Lexicon :: Strong's H5650 - ʿeḇeḏ

They answered, “Your servant our father is well. He is still alive.” And they knelt low and paid homage to him.

“If it is found with one of us, your servants, he must die, and the rest of us will become my lord’s slaves.”

The steward replied, “What you have said is right, but only the one who is found to have it will be my slave, and the rest of you will be blameless.”

“What can we say to my lord? ” Judah replied. “How can we plead? How can we justify ourselves? God has exposed your servants’ iniquity. We are now my lord’s slaves ​— ​both we and the one in whose possession the cup was found.”

Then Joseph said, “I swear that I will not do this. The man in whose possession the cup was found will be my slave. The rest of you can go in peace to your father.”

But Judah approached him and said, “My lord, please let your servant speak personally to my lord. Do not be angry with your servant, for you are like Pharaoh.

“My lord asked his servants, ‘Do you have a father or a brother? ’

“Then you said to your servants, ‘Bring him to me so that I can see him.’

“Then you said to your servants, ‘If your younger brother does not come down with you, you will not see me again.’

“This is what happened when we went back to your servant my father: We reported to him the words of my lord.

“Your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons.

“So if I come to your servant my father and the boy is not with us ​— ​his life is wrapped up with the boy’s life ​— ​

“when he sees that the boy is not with us, he will die. Then your servants will have brought the gray hairs of your servant our father down to Sheol in sorrow.

“Your servant became accountable to my father for the boy, saying, ‘If I do not return him to you, I will always bear the guilt for sinning against you, my father.’

“Now please let your servant remain here as my lord’s slave, in place of the boy. Let him go back with his brothers.

And they said to Pharaoh, “We have come to stay in the land for a while because there is no grazing land for your servants’ sheep, since the famine in the land of Canaan has been severe. So now, please let your servants settle in the land of Goshen.”

“Why should we die here in front of you ​— ​both us and our land? Buy us and our land in exchange for food. Then we with our land will become Pharaoh’s slaves. Give us seed so that we can live and not die, and so that the land won’t become desolate.”

“You have saved our lives,” they said. “We have found favor with our lord and will be Pharaoh’s slaves.”

Then Joseph went to bury his father, and all Pharaoh’s servants, the elders of his household, and all the elders of the land of Egypt went with him,

“‘Say this to Joseph: Please forgive your brothers’ transgression and their sin ​— ​the suffering they caused you.’ Therefore, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.” Joseph wept when their message came to him.

His brothers also came to him, bowed down before him, and said, “We are your slaves! ”

“No straw has been given to your servants, yet they say to us, ‘Make bricks! ’ Look, your servants are being beaten, but it is your own people who are at fault.”

“May the LORD take note of you and judge,” they said to them, “because you have made us reek to Pharaoh and his officials ​— ​putting a sword in their hand to kill us! ”

Moses and Aaron did just as the LORD had commanded; in the sight of Pharaoh and his officials, he raised the staff and struck the water in the Nile, and all the water in the Nile was turned to blood.

“The frogs will come up on you, your people, and all your officials.”

Moses said to Pharaoh, “You may have the honor of choosing. When should I appeal on behalf of you, your officials, and your people, that the frogs be taken away from you and your houses, and remain only in the Nile? ”

“the frogs will go away from you, your houses, your officials, and your people. The frogs will remain only in the Nile.”

“But if you will not let my people go, then I will send swarms of flies[fn] against you, your officials, your people, and your houses. The Egyptians’ houses will swarm with flies, and so will the land where they live.[fn]

And the LORD did this. Thick swarms of flies went into Pharaoh’s palace and his officials’ houses. Throughout Egypt the land was ruined because of the swarms of flies.

“As soon as I leave you,” Moses said, “I will appeal to the LORD, and tomorrow the swarms of flies will depart from Pharaoh, his officials, and his people. But Pharaoh must not act deceptively again by refusing to let the people go and sacrifice to the LORD.”

The LORD did as Moses had said: He removed the swarms of flies from Pharaoh, his officials, and his people; not one was left.

Those among Pharaoh’s officials who feared the word of the LORD made their servants and livestock flee to shelters,

but those who didn’t take to heart the LORD’s word left their servants and livestock in the field.

“But as for you and your officials, I know that you still do not fear the LORD God.”

When Pharaoh saw that the rain, hail, and thunder had ceased, he sinned again and hardened his heart, he and his officials.

“They will fill your houses, all your officials’ houses, and the houses of all the Egyptians ​— ​something your fathers and grandfathers never saw since the time they occupied the land until today.” Then he turned and left Pharaoh’s presence.

Pharaoh’s officials asked him, “How long must this man be a snare to us? Let the men go, so that they may worship the LORD their God. Don’t you realize yet that Egypt is devastated? ”