Genesis 46:1-7 (Vespers, 1st Reading)

1

So Israel took his journey with all that he had, and came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac.

2

Then God spoke to Israel in the visions of the night, and said, “Jacob, Jacob!” And he said, “Here I am.”

3

So He said, “I am God, the God of your father; do not fear to go down to Egypt, for I will make of you a great nation there.

4

“I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also surely bring you up again; and Joseph will put his hand on your eyes.”

5

Then Jacob arose from Beersheba; and the sons of Israel carried their father Jacob, their little ones, and their wives, in the carts which Pharaoh had sent to carry him.

6

So they took their livestock and their goods, which they had acquired in the land of Canaan, and went to Egypt, Jacob and all his descendants with him.

7

His sons and his sons’ sons, his daughters and his sons’ daughters, and all his descendants he brought with him to Egypt.