The One Year Bible TLB (22 page)
Read The One Year Bible TLB Online
Authors: Tyndale
January 25Joseph threw himself upon his father’s body and wept over him and kissed him.
2
Afterwards he commanded his morticians to embalm the body.
3
The embalming process required forty days, with a period of national mourning of seventy days.
4
Then, when at last the mourning was over, Joseph approached Pharaoh’s staff and requested them to speak to Pharaoh on his behalf.
5
“Tell His Majesty,” he requested them, “that Joseph’s father made Joseph swear to take his body back to the land of Canaan, to bury him there. Ask His Majesty to permit me to go and bury my father; assure him that I will return promptly.”
6
Pharaoh agreed. “Go and bury your father, as you promised,” he said.
7
So Joseph went, and a great number of Pharaoh’s counselors and assistants—all the senior officers of the land,
8
as well as all of Joseph’s people—his brothers and their families. But they left their little children and flocks and herds in the land of Goshen.
9
So a very great number of chariots, cavalry, and people accompanied Joseph.
10
When they arrived at Atad
*
(meaning “Threshing Place of Brambles”), beyond the Jordan River, they held a very great and solemn funeral service, with a seven-day period of lamentation for Joseph’s father.
11
The local residents, the Canaanites, renamed the place Abel-mizraim (meaning “Egyptian Mourners”) for they said, “It is a place of very deep mourning by these Egyptians.”
12-13
So his sons did as Israel commanded them, and carried his body into the land of Canaan and buried it there in the cave of Mach-pelah—the cave Abraham had bought in the field of Ephron the Hethite, close to Mamre.
14
Then Joseph returned to Egypt with his brothers and all who had accompanied him to the funeral of his father.
15
But now that their father was dead, Joseph’s brothers were frightened.
“Now Joseph will pay us back for all the evil we did to him,” they said.
16-17
So they sent him this message: “Before he died, your father instructed us to tell you to forgive us for the great evil we did to you. We servants of the God of your father beg you to forgive us.” When Joseph read the message, he broke down and cried.
18
Then his brothers came and fell down before him and said, “We are your slaves.”
19
But Joseph told them, “Don’t be afraid of me. Am I God, to judge and punish you?
20
As far as I am concerned, God turned into good what you meant for evil, for he brought me to this high position I have today so that I could save the lives of many people.
21
No, don’t be afraid. Indeed, I myself will take care of you and your families.” And he spoke very kindly to them, reassuring them.
22
So Joseph and his brothers and their families continued to live in Egypt. Joseph was 110 years old when he died.
23
He lived to see the birth of his son Ephraim’s children, and the children of Machir, Manasseh’s son, who played at his feet.
24
“Soon I will die,” Joseph told his brothers, “but God will surely come and get you, and bring you out of this land of Egypt and take you back to the land he promised to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”
25
Then Joseph made his brothers promise with an oath that they would take his body back with them when they returned to Canaan.
26
So Joseph died at the age of 110, and they embalmed him, and his body was placed in a coffin in Egypt.
1:
1-4
This is the list of the sons of Jacob who accompanied him to Egypt, with their families: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Benjamin, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher.
5
So the total number who went with him was seventy (for Joseph was already there).
6
In due season Joseph and each of his brothers died, ending that generation.
7
Meanwhile, their descendants were very fertile, increasing rapidly in numbers; there was a veritable population explosion so that they soon became a large nation, and they filled the land of Goshen.
8
Then, eventually, a new king came
*
to the throne of Egypt who felt no obligation to the descendants of Joseph.
9
He told his people, “These Israelis are becoming dangerous to us because there are so many of them.
10
Let’s figure out a way to put an end to this. If we don’t, and war breaks out, they will join our enemies and fight against us and escape out of the country.”
11
So the Egyptians made slaves of them and put brutal taskmasters over them to wear them down under heavy burdens while building the cities of Pithom and Rameses as supply centers for the king.
12
But the more the Egyptians mistreated and oppressed them, the more the Israelis seemed to multiply! The Egyptians became alarmed
13-14
and made the Hebrew slavery more bitter still, forcing them to toil long and hard in the fields and to carry heavy loads of mortar and brick.
15-16
Then Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, instructed the Hebrew midwives (their names were Shiphrah and Puah) to kill all Hebrew boys as soon as they were born, but to let the girls live.
17
But the midwives feared God and didn’t obey the king—they let the boys live too.
18
The king summoned them before him and demanded, “Why have you disobeyed my command and let the baby boys live?”
19
“Sir,” they told him, “the Hebrew women have their babies so quickly that we can’t get there in time! They are not slow like the Egyptian women!”
20
And God blessed the midwives because they were God-fearing women.
*
So the people of Israel continued to multiply and to become a mighty nation.
