The Daily Audio Bible

The Burial of Jacob

50 Then Joseph fell on his father’s face and wept over him and kissed him. ² Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel. ³ Forty days were required for him, for such is the time required for those who are embalmed. Then the Egyptians mourned for him seventy days.

⁴ When the days of his mourning were past, Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh, saying, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, speak to Pharaoh, saying, ⁵ ‘My father made me swear, saying, “I am about to die. Bury me in my tomb which I dug for myself in the land of Canaan.” Now therefore please let me go up and bury my father, and then I will return.’ ”

⁶ Pharaoh said, “Go up and bury your father, as he made you swear to do.”

⁷ Joseph went up to bury his father, and all the servants of Pharaoh went up with him too, the elders of his household and all the elders of the land of Egypt, ⁸ all the house of Joseph and his brothers and his father’s household. They left only their little ones and their flocks and their herds in the land of Goshen. ⁹ Both the chariots and horsemen also went up with him. It was a very great company.

¹⁰ When they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, they mourned with a great and very sorrowful lamentation. He observed seven days of mourning for his father. ¹¹ When the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, they said, “This is a grievous mourning for the Egyptians.” Therefore the place was called Abel Mizraim, which is beyond the Jordan.

¹² So his sons did with him just as he had commanded them. ¹³ For his sons carried him into the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, near Mamre, which Abraham bought with the field as a burial site from Ephron the Hittite. ¹⁴ After he had buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt, he and his brothers and all who went up with him to bury his father.

Joseph Reassures His Brothers

¹⁵ When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “Perhaps Joseph will hate us and will certainly pay us back for all the wrong we did to him.” ¹⁶ So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, “Your father gave this command before he died: ¹⁷ ‘Say to Joseph, “I beg you, forgive the transgressions of your brothers and their sin. For they did evil to you.” ’ Now, please forgive the transgressions of the servants of the God of your father.” And Joseph wept when they spoke to him.

¹⁸ Then his brothers also went and fell down before his face and said, “We are your servants.”

¹⁹ Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God? ²⁰ But as for you, you intended to harm me, but God intended it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many lives. ²¹ So now, do not fear. I will provide for you and your little ones.” So he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.

The Death of Joseph

²² Joseph stayed in Egypt, he and his father’s household, and Joseph lived one hundred and ten years. ²³ Joseph saw Ephraim’s children to the third generation. Also, the children of Makir, the son of Manasseh, were brought up on Joseph’s knees.

²⁴ Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die. God will surely come to you and bring you out of this land to the land of which He swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” ²⁵ Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.”

²⁶ So Joseph died at the age of one hundred and ten years old, and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.

Israel Oppressed

1 Now these are the names of the sons of Israel, which came into Egypt (each man and his household came with Jacob): ² Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah; ³ Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin; ⁴ Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. ⁵ All the people who came from the seed of Jacob were seventy people, but Joseph was in Egypt already.

⁶ Joseph died, as did all his brothers, and all that generation. ⁷ Nevertheless, the sons of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and became exceedingly mighty,^[a] so that the land was filled with them.

⁸ Now there rose up a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. ⁹ He said to his people, “Surely, the people of the sons of Israel are more numerous and powerful than we. ¹⁰ Come, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply, and it come to pass that when any war breaks out, they also join our enemies, and fight against us, and escape from the land.”

¹¹ Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their labor. They built for Pharaoh storage cities: Pithom and Rameses. ¹² But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew so that as a result they abhorred the sons of Israel. ¹³ The Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigor, ¹⁴ and they made their lives bitter with hard service—in mortar and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field, all their service in which they made them serve was with rigor.

¹⁵ The king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of which the name of one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah, ¹⁶ and he said, “When you perform the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the stools, if it is a son, then you must kill him, but if it is a daughter, then she may live.” ¹⁷ However, the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but kept the male children alive. ¹⁸ The king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this thing and preserved the male children’s lives?”

¹⁹ The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives come to them.”

²⁰ Therefore God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and grew very mighty. ²¹ So it happened that because the midwives feared God, He gave them families.

²² Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, “You must cast every son that is born into the river, and you must preserve every daughter’s life.”

The Birth of Moses

2 Now a man of the house of Levi went and married a daughter of Levi. ² And the woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw him, that he was a beautiful child, she hid him three months. ³ When she could no longer hide him, she took for him a container made of bulrushes and daubed it with tar and with pitch. She then put the child in it and set it in the reeds by the river’s bank. ⁴ Then his sister stood afar off so that she might know what would happen to him.

⁵ The daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river while her maidens walked along by the river’s side, and when she saw the container among the reeds, she sent her maid, and she retrieved it. ⁶ When she opened it, she saw the child. He was crying. She had compassion on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.”

⁷ Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and call for you a nursing woman of the Hebrew women so that she may nurse the child for you?”

⁸ And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go.” So the young girl went and called the child’s mother. ⁹ Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child away, and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed him. ¹⁰ Now the child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses and said, “Because I drew him out of the water.”

Peter’s Declaration About Jesus^(A)

¹³ When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?”

¹⁴ They said, “Some say that You are John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

¹⁵ He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”

¹⁶ Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

¹⁷ Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. ¹⁸ And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. ¹⁹ I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” ²⁰ Then He commanded His disciples to tell no one that He was Jesus the Christ.

Jesus Foretells His Death and Resurrection^(B)

²¹ From that time on, Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised on the third day.

²² Then Peter took Him and began rebuking Him, saying, “Far be it from You, Lord! This shall not happen to You.”

²³ But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things that are of God, but those that are of men.”

²⁴ Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. ²⁵ For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. ²⁶ For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? ²⁷ For the Son of Man shall come with His angels in the glory of His Father, and then He will repay every man according to his works. ²⁸ Truly I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.”

The Transfiguration^(C)

17 After six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother and brought them up to a high mountain alone, ² and was transfigured before them. His face shone as the sun, and His garments became white as the light. ³ Suddenly Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him.

⁴ Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If You wish, let us make three tabernacles here: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”

⁵ While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him.”

⁶ When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were filled with awe. ⁷ But Jesus came and touched them and said, “Rise, and do not be afraid.” ⁸ When they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.

⁹ As they came down the mountain, Jesus commanded them, “Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man is risen from the dead.”

Psalm 21

For the Music Director. A Psalm of David.

Warning Against Adultery