Then prepare for me some tasty food, the kind I love, and bring it to me. Then ¹  I will eat it so that I may bless you ²  before I die.”

‘Bring me some wild game and prepare for me some tasty food. Then I will eat ¹  it and bless you ²  in the presence of the Lord ³  before I die.’

Isaac began to shake violently ¹  and asked, “Then who else hunted game and brought it to me? I ate all of it just before you arrived, and I blessed him. ²  He will indeed be blessed!”

When you searched through all my goods, did you find anything that belonged to you? ¹  Set it here before my relatives and yours, ²  and let them settle the dispute between the two of us! ³ 

He entrusted them to ¹  his servants, who divided them into herds. ²  He told his servants, “Pass over before me, and keep some distance between one herd and the next.”

But then he drew back his hand, and his brother came out before him. ¹  She said, “How you have broken out of the womb!” ²  So he was named Perez. ³ 

In three more days Pharaoh will reinstate you ¹  and restore you to your office. You will put Pharaoh’s cup in his hand, just as you did before ²  when you were cupbearer.

When they had eaten them, ¹  no one would have known ²  that they had done so, for they were just as bad-looking as before. Then I woke up.

Pharaoh ¹  had him ride in the chariot used by his second-in-command, ²  and they cried out before him, “Kneel down!” ³  So he placed him over all the land of Egypt.

Now Joseph was the ruler of the country, the one who sold grain to all the people of the country. ¹  Joseph’s brothers came and bowed down ²  before him with ³  their faces to the ground.

May the sovereign God ¹  grant you mercy before the man so that he may release ²  your other brother ³  and Benjamin! As for me, if I lose my children I lose them.” ⁴ 

He gave them portions of the food set before him, ¹  but the portion for Benjamin was five times greater than the portions for any of the others. They drank with Joseph until they all became drunk. ² 

Indeed, ¹  your servant pledged security for the boy with my father, saying, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, then I will bear the blame before my father all my life.’

Joseph was no longer able to control himself before all his attendants, ¹  so he cried out, “Make everyone go out from my presence!” No one remained ²  with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers.

When the money from the lands of Egypt and Canaan was used up, all the Egyptians ¹  came to Joseph and said, “Give us food! Why should we die ²  before your very eyes because our money has run out?”

“Now, as for your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, they will be mine. ¹  Ephraim and Manasseh will be mine just as Reuben and Simeon are.

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,

The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew ¹  women are not like the Egyptian women – for the Hebrew women ²  are vigorous; they give birth before the midwife gets to them!” ³ 

The Lord said ¹  to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, ²  see that you ³  do before Pharaoh all the wonders I have put under your control. ⁴  But I will harden ⁵  his heart ⁶  and ⁷  he will not let the people go.

But you must require ¹  of them the same quota of bricks that they were making before. ²  Do not reduce it, for they are slackers. ³  That is why they are crying, ‘Let us go sacrifice to our God.’