January 19: Daily Readings & Quote

The Incarnation is the most stupendous event which ever can take place on earth; and after it and henceforth, I do not see how we can scruple at any miracle on the mere ground of its being unlikely to happen.

- Venerable John Henry Newman

Today's readings are:

Genesis 47-50

Mark 7:24-37

1

Joseph went and told Pharaoh, "My father and my brothers have come from the land of Canaan, with their flocks and herds and everything else they own; and they are now in the region of Goshen."

2

He then presented to Pharaoh five of his brothers whom he had selected from their full number.

3

When Pharaoh asked them what their occupation was, they answered, "We, your servants, like our ancestors, are shepherds.

4

We have come," they continued, "in order to stay in this country, for there is no pasture for your servants' flocks in the land of Canaan, so severe has the famine been there. Please, therefore, let your servants settle in the region of Goshen."

5

Pharaoh said to Joseph, "They may settle in the region of Goshen; and if you know any of them to be qualified, you may put them in charge of my own livestock." Thus, when Jacob and his sons came to Joseph in Egypt, and Pharaoh, king of Egypt, heard about it, Pharaoh said to Joseph, "Now that your father and brothers have come to you,

6

the land of Egypt is at your disposal; settle your father and brothers in the pick of the land."

7

Then Joseph brought his father Jacob and presented him to Pharaoh. After Jacob had paid his respects to Pharaoh,

8

Pharaoh asked him, "How many years have you lived?"

9

¹ Jacob replied: "The years I have lived as a wayfarer amount to a hundred and thirty. Few and hard have been these years of my life, and they do not compare with the years that my ancestors lived as wayfarers."

10

Then Jacob bade Pharaoh farewell and withdrew from his presence.

11

² As Pharaoh had ordered, Joseph settled his father and brothers and gave them holdings in Egypt on the pick of the land, in the region of Rameses.

12

And Joseph sustained his father and brothers and his father's whole household, down to the youngest, with food.

13

Since there was no food in any country because of the extreme severity of the famine, and the lands of Egypt and Canaan were languishing from hunger,

14

Joseph gathered in, as payment for the rations that were being dispensed, all the money that was to be found in Egypt and Canaan, and he put it in Pharaoh's palace.

15

When all the money in Egypt and Canaan was spent, all the Egyptians came to Joseph, pleading, "Give us food or we shall perish under your eyes; for our money is gone."

16

"Since your money is gone," replied Joseph, "give me your livestock, and I will sell you bread in return for your livestock."

17

So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and he sold them food in return for their horses, their flocks of sheep and herds of cattle, and their donkeys. Thus he got them through that year with bread in exchange for all their livestock.

18

When that year ended, they came to him in the following one and said: "We cannot hide from my lord that, with our money spent and our livestock made over to my lord, there is nothing left to put at my lord's disposal except our bodies and our farm land.

19

Why should we and our land perish before your very eyes? Take us and our land in exchange for food, and we will become Pharaoh's slaves and our land his property; only give us seed, that we may survive and not perish, and that our land may not turn into a waste."

20

Thus Joseph acquired all the farm land of Egypt for Pharaoh, since with the famine too much for them to bear, every Egyptian sold his field; so the land passed over to Pharaoh,

21

and the people were reduced to slavery, from one end of Egypt's territory to the other.

22

Only the priests' lands Joseph did not take over. Since the priests had a fixed allowance from Pharaoh and lived off the allowance Pharaoh had granted them, they did not have to sell their land.

23

Joseph told the people: "Now that I have acquired you and your land for Pharaoh, here is your seed for sowing the land.

24

But when the harvest is in, you must give a fifth of it to Pharaoh, while you keep four-fifths as seed for your fields and as food for yourselves and your families (and as food for your children)."

25

"You have saved our lives!" they answered. "We are grateful to my lord that we can be Pharaoh's slaves."

26

Thus Joseph made it a law for the land in Egypt, which is still in force, that a fifth of its produce should go to Pharaoh. Only the land of the priests did not pass over to Pharaoh.

27

Thus Israel settled in the land of Egypt, in the region of Goshen. There they acquired property, were fertile, and increased greatly.

28

Jacob lived in the land of Egypt for seventeen years; the span of his life came to a hundred and forty-seven years.

29

When the time approached for Israel to die, he called his son Joseph and said to him: "If you really wish to please me, put your hand under my thigh as a sign of your constant loyalty to me; do not let me be buried in Egypt.

30

When I lie down with my ancestors, have me taken out of Egypt and buried in their burial place."

31

³ "I will do as you say," he replied. But his father demanded, "Swear it to me!" So Joseph swore to him. Then Israel bowed at the head of the bed.

1

Some time afterward, Joseph was informed, "Your father is failing." So he took along with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.

2

When Jacob was told, "Your son Joseph has come to you," he rallied his strength and sat up in bed.

3

¹ Jacob then said to Joseph: "God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and blessing me,

4

he said, 'I will make you fertile and numerous and raise you into an assembly of tribes, and I will give this land to your descendants after you as a permanent possession.'

