Genesis 37/41 Joseph Was Sold to Egypt
http://www.csucatol.cn/audio/biblestory/3741josephsdreams.mp3[ 本帖最后由 Cinderella 于 2008-10-28 22:46 编辑 ]
Genesis 37/41 Joseph Was Sold to Egypt
Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives. And he brought their father a bad report about them. Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons because he has been born to him in his old age and he made a richly ornamented robe for him. When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him. Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had. We were binding sheaves of grain on the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood up right while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.” His brothers said to him, “Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?” And they hated him all the more because his dream and what he had said. Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. ”Listen” he said, ”I had another dream and this time the sun and the moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, “What is this dream you have? Will you mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?” His brothers were jealous of him but his father kept the thing in mind. Now his brothers had gone to graze their father’s flock near Shechem, and Israel said to Joseph, “As you know, your brothers are grazing flocks near Shechem. Come! I’m going to send you to them.” “Very well.” He replied. So he said to him, ”Go and see if all is well with your brothers and with the flocks, and bring word back to me.” So he sent him off from the Valley of Hebron. When Joseph arrived at Shechem, a man found him wandering around in the fields and asked him, “What are you looking for?” He replied, “I’m looking for my brothers. Can you tell me where they are grazing their flocks?” “They have moved on from here.” The man answered, “I have heard them say, ‘Let’s go to Dothan.’” So Joseph went after his brothers and found them near Dothan. But they saw him in the distance before he reached them, they plotted to kill him. “Here comes that dreamer.” they said to each other, “Come now! Let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and see that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we’ll see what comes of his dreams.” When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands. “Let’s not take his life.” He said, “Don’t shed any blood. Throw him in to the cistern here in the desert but don’t lay a hand on him.” Reuben said this to rescue him from them and take him back to his father. So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the richly ornamented robe he was wearing, and they took him and threw him into the cistern. Now the cistern was empty. There was no water in it. As they sat down to eat their meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were loaded with spices, balm and myrrh, and they were on their way to take them down to Egypt. Judah said to his brothers, “What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? Come! Let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay out hands on him. After all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood.” His brothers agreed. So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for 20 shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites who took him to Egypt. When Reuben returned to the cistern and saw that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes. He went back to his brothers and said, “The boy isn’t there. Where can I turn now?” Then they got Joseph’s robe, slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood. They took the ornamented robe back to their father and said, “We found this. Examine it to see whether it’s your son’s robe.” He recognized it and said, “It is my son’s robe. Some ferocious animal has devoured him. Joseph has surely been torn to pieces.” Then Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and mourned for his son many days. All his sons and daughters came to comfort him but he refused to be comforted. “No.” he said, “In morning will go down to the grave, to my son.” So his father wept for him. Meanwhile, the Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, one of the Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard. Joseph was 30 years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from Pharaoh’s presence and traveled throughout Egypt. During the seven years of abundance, the land produced plentifully. Joseph collected all the food produced in those seven years of abundance in Egypt and stored it in the cities. In each city, he put the food grown in the fields surrounding it. Joseph stored up huge quantities of grain like the sand of the sea. It was so much that he stopped keeping records because it was beyond measure. Before the years of famine came, two sons were born to Joseph by Asenath, daughter of Potiphera, preist of On. Joseph named his first born Manasseh and said, “It is because God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father’s household.” The second son he named Ephraim and said, “It is because God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering.” The seven years of abundance in Egypt came to an end, and the seven years of famine began just as Joseph had said. There was famine in all the other lands, but in the whole land of Egypt, there was food. When all Egypt began to feel the famine, the people cried to Pharaoh for food. Then Pharaoh told all the Egyptians, “Go to Joseph and do what he tells you.” When the famine had spread over the whole country, Joseph opened the storehouses and sold grain to the Egyptians for the famine was severe throughout Egypt. And all the countries came to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph because the famine was severe in all the world.
页:
[1]