Bible Verses About Select Readings

Now return quickly to my father and tell him, ‘This is what your son Joseph says: God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me without delay.

You shall settle in the land of Goshen and be near me—you and your children and grandchildren, your flocks and herds, and everything you own.

And there I will provide for you, because there will be five more years of famine. Otherwise, you and your household and everything you own will come to destitution.’

Behold! You and my brother Benjamin can see that I, Joseph, am the one speaking with you.

Tell my father about all my splendor in Egypt and everything you have seen. And bring my father down here quickly.”

Then Joseph threw his arms around his brother Benjamin and wept, and Benjamin wept as they embraced.

Joseph kissed each of his brothers as he wept over them. And afterward his brothers talked with him.

When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds about them and said, “What have we done? We have released Israel from serving us.”

So Pharaoh prepared his chariot and took his army with him.

He took 600 of the best chariots, and all the other chariots of Egypt, with officers over all of them.

And the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt so that he pursued the Israelites, who were marching out defiantly.

The Egyptians—all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots, horsemen and troops—pursued the Israelites and overtook them as they camped by the sea near Pi-hahiroth, opposite Baal-zephon.

As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up and saw the Egyptians marching after them, and they were terrified and cried out to the LORD.

They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us into the wilderness to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt?

Did we not say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone so that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.”

But Moses told the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the LORD’s salvation, which He will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians you see today, you will never see again.

The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.”

Then the LORD said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to Me? Tell the Israelites to go forward.

And as for you, lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground.

And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them. Then I will gain honor by means of Pharaoh and all his army and chariots and horsemen.

The Egyptians will know that I am the LORD when I am honored through Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.”

And the angel of God, who had gone before the camp of Israel, withdrew and went behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved from before them and stood behind them,

so that it came between the camps of Egypt and Israel. The cloud was there in the darkness, but it lit up the night. So all night long neither camp went near the other.

Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the LORD drove back the sea with a strong east wind that turned it into dry land. So the waters were divided,

and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with walls of water on their right and on their left.