy herds, and all that thou hast:

¹¹And there will I nourish thee; for yet there are five years of famine; lest thou, and thy household, and all that thou hast, come to poverty.

¹⁵See that none render evil for evil unto any man; but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all men.

²Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.

⁴⁴But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

¹⁴For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:

²⁰Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.

²¹Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.

³And his soul clave unto Dinah the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the damsel, and spake kindly unto the damsel.