5

Your two sons, therefore, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I joined you here, shall be mine; Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine as much as Reuben and Simeon are mine.

6

Progeny born to you after them shall remain yours; but their heritage shall be recorded in the names of their two brothers.

7

² I do this because, when I was returning from Paddan, your mother Rachel died, to my sorrow, during the journey in Canaan, while we were still a short distance from Ephrath; and I buried her there on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem)."

8

When Israel saw Joseph's sons, he asked, "Who are these?"

9

"They are my sons," Joseph answered his father, "whom God has given me here." "Bring them to me," said his father, "that I may bless them."

10

(Now Israel's eyes were dim from age, and he could not see well.) When Joseph brought his sons close to him, he kissed and embraced them.

11

Then Israel said to Joseph, "I never expected to see your face again, and now God has allowed me to see your descendants as well!"

12

Joseph removed them from his father's knees and bowed down before him with his face to the ground.

13

Then Joseph took the two, Ephraim with his right hand, to Israel's left, and Manasseh with his left hand, to Israel's right, and led them to him.

14

But Israel, crossing his hands, put out his right hand and laid it on the head of Ephraim, although he was the younger, and his left hand on the head of Manasseh, although he was the first-born.

15

Then he blessed them with these words: "May the God in whose ways my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, The God who has been my shepherd from my birth to this day,

16

The Angel who has delivered me from all harm, bless these boys That in them my name be recalled, and the names of my fathers, Abraham and Isaac, And they may become teeming multitudes upon the earth!"

17

When Joseph saw that his father had laid his right hand on Ephraim's head, this seemed wrong to him; so he took hold of his father's hand, to remove it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's,

18

saying, "That is not right, father; the other one is the first-born; lay your right hand on his head!"

19

But his father resisted. "I know it, son," he said, "I know. That one too shall become a tribe, and he too shall be great. Nevertheless, his younger brother shall surpass him, and his descendants shall become a multitude of nations."

20

So when he blessed them that day and said, "By you shall the people of Israel pronounce blessings; may they say, 'God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh,'" he placed Ephraim before Manasseh.

21

Then Israel said to Joseph: "I am about to die. But God will be with you and will restore you to the land of your fathers.

22

³ As for me, I give to you, as to the one above his brothers, Shechem, which I captured from the Amorites with my sword and bow."

1

Jacob called his sons and said: "Gather around, that I may tell you what is to happen to you in days to come.

2

"Assemble and listen, sons of Jacob, listen to Israel, your father.

3

"You, Reuben, my first-born, my strength and the first fruit of my manhood, excelling in rank and excelling in power!

4

Unruly as water, you shall no longer excel, for you climbed into your father's bed and defiled my couch to my sorrow.

5

¹ "Simeon and Levi, brothers indeed, weapons of violence are their knives.

6

Let not my soul enter their council, or my spirit be joined with their company; For in their fury they slew men, in their willfulness they maimed oxen.

7

Cursed be their fury so fierce, and their rage so cruel! I will scatter them in Jacob, disperse them throughout Israel.

8

"You, Judah, shall your brothers praise --your hand on the neck of your enemies; the sons of your father shall bow down to you.

9

Judah, like a lion's whelp, you have grown up on prey, my son. He crouches like a lion recumbent, the king of beasts--who would dare rouse him?

10

² The scepter shall never depart from Judah, or the mace from between his legs, While tribute is brought to him, and he receives the people's homage.

11

³ He tethers his donkey to the vine, his purebred ass to the choicest stem. In wine he washes his garments his robe in the blood of grapes.

12

His eyes are darker than wine, and his teeth are whiter than milk.

13

"Zebulun shall dwell by the seashore (This means a shore for ships), and his flank shall be based on Sidon.

14

"Issachar is a rawboned ass, crouching between the saddlebags.

15

When he saw how good a settled life was, and how pleasant the country, He bent his shoulder to the burden and became a toiling serf.

16

⁴ "Dan shall achieve justice for his kindred like any other tribe of Israel.

17

Let Dan be a serpent by the roadside, a horned viper by the path, That bites the horse's heel, so that the rider tumbles backward.

18

"(I long for your deliverance, O LORD!)

19

⁵ "Gad shall be raided by raiders, but he shall raid at their heels.

20

"Asher's produce is rich, and he shall furnish dainties for kings.

21

"Naphtali is a hind let loose which brings forth lovely fawns.

22

"Joseph is a wild colt ,a wild colt by a spring, a wild ass on a hillside.

23

Harrying and attacking, the archers opposed him;

24

But each one's bow remained stiff, as their arms were unsteady, By the power of the Mighty One of Jacob, because of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel,

25

⁶ The God of your father, who helps you, God Almighty, who blesses you, With the blessings of the heavens above, the blessings of the abyss that crouches below, The blessings of breasts and womb,

26

the blessings of fresh grain and blossoms, The blessings of the everlasting mountains, the delights of the eternal hills. May they rest on the head of Joseph, on the brow of the prince among his brothers.

