Genesis 49–50

^aAnd Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you ^bin the last days.

²Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob;

And hearken unto Israel your father.

³Reuben, thou art ^cmy firstborn,

My might, ^dand the beginning of my strength,

The excellency of ^edignity, and the excellency of power:

⁴Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel;

Because thou ^fwentest up to thy father’s bed;

Then defiledst thou it: he went up to my couch.

^5gSimeon and Levi are brethren;

Instruments of cruelty are in their habitations.

⁶O my soul, come not thou into ^htheir secret;

Unto their assembly, ⁱmine honour, be not thou united:

For in their anger they slew a man,

And in their selfwill they digged down a wall.

⁷Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce;

And their wrath, for it was cruel:

I will ^kdivide them in Jacob,

And scatter them in Israel.

⁸Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall ^lpraise:

Thy hand shall be in ^mthe neck of thine enemies;

ⁿThy father’s children shall bow down before thee.

⁹Judah is ^oa lion’s whelp:

From the prey, my son, thou art gone up:

^pHe stooped down, he couched as a lion,

And as an old lion; who shall rouse him up?

^10qThe sceptre shall not depart from Judah,

Nor ^ra lawgiver from between his feet,

Until ^sShiloh come;

And unto him shall ^tthe gathering of the people be.

¹¹Binding his foal ^uunto the vine,

And his ass’s colt unto the choice vine;

He washed his garments in wine,

And his clothes in the blood of grapes:

¹²His ^xeyes shall be red with wine,

And his teeth white with milk.

^13yZebulun shall dwell at the ^zhaven of the sea;

And he shall be for a haven of ships;

And his border shall be unto Zidon.

¹⁴Issachar is a strong ass

Couching down between ^atwo burdens:

¹⁵And he saw that rest was good,

And the land that it was pleasant;

And bowed ^bhis shoulder to bear,

And became a servant ^cunto tribute.

¹⁶Dan shall ^djudge his people,

As one of the tribes of Israel.

¹⁷Dan shall be a serpent by the way,

An adder in the path,

That biteth the horse heels,

So that his rider shall fall backward.

¹⁸I ^ehave waited for thy salvation, O Lord.

¹⁹Gad, ^fa troop shall overcome him:

But he shall overcome at the last.

²⁰Out of Asher his bread shall be fat,

And he shall yield royal dainties.

²¹Naphtali is a hind let loose:

He giveth goodly words.

²²Joseph is a fruitful bough,

Even a fruitful bough by a well;

Whose branches run over the wall.

^23gThe archers have ^hsorely grieved him,

And ⁱshot at him, and ^khated him:

²⁴But his ^lbow abode in strength,

And the arms of his hands were made strong

By the hands of ^mthe mighty God of Jacob;

(From thence is ⁿthe shepherd, ⁿthe stone of Israel:)

^25oEven by the God of thy father, who shall help thee;

And by the Almighty, who shall bless thee

With blessings of heaven above,

Blessings of the deep that lieth under,

Blessings of the breasts, and of the womb:

²⁶The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors

Unto the utmost bound ^pof the everlasting hills:

They shall be ^qon the head of Joseph,

And on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren.

²⁷Benjamin shall ^rravin as a wolf:

In the morning he shall devour the prey,

And at night ^she shall divide the spoil.

²⁸All these are the twelve tribes of Israel: and this is it that their father spake unto them, and blessed them; every one according to his blessing he blessed them. ²⁹And he charged them, and said unto them, I ^tam to be gathered unto my people: ^ubury me with my fathers ^xin the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, ³⁰in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, ^ywhich Abraham bought with the field of Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a buryingplace. ^31zThere they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; ^athere they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah. ³²The purchase of the field and of the cave that is therein was from the children of Heth. ³³And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and ^bwas gathered unto his people.

L.And Joseph ^afell upon his father’s face, and wept upon him, and kissed him. ²And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to ^bembalm his father: and the physicians embalmed Israel. ³And forty days were fulfilled for him; for so are fulfilled the days of those which are embalmed: and the Egyptians mourned for him ^cthreescore and ten days. ⁴And when the days of his mourning were past, Joseph spake unto the house of Pharaoh, saying, ^dIf now I have found grace in your eyes, speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh, saying, ⁵My father made me swear, saying, Lo, I die: in my grave ^ewhich I have digged for me in the land of Canaan, there shalt thou bury me. Now therefore let me go up, I pray thee, and bury my father, and I will come again. ⁶And Pharaoh said, Go up, and bury thy father, according as he made thee swear. ⁷And Joseph went up to bury his father: and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, ⁸and all the house of Joseph, and his brethren, and his father’s house: only their little ones, and their flocks, and their herds, they left ^fin the land of Goshen. ⁹And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen: and it was a very great company. ¹⁰And they came to the threshingfloor of Atad, which is beyond Jordan, and there they mourned with a great and very sore lamentation: and he made a mourning for his father seven days. ¹¹And when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning in the floor of Atad, they said, This is a grievous mourning to the Egyptians: wherefore the name of it was called Abel-mizraim, which is beyond Jordan. ¹²And his sons did unto him according as he commanded them: ¹³for ^ghis sons carried him into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which Abraham ^hbought with the field for a possession of a buryingplace of Ephron the Hittite, before Mamre. ¹⁴And Joseph returned into Egypt, he, and his brethren, and all that went up with him to bury his father, after he had buried his father.

¹⁵And when Joseph’s brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure ⁱhate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him. ¹⁶And they sent a messenger unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying, ¹⁷So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren, and their sin; for they did unto thee evil: and now, we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of ^kthe God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake unto him. ¹⁸And his brethren also went and fell down before his face; and they said, Behold, we be thy servants. ¹⁹And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: ^lfor am I in the place of God? ²⁰But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but ^mGod meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. ²¹Now therefore fear ye not: ⁿI will nourish you and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them.

²²And Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he, and his father’s house: and Joseph lived an hundred and ten years. ²³And Joseph saw Ephraim’s children of the third generation: ^othe children also of Machir the son of Manasseh were brought up upon Joseph’s knees. ²⁴And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die: and ^pGod will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land unto the land ^qwhich he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. ²⁵And ^rJoseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence. ²⁶So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years old: and they ^sembalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.