Bible Reading
February 13 and 14
The World English Bible
Feb.
13
Genesis
44
Gen
44:1 He commanded the steward of his house, saying, "Fill the
men's sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put every man's
money in his sack's mouth.
Gen
44:2 Put my cup, the silver cup, in the sack's mouth of the
youngest, with his grain money." He did according to the word
that Joseph had spoken.
Gen
44:3 As soon as the morning was light, the men were sent away, they
and their donkeys.
Gen
44:4 When they had gone out of the city, and were not yet far off,
Joseph said to his steward, "Up, follow after the men. When you
overtake them, ask them, 'Why have you rewarded evil for good?
Gen
44:5 Isn't this that from which my lord drinks, and by which he
indeed divines? You have done evil in so doing.' "
Gen
44:6 He overtook them, and he spoke these words to them.
Gen
44:7 They said to him, "Why does my lord speak such words as
these? Far be it from your servants that they should do such a thing!
Gen
44:8 Behold, the money, which we found in our sacks' mouths, we
brought again to you out of the land of Canaan. How then should we
steal silver or gold out of your lord's house?
Gen
44:9 With whoever of your servants it be found, let him die, and we
also will be my lord's bondservants."
Gen
44:10 He said, "Now also let it be according to your words: he
with whom it is found will be my bondservant; and you will be
blameless."
Gen
44:11 Then they hurried, and every man took his sack down to the
ground, and every man opened his sack.
Gen
44:12 He searched, beginning with the eldest, and ending at the
youngest. The cup was found in Benjamin's sack.
Gen
44:13 Then they tore their clothes, and every man loaded his donkey,
and returned to the city.
Gen
44:14 Judah and his brothers came to Joseph's house, and he was
still there. They fell on the ground before him.
Gen
44:15 Joseph said to them, "What deed is this that you have
done? Don't you know that such a man as I can indeed divine?"
Gen
44:16 Judah said, "What will we tell my lord? What will we
speak? Or how will we clear ourselves? God has found out the iniquity
of your servants. Behold, we are my lord's bondservants, both we, and
he also in whose hand the cup is found."
Gen
44:17 He said, "Far be it from me that I should do so. The man
in whose hand the cup is found, he will be my bondservant; but as for
you, go up in peace to your father."
Gen
44:18 Then Judah came near to him, and said, "Oh, my lord,
please let your servant speak a word in my lord's ears, and don't let
your anger burn against your servant; for you are even as Pharaoh.
Gen
44:19 My lord asked his servants, saying, 'Have you a father, or a
brother?'
Gen
44:20 We said to my lord, 'We have a father, an old man, and a child
of his old age, a little one; and his brother is dead, and he alone
is left of his mother; and his father loves him.'
Gen
44:21 You said to your servants, 'Bring him down to me, that I may
set my eyes on him.'
Gen
44:22 We said to my lord, 'The boy can't leave his father: for if he
should leave his father, his father would die.'
Gen
44:23 You said to your servants, 'Unless your youngest brother comes
down with you, you will see my face no more.'
Gen
44:24 It happened when we came up to your servant my father, we told
him the words of my lord.
Gen
44:25 Our father said, 'Go again, buy us a little food.'
Gen
44:26 We said, 'We can't go down. If our youngest brother is with
us, then we will go down: for we may not see the man's face, unless
our youngest brother is with us.'
Gen
44:27 Your servant, my father, said to us, 'You know that my wife
bore me two sons:
Gen
44:28 and the one went out from me, and I said, "Surely he is
torn in pieces;" and I haven't seen him since.
Gen
44:29 If you take this one also from me, and harm happens to him,
you will bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Sheol.'
Gen
44:30 Now therefore when I come to your servant my father, and the
boy is not with us; seeing that his life is bound up in the boy's
life;
Gen
44:31 it will happen, when he sees that the boy is no more, that he
will die. Your servants will bring down the gray hairs of your
servant, our father, with sorrow to Sheol.
