The Daily Audio Bible

50 Joseph bent down near his father's face. He wept over him and he kissed him. ² Then Joseph told some of his servants to take Jacob's body. They knew how to put special oil on the body so that it would not become spoiled. Joseph's servants did what he told them to do. ³ The servants took care of the body for 40 days, which is the usual time. The Egyptians wept for 70 days because of Jacob's death.^[a]

⁴ The time for them to weep came to an end. Joseph said to Pharaoh's officers, ‘If you agree, speak to Pharaoh for me. Tell him this: ⁵ My father made me make a promise. He said, “I will soon die. Bury me in the grave that I prepared for myself in Canaan.” So please let me go and bury my father there. Then I will return.’ ⁶ Pharaoh said, ‘Go and bury your father's body in the way that you promised him.’

⁷ So Joseph went to Canaan to bury his father. All Pharaoh's officers went with him. The important people who lived in Pharaoh's palace, as well as the important Egyptian officers, all went with Joseph. ⁸ Everyone in Joseph's family also went with him. His brothers and their families went, but they did not take their young children or their animals. They left those in Goshen. ⁹ Many soldiers also went with them. Some of them rode in chariots and some rode on horses.

¹⁰ They came to Atad's threshing floor, near the Jordan River. They stayed there for seven days to weep for the death of Jacob. They were very sad. ¹¹ The Canaanite people who lived near there saw how sad Joseph and his people were. So they gave Atad's threshing floor a different name. They called it ‘Abel Mizraim’.^[b] They said, ‘The Egyptians are showing that they are very sad because an important person has died.’

¹² So Jacob's sons did what he had told them to do. ¹³ They carried his body to Canaan. They buried him there in the cave, in the field at Machpelah, near Mamre. That is the cave that Abraham had bought from Ephron the Hittite. He had bought it as a grave for him and for his family.

¹⁴ When Joseph had buried his father, he returned to Egypt together with his brothers. Everyone who had gone to Canaan with him also returned to Egypt.

¹⁵ Now Jacob was dead and Joseph's brothers became frightened. They said to each other, ‘We did a bad thing to Joseph. Now he will be angry and he will punish us for what we did.’ ¹⁶ So they sent a message to Joseph. They said, ‘Your father said this to us before he died. ¹⁷ He told us to say to you, “Please forgive your brothers for the very bad thing that they did against you. They did a very cruel thing to you.” So please forgive our sin. We are servants of your father's God.’

When Joseph received their message, he was very upset and he wept. ¹⁸ His brothers came to see him. They bent down low to the ground in front of Joseph. They said to him, ‘We are your slaves.’ ¹⁹ But Joseph said to them, ‘Do not be afraid of me. It is God who has the authority to punish people. I am not God! ²⁰ You decided to hurt me. But God caused a good thing to happen because of that. God brought me here to save the lives of many people. You can see how that has really happened! ²¹ So do not be afraid. I will continue to take care of you. You and your children will receive what you need.’ In this way Joseph comforted them and he spoke kind words to them.

Joseph dies

²² Joseph lived in Egypt, together with his father's family. He lived for 110 years. ²³ And he was still alive to see Ephraim's children and grandchildren. He also saw Makir's children. Makir was Manasseh's son. Joseph took Makir's children to be his own children.^[c]

²⁴ Then Joseph said to his brothers, ‘I will soon die. But God will come to you and he will help you. He will take you out of Egypt. He will take you back to the land that he promised to give to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.’ ²⁵ He also said, ‘God will help you to leave Egypt. When that happens, you must carry my bones away from here.’ Joseph made the other sons of Israel promise that they would do that.

²⁶ So Joseph died when he was 110 years old. They put special oil on his body so that it would not become spoiled. Then they put his body in a box there in Egypt.^[d]

Israel's family go to Egypt

1 Here are the names of the Israelites who went to Egypt with Jacob.^[e] Each one went there with his family.

² Jacob's sons were Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah, ³ Issachar, Zebulun and Benjamin, ⁴ Dan, Naphtali, Gad and Asher. ⁵ Jacob himself had 70 descendants. His other son, Joseph, was already in Egypt.

