Then Joseph was not able to control himself before all who were standing by him. And he cried out, "Make every man go out from me!" So no one stood with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. And he wept loudly, so that the Egyptians heard it and the household of Pharaoh heard it. Then Joseph said to his brothers, "I am Joseph! Is my father still alive?" And his brothers were unable to answer him, for they were dismayed at his presence. So Joseph said to his brothers, "Come near to me, please." And they drew near. And he said, "I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. So now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves that you sold me here, for God sent me as deliverance before you. For these two years the famine has been in the midst of the land, but there will be five more years where there is no plowing or harvest. And God sent me before you all to preserve for you a remnant in the land and to keep alive among you many survivors. So now, you yourselves did not send me here, but God put me here as father to Pharaoh and as master of all his household, and a ruler over all the land of Egypt. Hurry, and go up to my father and say to him, ‘Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me and do not delay. You shall settle in the land of Goshen so that you will be near me, you and your children and your grandchildren, and your flocks and your herds and all that you have. And I will provide for you there, because there are still five years of famine—lest you and your household and all that you have become destitute.’ Now behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see, that it is I who am speaking to you. And you must tell my father of all my honor in Egypt and all that you have seen. Now hurry and bring my father here." Then he fell upon the neck of his brother Benjamin and wept, and Benjamin wept upon his neck. And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them. And afterward his brothers spoke with him. Then the report was heard in the house of Pharaoh, saying, "Joseph’s brothers have come." And it pleased Pharaoh and his servants. Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, "Say to your brothers: ‘Do this—load your donkeys and go back to the land of Canaan, and take your father and your households and come to me, and I will give you the best of the land of Egypt, and you shall eat the fat of the land.’ And you Joseph, are commanded to say this: ‘Do this! Take wagons from the land of Egypt for your little ones and your wives, and bring your father and come! Do not worry about your possessions, for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours.’"

And the sons of Israel did so. And Joseph gave them wagons at the word of Pharaoh, and gave them provisions for the journey. To each and to all of them he gave sets of clothing, but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver and five sets of clothing. And to his father he sent as follows: ten donkeys carrying the best of Egypt, and ten donkeys carrying grain and food and provisions for his father for the journey. Then he sent his brothers away, and when they departed he said to them, "Do not be agitated on the journey." So they went up from Egypt and came to the land of Canaan to Jacob their father. And they spoke to him, saying, "Joseph is still alive, and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt." And his heart went numb, because he did not believe him. Then they told him all the words of Joseph that he had spoken to them. And when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to carry him, then the spirit of Jacob their father revived. And Israel said, "It is enough. Joseph my son is still alive. I will go and see him before I die."

So Israel journeyed with all that he had, and he came to Beersheba and offered sacrifices to the God of his father, Isaac. And God spoke to Israel in visions of the night and said, "Jacob, Jacob." And he said, "Here I am." Then he said, "I am the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you a great nation there. I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I myself will also bring you up. And Joseph will place his hand over your eyes." So Jacob arose from Beersheba. And the sons of Israel carried their father Jacob, and their little ones and their wives in the wagons Pharaoh had sent to transport him. And they took their livestock and their possessions that they had acquired in the land of Canaan. And they came to Egypt, Jacob and all his offspring with him, his sons and his sons’ sons with him, his daughters and his daughters’ daughters with him, into Egypt.

Now these are the names of the sons of Israel, who came into Egypt, Jacob and his sons. Reuben, the firstborn of Jacob and the sons of Reuben: Enoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi. The sons of Simeon: Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jakin, Zohar, and Shaul, the son of a Canaanite woman. The sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. The sons of Judah: Er, Onan, Shelah, Perez, and Zerah (but Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan). And the sons of Perez were Hezron and Hamul. The sons of Issachar: Tolah, Puvah, Iob, and Shimron. The sons of Zebulun: Sered, Elon, and Jahleel. These are the sons of Leah that she bore to Jacob in Paddan-Aram, and Dinah his daughter. His sons and daughters were thirty-three persons in all. The sons of Gad: Ziphion, Haggi, Shuni, Ezbon, Eri, Arodi, and Areli. The sons of Asher: Imnah, Ishvah, Ishvi, and Beriah, and their sister Serah. And the sons of Beriah: Heber and Malkiel. There are the sons of Zilpah, whom Laban gave to Leah his daughter, and she bore these to Jacob—sixteen persons. The sons of Rachel, Jacob’s wife: Joseph and Benjamin. And Ephraim and Manasseh, whom Asenath, daughter of Potiphera, priest of On bore to him, were born to Joseph in the land of Egypt. The sons of Benjamin: Bela, Beker, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ehi, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim, and Ard. These are the sons of Rachel who were born to Jacob—fourteen persons in all. The sons of Dan: Hushim. The sons of Naphtali: Jahzeel, Guni, Jezer, and Shillem. These are the sons of Bilhah whom Laban gave to Rachel his daughter, and she bore these to Jacob—seven persons in all. All the persons belonging to Jacob who came to Egypt who were his descendants, not including the wives of the sons of Jacob were sixty-six persons in all. And the sons of Joseph who were born to him in Egypt were two persons. All the persons of the house of Jacob who came to Egypt were seventy.

He had sent Judah ahead of him to Joseph to appear before him in Goshen. And they came to the land of Goshen. Then Joseph harnessed his chariot and went up to meet Israel his father in Goshen. He presented himself to him and fell upon his neck and wept upon his neck a long time. Then Israel said to Joseph, "Now let me die since I have seen your face, for you are still alive." Then Joseph said to his brothers and to his father’s household, "I will go up and report to Pharaoh, and I will say to him, ‘My brothers and my father’s household who were in the land of Canaan have come to me. And the men are shepherds, for they are men of livestock, and they have brought their flocks and their cattle and all that they have.’ And it shall be that when Pharaoh calls you he will say, ‘What is your occupation?’ Then you must say, ‘You servants are men of livestock from our childhood until now, both we and also our ancestors,’ so that you may dwell in the land of Goshen, for every shepherd is a detestable thing to Egyptians."

A song. A psalm of David.

Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking along Titus also. Now I went up there because of a revelation and laid out to them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles, but in private to the influential people, lest somehow I was running, or had run, in vain. But not even Titus who was with me, although he was a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. Now this was because of the false brothers secretly brought in, who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, in order that they might enslave us, to whom not even for an hour did we yield in subjection, in order that the truth of the gospel might remain continually with you. But from those who were influential (whatever they were, it makes no difference to me, God does not show partiality)—for those who were influential added nothing to me. But these, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcision, just as Peter to the circumcision (for the one who was at work through Peter for his apostleship to the circumcision was at work also through me for the Gentiles), and when James and Cephas and John—those thought to be pillars—acknowledged the grace given to me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, in order that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcision. They asked only that we should remember the poor, the very thing I was also eager to do.

But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was condemned. For before certain people came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles, but when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, because he was afraid of those who were of the circumcision, and the rest of the Jews also joined in this hypocrisy with him, so that even Barnabas was carried away with them in their hypocrisy. But when I saw that they were not being straightforward with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in the presence of them all, "If you, although you are a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you try to compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?"

We are Jews by nature and not sinners from among the Gentiles, but knowing that a person is not justified by the works of the law, if not by faith in Jesus Christ, and we have believed in Christ Jesus so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no human being will be justified. But if while seeking to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also have been found to be sinners, then is Christ an agent of sin? May it never be! For if I build up again these things which I destroyed, I show myself to be a transgressor. For through the law I died to the law, in order that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me, and that life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not declare invalid the grace of God, for if righteousness is through the law, then Christ died to no purpose.