21
And because the midwives revered God, he gave them children of their own.
22
Then Pharaoh commanded all of his people to throw the newborn Hebrew boys into the Nile River. But the girls, he said, could live.
2:
1-2
There were at this time a Hebrew fellow and girl of the tribe of Levi who married and had a family, and a baby son was born to them. When the baby’s mother saw that he was an unusually beautiful baby, she hid him at home for three months.
3
Then, when she could no longer hide him, she made a little boat from papyrus reeds, waterproofed it with tar, put the baby in it, and laid it among the reeds along the river’s edge.
4
The baby’s sister watched from a distance to see what would happen to him.
5
Well, this is what happened: A princess, one of Pharaoh’s daughters, came down to bathe in the river, and as she and her maids were walking along the riverbank, she spied the little boat among the reeds and sent one of the maids to bring it to her.
6
When she opened it, there was a baby! And he was crying. This touched her heart. “He must be one of the Hebrew children!” she said.
7
Then the baby’s sister approached the princess and asked her, “Shall I go and find one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?”
8
“Yes, do!” the princess replied. So the little girl rushed home and called her mother!
9
“Take this child home and nurse him for me,” the princess instructed the baby’s mother, “and I will pay you well!” So she took him home and nursed him.
10
Later, when he was older, she brought him back to the princess and he became her son. She named him Moses (meaning “to draw out”
*
) because she had drawn him out of the water.
When Jesus came to Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples,
“Who are the people saying I
*
am?”
14
“Well,” they replied, “some say John the Baptist; some, Elijah; some, Jeremiah or one of the other prophets.”
15
Then he asked them,
“Who do
you
think I am?”
16
Simon Peter answered, “The Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
17
“God has blessed you, Simon, son of Jonah,”
Jesus said,
“for my Father in heaven has personally revealed this to you—this is not from any human source.
18
You are Peter, a stone; and upon this rock I will build my church; and all the powers of hell shall not prevail against it.
19
And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven; whatever doors you lock on earth shall be locked in heaven; and whatever doors you open on earth shall be open in heaven!”
20
Then he warned the disciples against telling others that he was the Messiah.
21
From then on Jesus began to speak plainly to his disciples about going to Jerusalem, and what would happen to him there—that he would suffer at the hands of the Jewish leaders,
*
that he would be killed, and that three days later he would be raised to life again.
22
But Peter took him aside to remonstrate with him. “Heaven forbid, sir,” he said. “This is not going to happen to you!”
23
Jesus turned on Peter and said,
“Get away from me, you Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are thinking merely from a human point of view, and not from God’s.”
24
Then Jesus said to the disciples,
“If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
25
For anyone who keeps his life for himself shall lose it; and anyone who loses his life for me shall find it again.
26
What profit is there if you gain the whole world—and lose eternal life? What can be compared with the value of eternal life?
27
For I, the Son of Mankind, shall come with my angels in the glory of my Father and judge each person according to his deeds.
28
And some of you standing right here now will certainly live to see me coming in my Kingdom.
”
17:
1
Six days later Jesus took Peter, James, and his brother John to the top of a high and lonely hill,
2
and as they watched, his appearance changed so that his face shone like the sun and his clothing became dazzling white.
3
Suddenly Moses and Elijah appeared and were talking with him.
4
Peter blurted out, “Sir, it’s wonderful that we can be here! If you want me to, I’ll make three shelters,
*
one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.”
5
But even as he said it, a bright cloud came over them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, and I am wonderfully pleased with him. Obey him.”
*
6
At this the disciples fell face downward to the ground, terribly frightened.
7
Jesus came over and touched them.
“Get up,”
he said,
“don’t be afraid.”
8
And when they looked, only Jesus was with them.
9
As they were going down the mountain, Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone what they had seen until after he had risen from the dead.
How the king rejoices in your strength, O Lord! How he exults in your salvation.
2
For you have given him his heart’s desire, everything he asks you for!
3
You welcomed him to the throne with success and prosperity. You set a royal crown of solid gold upon his head.
4
He asked for a long, good life, and you have granted his request; the days of his life stretch on and on forever.
5
You have given him fame and honor. You have clothed him with splendor and majesty.
6
You have endowed him with eternal happiness. You have given him the unquenchable joy of your presence.
7
And because the king trusts in the Lord, he will never stumble, never fall; for he depends upon the steadfast love of the God who is above all gods.
8
Your hand, O Lord, will find your enemies, all who hate you.
9-10
When you appear, they will be destroyed in the fierce fire of your presence. The Lord will destroy them and their children.
11
For these men plot against you, Lord, but they cannot possibly succeed.
12
They will turn and flee when they see your arrows aimed straight at them.
13
Accept our praise, O Lord, for all your glorious power. We will write songs to celebrate your mighty acts!