⁶ After some time, Joseph died. Joseph's brothers and all his generation also died. ⁷ But the Israelites had many children, so they grew into a very large family. They became very powerful. They were everywhere in the whole country.

⁸ Later, a new king began to rule in Egypt. He did not know anything about Joseph.^{[f] 9} He said to his people, ‘Look! The Israelites have become too many for us. They are more powerful than we are. ¹⁰ We must find a clever way to stop them. If we do nothing, their families will become even bigger. Then, if there is a war, they will join our enemies and they will fight against us. That will give the Israelites a chance to leave our country.’

¹¹ So the Egyptians made the Israelites work as their slaves. The Egyptian masters made the Israelites do very hard work. They had to build cities for the king, Pharaoh, where he could store food for his people. The names of the cities were Pithom and Rameses.

¹² The Egyptians made the Israelites work more and more. But the Israelites still became more in number. They had many children and they lived in every part of the country. Because of this, the Egyptians began to be afraid of them. ¹³ So the Egyptians made the Israelites work without any rest. ¹⁴ The Israelites became very upset because of all the difficult work. They had to build houses with bricks and mortar.^[g] They also did many different kinds of work in the fields. The Egyptians made the Israelites do all this difficult work.

¹⁵ There were two Israelite women who helped the other women when they were giving birth. These two women were called Shiphrah and Puah. The king of Egypt said to them, ¹⁶ ‘When you help the Israelite women at the birth of their children, this is what you must do. If she gives birth to a son, kill him. But if the child is a daughter, you may let her live.’

¹⁷ But the two women respected God. So they did not do what the king of Egypt had told them. They obeyed God and they let the boys live.

¹⁸ Then the king of Egypt called the two women to come to him. He asked them, ‘Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?’ ¹⁹ The two women said to Pharaoh, ‘Israelite women are not like Egyptian women. Israelite women are very strong. They give birth to their babies very quickly, before we arrive at the house.’

²⁰ Because the two women respected God, he was kind to them. The Israelite people continued to grow in number. They became very strong. ²¹ Because the two women obeyed God, he gave them families of their own.

²² Then Pharaoh spoke to all the Egyptian people. He said, ‘When an Israelite boy is born, you must throw him in the river Nile. But you can let the baby girls live.’

The birth of Moses

2 At this time, there was an Israelite man who belonged to the family of Levi. He married a woman who was also a descendant of Levi. ² The woman became pregnant and she gave birth to a son. She saw that he was a beautiful boy. So she hid him for three months. ³ Then she could not continue to hide him. So she took a basket that was made from river grass. She painted the basket with tar, to keep the water out of it. Then she put her baby in the basket. She put the basket among the reeds at the edge of the river.^[h]

⁴ The baby's sister stood not very far away. She wanted to see what would happen to the baby.

⁵ Soon, Pharaoh's daughter came to wash herself in the river. Her servant girls were walking near the edge of the river. Pharaoh's daughter saw the basket among the river grasses. So she sent one of her servant girls to fetch it for her. ⁶ When she opened the basket, she saw the baby boy. He was crying. She was sorry for him and she said, ‘This is one of the Israelite children.’

⁷ Then the baby's sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, ‘Do you want me to fetch one of the Israelite mothers? She can take care of this baby and she can feed him for you.’ ⁸ Pharaoh's daughter said, ‘Yes, please do that.’

So the girl went and she fetched the baby's own mother. ⁹ Pharaoh's daughter said to the baby's mother, ‘Please take this baby to your house. You can take care of him for me. I will pay you to do this.’ So the woman took the baby home and she took care of him.

¹⁰ When the baby was older, his mother took him to Pharaoh's daughter. He now became her son. She gave him the name ‘Moses’. She said, ‘I will call him Moses because I pulled him out of the water.’^[i]

Peter says who Jesus is

¹³ Jesus went into the part of the country near Caesarea Philippi. While he was there, he asked his disciples, ‘When people talk about the Son of Man, who do they say that he is?’

¹⁴ They replied, ‘Some people say that you are John the Baptist. Other people say that you are Elijah. And some other people say that you are Jeremiah, or another prophet of God.’

