⁶Let not my soul go into their counsel, nor my glory be in their assembly: because in their fury they slew a man, and in their selfwill they undermined a wall.

⁷Cursed be their fury, because it was stubborn: and their wrath, because it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, and will scatter them in Israel.

⁸Juda, thee shall thy brethren praise: thy hand shall be on the necks of thy enemies; the sons of thy father shall bow down to thee.

⁹Juda is a lion’s whelp: to the prey, my son, thou art gone up: resting thou hast couched as a lion, and as a lioness, who shall rouse him?

¹⁰The sceptre shall not be taken away from Juda, nor a ruler from his thigh, till he come that is to be sent, and he shall be the expectation of nations.

¹¹Tying his foal to the vineyard, and his ass, O my son, to the vine. He shall wash his robe in wine, and his garment in the blood of the grape.

¹²His eyes are more beautiful than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk.

¹³Zabulon shall dwell on the seashore, and in the road of ships, reaching as far as Sidon.

¹⁴Issachar shall be a strong ass, lying down between the borders.

¹⁵He saw rest that it was good: and the land that it was excellent: and he bowed his shoulder to carry, and became a servant under tribute.

¹⁶Dan shall judge his people like another tribe in Israel.

¹⁷Let Dan be a snake in the way, a serpent in the path, that biteth the horse’s heels, that his rider may fall backward.

¹⁸I will look for thy salvation, O Lord.

¹⁹Gad, being girded, shall fight before him: and he himself shall be girded backward.

²⁰Aser, his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield dainties to kings.

²¹Nephthali, a hart let loose, and giving words of beauty.

²²Joseph is a growing son, a growing son and comely to behold: the daughters run to and fro upon the wall;

²³But they that held darts, provoked him, and quarrelled with him, and envied him.

²⁴His bow rested upon the strong, and the bands of his arms and his hands were loosed, by the hands of the mighty one of Jacob: thence he came forth a pastor, the stone of Israel.

²⁵The God of thy father shall be thy helper, and the Almighty shall bless thee with the blessings of heaven above, with the blessings of the deep that lieth beneath, with the blessings of the breasts and of the womb.

²⁶The blessings of thy father are strengthened with the blessings of his fathers: until the desire of the everlasting hills should come: may they be upon the head of Joseph, and upon the crown of the Nazarite among his brethren.

²⁷Benjamin a ravenous wolf, in the morning shall eat the prey, and in the evening shall divide the spoil.

²⁸All these are the twelve tribes of Israel: these things their father spoke to them, and he blessed every one with their proper blessings.

²⁹And he charged them, saying: I am now going to be gathered to my people: bury me with my fathers in the double cave, which is in the field of Ephron the Hethite,

³⁰Over against Mambre, in the land of Chanaan, which Abraham bought together with the field, of Ephron the Hethite, for a possession to bury in.

³¹There they buried him, and Sara his wife: there was Isaac buried with Rebecca, his wife: there also Lia doth lie buried.

³²And when he had ended the commandments, wherewith he instructed his sons, he drew up his feet upon the bed, and died: and he was gathered to his people.

Chapter 50

And when Joseph saw this, he fell upon his father’s face, weeping and kissing him.

²And he commanded his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father.

³And while they were fulfilling his commands, there passed forty days: for this was the manner with bodies that were embalmed, and Egypt mourned for him seventy days.

⁴And the time of the mourning being expired, Joseph spoke to the family of Pharao: If I have found favour in your sight, speak in the ears of Pharao:

⁵For my father made me swear to him, saying: Behold I die; thou shalt bury me in my sepulchre which I have digged for myself in the land of Chanaan. So I will go up and bury my father, and return.

⁶And Pharao said to him: Go up and bury thy father according as he made thee swear.

⁷So he went up, and there went with him all the ancients of Pharao’s house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt.

⁸And the house of Joseph with his brethren, except their children, and their flocks and herds, which they left in the land of Gessen.

⁹He had also in his train chariots and horsemen: and it was a great company.

¹⁰And they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is situated beyond the Jordan: where celebrating the exequies with a great and vehement lamentation, they spent full seven days.

¹¹And when the inhabitants of Chanaan saw this, they said: This is a great mourning to the Egyptians. And therefore the name of that place was called, The mourning of Egypt.

¹²So the sons of Jacob did as he had commanded them.

¹³And carrying him into the land of Chanaan, they buried him in the double cave, which Abraham had bought together with the field for a possession of a burying place, of Ehpron, the Hethite, over against Mambre.

¹⁴And Joseph returned into Egypt with his brethren, and all that were in his company, after he had buried his father.

¹⁵Now he being dead, his brethren were afraid, and talked one with another: Lest perhaps he should remember the wrong he suffered, and requite us all the evil that we did to him.

¹⁶And they sent a message to him, saying: Thy father commanded us before he died,

¹⁷That we should say thus much to thee from him: I beseech thee to forget the wickedness of thy brethren, and the sin and malice they practised against thee: we also pray thee, to forgive the servants of the God of thy father this wickedness. And when Joseph heard this, he wept.

¹⁸And his brethren came to him; and worshipping prostrate on the ground, they said: We are thy servants.

¹⁹And he answered them: Fear not: can we resist the will of God?

²⁰You thought evil against me: but God turned it into good, that he might exalt me, as at present you see, and might save many people.

²¹Fear not: I will feed you and your children. And he comforted them, and spoke gently and mildly.

²²And he dwelt in Egypt with all his father’s house; and lived a hundred and ten years. And he saw the children of Ephraim to the third generation. The children also of Machir, the sons of Manasses, were born on Joseph’s knees.

²³After which he told his brethren: God will visit you after my death, and will make you go up out of this land, to the land which he swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

²⁴And he made them swear to him, saying: God will visit you, carry my bones with you out of this place:

²⁵And he died, being a hundred and ten years old. And being embalmed, he was laid in a coffin in Egypt.

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