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EGYPTIANS SELL THEMSELVES FOR CORN.

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unto him the second year, and said to him: We will not hide from my lord, how that our money is all spent ; and the herds of cattle are my lord's; there is nought left in the sight of my lord but our bodies and our lands. Wherefore should we die before thine eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be slaves to Pharaoh. Give us seed, that we may live, and not die, and that the land be not desolate. So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh; for the Egyptians sold every man his field, because the famine was sore upon them; and the land became Pharaoh's. And as for the people, he made bondmen of them, from one end of the land of Egypt even to the other end thereof. Only the land of the priests bought he not; for the priests had a portion from Pharaoh, and did eat their portion which Pharaoh gave them; therefore they sold not their land.

Then Joseph said to the people : Behold, I have bought you and your land this day for Pharaoh; lo, here is seed for you, that ye may sow the land. And it shall come to pass at the ingatherings, that ye shall give a fifth unto Pharaoh, and four parts shall be your own, for seed of the field, and for food for yourselves, and for them of your households, and for food for your little ones. And they said: Thou hast saved our lives; let us find grace in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh's slaves. So Joseph made it a law over the land of Egypt unto this day, that Pharaoh should have the fifth (only the land of the priests alone became not Pharaoh's).

And Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the country of Goshen; and they had possessions therein, and were fruitful, and multiplied exceedingly. Then the time drew near that Jacob must die; and it was told Joseph: Be

hold, thy father is sick. And he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, and went unto him. And they told Jacob, saying: Behold, thy son Joseph cometh unto thee; and he strengthened himself, and sat upon the bed. And Jacob said to Joseph: I had not thought to see thy face; and lo, God hath showed me thy seed also. And now thy two sons, which were born to thee in the land of Egypt before I came unto thee into Egypt, mine are they; Ephraim and Manasseh are to me as Reuben and Simeon. And he blessed them that day, saying In thee shall Israel bless, saying, God make thee like Ephraim, and like Manasseh. And he set Ephraim before Manasseh. And he said to Joseph: Behold, I die; but God shall be with you, and bring you again into the land of your fathers. And Jacob called to his sons, and blessed them, each with his own blessing he blessed them. And he commanded them, and said to them: I am gathered unto my people; bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite. There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah.

And Jacob made an end of commanding his sons, and gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people. And Joseph fell upon his father's face, and wept upon him, and kissed him. And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father; and the physicians embalmed him, And forty days were fulfilled for him; for so are fulfilled the days of embalming. And the Egyptians wept for him seventy days.

And when the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph spake to the house of Pharaoh, saying: If now I

FEAR OF THE BROTHERS.

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have found grace in your eyes, speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh, saying, my father made me swear, saying, Lo, I die; in my grave which I have bought for me in the land of Canaan, there shalt thou bury me. Now therefore let me go up and bury my father, and I will come again. And Pharaoh said: Go up and bury thy father, according as he made thee swear. And Joseph went up to bury his father; and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, and all the house of Joseph, and his brethren, and his father's house; only their little ones, and their flocks, and their herds, they left in the land of Goshen. And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen ; and it was a very great company. And his sons did to him according as he commanded them; for they carried him into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which Abraham bought with the field, for a possession of a burying-place, of Ephron the Hittite, before Mamre. And Joseph returned into Egypt, he, and his brethren, and all that went up with him to bury his father, after he had buried his father.

Now when Joseph's brethren saw that their father was dead, they said: Peradventure Joseph will hate us, and will fully requite us all the evil which we did unto him. And they charged Joseph, saying: Thy father did command before he died, saying, Thus shall ye say to Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee, the transgression of thy brethren, and their sin, for that they did unto thee evil. And now, we pray thee, forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake to him. And his brethren also went and fell down before his face, and said: Behold, we are thy slaves.

But Joseph said to them: Fear not; for am I in the place of God? And as for you, ye meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, to bring to pass that which is this day, to save much people alive. Now therefore fear ye not; I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly to them.

So Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he, and his father's house. Then Joseph said to his brethren: I die; but God will surely visit you, and bring you up out of this land unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying: God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones hence. So Joseph died; and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.

CHAPTER X.

EXODUS, i.-xv.

EGYPTIAN BONDAGE.

The Hebrews made Slaves-The Birth of Moses—The Adoption— The Murder-The Flight-The Burning Bush-Before Pharaoh— Bricks without Straw-The Plagues of Egypt-The Passover-The Escape The Pursuit-The Cloud and Fire-The Red Sea-The Overthrow of Pharaoh.

Now it came to pass after Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that generation, that the children of Israel increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty, so that the land was filled with them. Then there arose a new king over Egypt, who had not known Joseph. And he said to his people: Behold, the people of the children of Israel are too many and too mighty for us; come, let us deal craftily with them; lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that when some war befall us, they also be added to our enemies, and fight against us, and get them up out of the land. Therefore they set over them taskmasters to oppress them by laying burdens upon them. So there were built for Pharaoh the treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses. And the Egyptians enslaved the children of Irsael by violence; and made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick, and in all manner of field service. But the more they afflicted them, so much the more they multiplied and spread abroad. And the Egyptians abhorred the

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