¹⁵ ‘But what do you think?’ Jesus asked them. ‘Who do you say that I am?’

¹⁶ Simon Peter answered him. ‘You are the Messiah. You are the Son of God, the God who lives for ever.’

¹⁷ Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon, son of Jonah, God has blessed you! No person on earth taught you that. God, my Father in heaven, has shown you this. ¹⁸ I tell you this. You are called Peter, which means a rock. And I will build my church on this rock.^[a] Not even the power of death will destroy my church. ¹⁹ I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. You will tell people here on earth what is right for them to do. And you will tell them what is not right for them to do. God in heaven will give you this authority. He will agree with what you say.’

²⁰ Then Jesus said strongly to his disciples, ‘Do not tell anyone that I am the Messiah.’^[b]

Jesus tells his disciples how he would die

²¹ After this, Jesus began to explain everything to his disciples. He told them, ‘I must go to Jerusalem. There, I will suffer in many ways. The important Jews, the leaders of the priests, and the teachers of God's Law will hurt me. Then people will kill me. But three days later, God will cause me to become alive again.’^[c]

²² Then Peter took Jesus away from the other disciples. He began to tell Jesus that he must not say things like that. ‘No, Lord! God will never let this happen to you!’ he said to Jesus.

²³ Jesus turned round and said to Peter, ‘Satan, go away from me! I must obey God. But you are trying to stop me. Your thoughts do not come from God. Instead, you are thinking like men think.’

²⁴ Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘A person who wants to come with me must not think about himself. He must decide that his own life is not important. He must be like someone who carries his own cross to go and die. Then he may come with me as my disciple. ²⁵ Whoever wants to keep his life safe will lose it. But whoever gives his life to serve me will have true life. ²⁶ A person may get everything in the whole world for himself. But if he loses his life, it will not be any good for him. There is nothing that a person can give to get back his life. ²⁷ I tell you all this because I, the Son of Man, will come back to this earth with God's angels. When I come, I will have the powerful beauty of my Father. I will see what each person has done on earth. Then I will pay them what is right. ²⁸ I tell you this: When I, the Son of Man, come with power, some people who are standing here will see me at that time. Before they die, they will see me begin to rule in my kingdom.’

Three disciples see how great Jesus is

17 Six days after that, Jesus asked Peter and the two brothers, James and John, to go with him. Jesus led them up a high mountain by themselves. ² Peter, James and John saw Jesus change in front of them. He became different to look at. His face was bright like the sun. His clothes became very white and they shone. ³ Then Moses and Elijah appeared in front of the three disciples.^[d][e] They were talking with Jesus.

⁴ Peter said to Jesus, ‘Lord, it is good that we are here. If you want, please let me build three huts. One hut will be for you. One hut will be for Moses and one hut will be for Elijah.’^[f]

⁵ While Peter was still speaking, a bright cloud appeared. It covered them all. A voice spoke from the cloud and it said, ‘This is my Son and I love him. He makes me very happy. Listen to him.’

⁶ The disciples heard the voice. They threw themselves down to the ground. They were very frightened. ⁷ But Jesus came to them and he touched them. ‘Stand up,’ he said. ‘Do not be afraid.’ ⁸ When they looked up, they could not see anyone else. Only Jesus was there with them.

⁹ While they were walking down the mountain, Jesus said to the three disciples, ‘You must not tell anyone now about the things that you have just seen. One day, the Son of Man will die and then he will become alive again. Then you can tell people about these things.’

This is a song that David wrote for the music leader.

We thank God for his help^[a]

Listen to wise teaching

5 My child, listen carefully to the wisdom that I teach you. I will teach you how to understand things well. ² If you learn this, you will choose to do the right things in life. Your words will show that you are wise.

³ Do not listen to the words of an adulteress. She promises something as sweet as honey and as beautiful as olive oil. ⁴ But in the end, she gives you bitter food, like poison. She gives you pain like a sharp sword.^[a]

⁵ She will lead you down to the place of death. You will follow her to your grave! ⁶ She does not think about the way that leads to true life. She has lost the right road but she does not understand what she is doing.