LET'S READ SCRIPTURE

  The Birth of Moses 1 Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman,  2 and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months.  3 But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket  for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile.  4 His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him. 5 Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it.  6 She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This is one of the Hebrew babies,” she said. 7 Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?” 8 “Yes, go,” she answered. So the girl went and got the baby’s mother.  9 Pharao...

  Jacob Goes to Egypt 1 So Israel set out with all that was his, and when he reached Beersheba, he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. 2 And God spoke to Israel in a vision at night and said, “Jacob! Jacob!” “Here I am,” he replied. 3 “I am God, the God of your father,” he said. “Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there.   4 I will go down to Egypt with you, and I will surely bring you back again. And Joseph’s own hand will close your eyes.” 5 Then Jacob left Beersheba, and Israel’s sons took their father Jacob and their children and their wives in the carts that Pharaoh had sent to transport him.  6 So Jacob and all his offspring went to Egypt, taking with them their livestock and the possessions they had acquired in Canaan.  7 Jacob brought with him to Egypt his sons and grandsons and his daughters and granddaughters—all his offspring. 8 These are the names of the sons of Israel (Jacob and his descendants) w...

  Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife 1 Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. Potiphar, an Egyptian who was one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there. 2 The  Lord  was with Joseph so that he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master.  3 When his master saw that the  Lord  was with him and that the  Lord  gave him success in everything he did,  4 Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned.  5 From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the  Lord  blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of the  Lord  was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field.  6 So Potiphar left everything he had in Joseph’s care; with Joseph in charge, he did not concern hims...

  Jacob Returns to Bethel 1 Then God said to Jacob, “Go up to Bethel and settle there, and build an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau.” 2 So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you, and purify yourselves and change your clothes.  3 Then come, let us go up to Bethel, where I will build an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone.”  4 So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods they had and the rings in their ears, and Jacob buried them under the oak at Shechem.  5 Then they set out, and the terror of God fell on the towns all around them so that no one pursued them. 6 Jacob and all the people with him came to Luz (that is, Bethel) in the land of Canaan.  7 There he built an altar, and he called the place El Bethel,  because it was there that God revealed himself to him when he was fleeing...