27

"Benjamin is a ravenous wolf; mornings he devours the prey, and evenings he distributes the spoils."

28

All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father said about them, as he bade them farewell and gave to each of them an appropriate message.

29

Then he gave them this charge: "Since I am about to be taken to my kindred, bury me with my fathers in the cave that lies in the field of Ephron the Hittite,

30

the cave in the field of Machpelah, facing on Mamre, in the land of Canaan, the field that Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite for a burial ground.

31

There Abraham and his wife Sarah are buried, and so are Isaac and his wife Rebekah, and there, too, I buried Leah--

32

the field and the cave in it that had been purchased from the Hittites."

33

When Jacob had finished giving these instructions to his sons, he drew his feet into the bed, breathed his last, and was taken to his kindred.

1

Joseph threw himself on his father's face and wept over him as he kissed him.

2

Then he ordered the physicians in his service to embalm his father. When they embalmed Israel,

3

they spent forty days at it, for that is the full period of embalming; and the Egyptians mourned him for seventy days.

4

When that period of mourning was over, Joseph spoke to Pharaoh's courtiers. "Please do me this favor," he said, "and convey to Pharaoh this request of mine.

5

Since my father, at the point of death, made me promise on oath to bury him in the tomb that he had prepared for himself in the land of Canaan, may I go up there to bury my father and then come back?"

6

Pharaoh replied, "Go and bury your father, as he made you promise on oath."

7

So Joseph left to bury his father; and with him went all of Pharaoh's officials who were senior members of his court and all the other dignitaries of Egypt,

8

as well as Joseph's whole household, his brothers, and his father's household; only their children and their flocks and herds were left in the region of Goshen.

9

Chariots, too, and charioteers went up with him; it was a very large retinue.

10

¹ When they arrived at Goren-ha-atad, which is beyond the Jordan, they held there a very great and solemn memorial service; and Joseph observed seven days of mourning for his father.

11

When the Canaanites who inhabited the land saw the mourning at Goren-ha-atad, they said, "This is a solemn funeral the Egyptians are having." That is why the place was named Abel-mizraim. It is beyond the Jordan.

12

Thus Jacob's sons did for him as he had instructed them.

13

They carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave in the field of Machpelah, facing on Mamre, the field that Abraham had bought for a burial ground from Ephron the Hittite.

14

After Joseph had buried his father he returned to Egypt, together with his brothers and all who had gone up with him for the burial of his father.

15

Now that their father was dead, Joseph's brothers became fearful and thought, "Suppose Joseph has been nursing a grudge against us and now plans to pay us back in full for all the wrong we did him!"

16

So they approached Joseph and said: "Before your father died, he gave us these instructions:

17

'You shall say to Joseph, Jacob begs you to forgive the criminal wrongdoing of your brothers, who treated you so cruelly.' Please, therefore, forgive the crime that we, the servants of your father's God, committed." When they spoke these words to him, Joseph broke into tears.

18

Then his brothers proceeded to fling themselves down before him and said, "Let us be your slaves!"

19

But Joseph replied to them: "Have no fear. Can I take the place of God?

20

Even though you meant harm to me, God meant it for good, to achieve his present end, the survival of many people.

21

Therefore have no fear. I will provide for you and for your children." By thus speaking kindly to them, he reassured them.

22

Joseph remained in Egypt, together with his father's family. He lived a hundred and ten years.

23

He saw Ephraim's children to the third generation, and the children of Manasseh's son Machir were also born on Joseph's knees.

24

Joseph said to his brothers: "I am about to die. God will surely take care of you and lead you out of this land to the land that he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob."

25

Then, putting the sons of Israel under oath, he continued, "When God thus takes care of you, you must bring my bones up with you from this place."

26

Joseph died at the age of a hundred and ten. He was embalmed and laid to rest in a coffin in Egypt.

24

From that place he went off to the district of Tyre. ⁸ He entered a house and wanted no one to know about it, but he could not escape notice.

25

Soon a woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him. She came and fell at his feet.

26

The woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth, and she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter.

27

He said to her, "Let the children be fed first. ⁹ For it is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs."

28

She replied and said to him, "Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children's scraps."

29

Then he said to her, "For saying this, you may go. The demon has gone out of your daughter."

30

When the woman went home, she found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.

31

Again he left the district of Tyre and went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, into the district of the Decapolis.

32

And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment and begged him to lay his hand on him.

33

He took him off by himself away from the crowd. He put his finger into the man's ears and, spitting, touched his tongue;

34

then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him, "Ephphatha!" (that is, "Be opened!")

35

And (immediately) the man's ears were opened, his speech impediment was removed, and he spoke plainly.

36

¹⁰ He ordered them not to tell anyone. But the more he ordered them not to, the more they proclaimed it.

37

They were exceedingly astonished and they said, "He has done all things well. He makes the deaf hear and (the) mute speak."