After God spoke long ago ¹  in various portions ²  and in various ways ³  to our ancestors ⁴  through the prophets,

They will fill your houses, the houses of your servants, and all the houses of Egypt, such as ¹  neither ²  your fathers nor your grandfathers have seen since they have been ³  in the land until this day!’” Then Moses ⁴  turned and went out from Pharaoh.

but when I rest ¹  with my fathers, carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burial place.” Joseph ²  said, “I will do as you say.”

Then he blessed Joseph and said, “May the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked – the God who has been my shepherd ¹  all my life long to this day,

Then he instructed them, ¹  “I am about to go ²  to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite.

“that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.”

“Speak to the Israelites, and receive from them a staff from each tribe, ¹  one from every tribal leader, ²  twelve staffs; you must write each man’s name on his staff.

“The daughters of Zelophehad have a valid claim. ¹  You must indeed ²  give them possession of an inheritance among their father’s relatives, and you must transfer ³  the inheritance of their father to them.

¹ Blessed be the Lord God of our fathers, who so moved in the heart of the king to so honor the temple of the Lord which is in Jerusalem!

For the music director; by the Korahites, a well-written song. ²  O God, we have clearly heard; ³  our ancestors ⁴  have told us what you did ⁵  in their days, in ancient times. ⁶ 

For though you may have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, because I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

Besides, we have experienced discipline from ¹  our earthly fathers ²  and we respected them; shall we not submit ourselves all the more to the Father of spirits and receive life? ³ 

I am writing to you, fathers, that ¹  you have known him who has been from the beginning. I am writing to you, young people, that ²  you have conquered the evil one. ³ 

but if a priest’s daughter is a widow or divorced, and she has no children so that she returns to live in ¹  her father’s house as in her youth, ²  she may eat from her father’s food, but no lay person may eat it.

“Whose daughter are you?” he asked. ¹  “Tell me, is there room in your father’s house for us to spend the night?”

but you must go to the family of my father and to my relatives to find ¹  a wife for my son.’

Now I understand that ¹  you have gone away ²  because you longed desperately ³  for your father’s house. Yet why did you steal my gods?” ⁴ 

Joseph named the firstborn Manasseh, ¹  saying, ²  “Certainly ³  God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father’s house.”

Joseph also provided food for his father, his brothers, and all his father’s household, according to the number of their little children.

Judah, ¹  your brothers will praise you. Your hand will be on the neck of your enemies, your father’s sons will bow down before you.