Gen
44:32 For your servant became collateral for the boy to my father,
saying, 'If I don't bring him to you, then I will bear the blame to
my father forever.'
Gen
44:33 Now therefore, please let your servant stay instead of the
boy, a bondservant to my lord; and let the boy go up with his
brothers.
Gen
44:34 For how will I go up to my father, if the boy isn't with
me?--lest I see the evil that will come on my father."
Feb.
14
Genesis
45
Gen
45:1 Then Joseph couldn't control himself before all those who stood
before him, and he cried, "Cause every man to go out from me!"
No one else stood with him, while Joseph made himself known to his
brothers.
Gen
45:2 He wept aloud. The Egyptians heard, and the house of Pharaoh
heard.
Gen
45:3 Joseph said to his brothers, "I am Joseph! Does my father
still live?" His brothers couldn't answer him; for they were
terrified at his presence.
Gen
45:4 Joseph said to his brothers, "Come near to me, please."
They came near. "He said, I am Joseph, your brother, whom you
sold into Egypt.
Gen
45:5 Now don't be grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that you sold
me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life.
Gen
45:6 For these two years the famine has been in the land, and there
are yet five years, in which there will be neither plowing nor
harvest.
Gen
45:7 God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the
earth, and to save you alive by a great deliverance.
Gen
45:8 So now it wasn't you who sent me here, but God, and he has made
me a father to Pharaoh, lord of all his house, and ruler over all the
land of Egypt.
Gen
45:9 Hurry, and go up 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. Don't wait.
Gen
45:10 You shall dwell in the land of Goshen, and you will be near to
me, you, your children, your children's children, your flocks, your
herds, and all that you have.
Gen
45:11 There I will nourish you; for there are yet five years of
famine; lest you come to poverty, you, and your household, and all
that you have." '
Gen
45:12 Behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin,
that it is my mouth that speaks to you.
Gen
45:13 You shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt, and of all
that you have seen. You shall hurry and bring my father down here."
Gen
45:14 He fell on his brother Benjamin's neck, and wept, and Benjamin
wept on his neck.
Gen
45:15 He kissed all his brothers, and wept on them. After that his
brothers talked with him.
Gen
45:16 The report of it was heard in Pharaoh's house, saying,
"Joseph's brothers have come." It pleased Pharaoh well, and
his servants.
Gen
45:17 Pharaoh said to Joseph, "Tell your brothers, 'Do this.
Load your animals, and go, travel to the land of Canaan.
Gen
45:18 Take your father and your households, and come to me, and I
will give you the good of the land of Egypt, and you will eat the fat
of the land.'
Gen
45:19 Now you are commanded: do this. Take wagons out of the land of
Egypt for your little ones, and for your wives, and bring your
father, and come.
Gen
45:20 Also, don't concern yourselves about your belongings, for the
good of all of the land of Egypt is yours."
Gen
45:21 The sons of Israel did so. Joseph gave them wagons, according
to the commandment of Pharaoh, and gave them provision for the way.
Gen
45:22 He gave each one of them changes of clothing, but to Benjamin
he gave three hundred pieces of silver and five changes of clothing.
Gen
45:23 To his father, he sent after this manner: ten donkeys loaded
with the good things of Egypt, and ten female donkeys loaded with
grain and bread and provision for his father by the way.
Gen
45:24 So he sent his brothers away, and they departed. He said to
them, "See that you don't quarrel on the way."
Gen
45:25 They went up out of Egypt, and came into the land of Canaan,
to Jacob their father.
Gen
45:26 They told him, saying, "Joseph is still alive, and he is
ruler over all the land of Egypt." His heart fainted, for he
didn't believe them.
Gen
45:27 They told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said to
them. When he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the
spirit of Jacob, their father, revived.
Gen
45:28 Israel said, "It is enough. Joseph my son is still alive.
I will go and see him before I die."
