Before leaving for
Egypt, Jacob offered sacrifices to God.
One night, God appeared to him and said: “Jacob, Jacob!”
And Jacob answered:
“Here I am!”
God said to him: “I am
the most mighty God of your father. Fear
not, go down into Egypt, for I will make a great nation of you there. I shall accompany you and I shall bring you
back here again.”
And Jacob rose up from
the place where he had offered the sacrifices to Almighty God and went to Egypt
with his sons, wives, grandsons and all his belongings. He was riding on the wagon which the King of
Egypt had sent to fetch him. All the
persons of the house of Jacob entered into Egypt. All in all they were seventy.
Juda, one of the sons of
Jacob, went ahead to tell Joseph that his father was coming. When Joseph heard this news, he started out
to meet his father. On seeing him,
Joseph put his arms around his father and wept.
Then Jacob said to Joseph: “Now I shall die with joy for I have seen
your face.”
And Joseph said to his
brothers: “I will go up and tell the king that all my brothers and my father’s
household, who were before in the land of Chanaan, are coming to me in the land
of Egypt. I shall tell the king that you
are shepherds, and that your occupation is to feed cattle. I shall inform the king that your flocks came
with you from Chanaan to Egypt.”
Then Joseph went to see
the king of Egypt and spoke in favor of his father and his brothers. The king loved Joseph very much and gave the
land of Goshen for the family of Jacob.
After this, Joseph
brought in Jacob to present him to the king.
The King asked Jacob:
“How old are you?”
Jacob answered: “The
days of my pilgrimage are one hundred and thirty years, few and evil, and they
have not come up to the days of the pilgrimage of my fathers.”
And blessing the king,
he went out.
The king of Egypt told
Joseph to help Jacob and his sons.
For many years, the
children of Jacob were happy in the land of Egypt.
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