Feb. 14, 15
Matthew 23
Mat 23:1 Then Jesus
spoke to the multitudes and to his disciples,
Mat 23:2 saying, "The
scribes and the Pharisees sat on Moses' seat.
Mat 23:3 All things
therefore whatever they tell you to observe, observe and do, but
don't do their works; for they say, and don't do.
Mat 23:4 For they bind
heavy burdens that are grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's
shoulders; but they themselves will not lift a finger to help them.
Mat 23:5 But all their
works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad,
enlarge the fringes of their garments,
Mat 23:6 and love the
place of honor at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues,
Mat 23:7 the
salutations in the marketplaces, and to be called 'Rabbi, Rabbi' by
men.
Mat 23:8 But don't you
be called 'Rabbi,' for one is your teacher, the Christ, and all of
you are brothers.
Mat 23:9 Call no man on
the earth your father, for one is your Father, he who is in heaven.
Mat 23:10 Neither be
called masters, for one is your master, the Christ.
Mat 23:11 But he who is
greatest among you will be your servant.
Mat 23:12 Whoever
exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be
exalted.
Mat 23:13 "Woe to
you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows'
houses, and as a pretense you make long prayers. Therefore you will
receive greater condemnation.
Mat 23:14 "But woe
to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you shut up the
Kingdom of Heaven against men; for you don't enter in yourselves,
neither do you allow those who are entering in to enter.
Mat 23:15 Woe to you,
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel around by sea and
land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him
twice as much of a son of Gehenna as yourselves.
Mat 23:16 "Woe to
you, you blind guides, who say, 'Whoever swears by the temple, it is
nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is
obligated.'
Mat 23:17 You blind
fools! For which is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifies
the gold?
Mat 23:18 'Whoever
swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift
that is on it, he is obligated?'
Mat 23:19 You blind
fools! For which is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifies
the gift?
Mat 23:20 He therefore
who swears by the altar, swears by it, and by everything on it.
Mat 23:21 He who swears
by the temple, swears by it, and by him who was living in it.
Mat 23:22 He who swears
by heaven, swears by the throne of God, and by him who sits on it.
Mat 23:23 "Woe to
you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and
cumin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law:
justice, mercy, and faith. But you ought to have done these, and not
to have left the other undone.
Mat 23:24 You blind
guides, who strain out a gnat, and swallow a camel!
Mat 23:25 "Woe to
you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of
the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and
unrighteousness.
Mat 23:26 You blind
Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the platter, that
its outside may become clean also.
Mat 23:27 "Woe to
you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitened
tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but inwardly are full of
dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.
Mat 23:28 Even so you
also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of
hypocrisy and iniquity.
Mat 23:29 "Woe to
you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of
the prophets, and decorate the tombs of the righteous,
Mat 23:30 and say, 'If
we had lived in the days of our fathers, we wouldn't have been
partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.'
Mat 23:31 Therefore you
testify to yourselves that you are children of those who killed the
prophets.
Mat 23:32 Fill up,
then, the measure of your fathers.
Mat 23:33 You serpents,
you offspring of vipers, how will you escape the judgment of Gehenna?
Mat 23:34 Therefore,
behold, I send to you prophets, wise men, and scribes. Some of them
you will kill and crucify; and some of them you will scourge in your
synagogues, and persecute from city to city;
Mat 23:35 that on you
may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of
righteous Abel to the blood of Zachariah son of Barachiah, whom you
killed between the sanctuary and the altar.
Mat 23:36 Most
certainly I tell you, all these things will come upon this
generation.
Mat 23:37 "Jerusalem,
Jerusalem, who kills the prophets, and stones those who are sent to
her! How often I would have gathered your children together, even as
a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not!
Mat 23:38 Behold, your
house is left to you desolate.
Mat 23:39 For I tell
you, you will not see me from now on, until you say, 'Blessed is he
who comes in the name of the Lord!' "
