Genesis 49–50

Jacob Blesses His Twelve Sons

49Then Jacob called his sons and said, “Gather together so that I can tell you what will happen with you in days to come.^a

²Assemble and hear, O sons of Jacob!

Listen to Israel your father!

³Reuben, you are my firstborn,

my strength, and the firstfruit of my vigor,

excelling in rank and excelling in power.

⁴Unstable^b as water, you shall not excel any longer,

for you went up upon the bed of your father,

then defiled it. You went up upon my couch!

⁵Simeon and Levi are brothers;

weapons of violence are their swords.

Let me^c not come into their council.

⁶Let not my person^d be joined to their company.

For in their anger they killed men,

and at their pleasure they hamstrung cattle.

⁷Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce,

and their wrath, for it is cruel.

I will divide them in Jacob,

and I will scatter them in Israel.

⁸Judah, as for you, your brothers shall praise you.

Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies.

The sons of your father shall bow down to you.

⁹Judah is a lion’s cub.

From the prey, my son, you have gone up.

He bowed down; he crouched like a lion and as a lioness.

Who shall rouse him?

¹⁰The scepter shall not depart from Judah,

nor the ruler’s staff between his feet,

until Shiloh comes.

And to him shall be the obedience of nations.

¹¹Binding his donkey to the vine

and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine,

he washes his clothing in the wine

and his garment in the blood of grapes.

¹²The eyes are darker than wine,

and the teeth whiter than milk.

¹³Zebulun shall settle by the shore of the sea.

He shall become a haven for ships,

and his border shall be at Sidon.

¹⁴Issachar is a strong donkey,

crouching between the sheepfolds.

¹⁵He saw a resting place that was good,

and land that was pleasant.

So he bowed his shoulder to the burden

and became a servant of forced labor.

¹⁶Dan shall judge his people

as one of the tribes of Israel.

¹⁷Dan shall be a serpent on the way,

a viper on the road

that bites the heels of a horse,

so that its rider falls backward.

¹⁸I wait for your salvation, O Yahweh.

¹⁹Bandits shall attack Gad,

but he shall attack their heels.

²⁰Asher’s food is delicious,

and he shall provide from the king’s delicacies.

²¹Naphtali is a doe running free

that puts forth beautiful words.

²²Joseph is the bough^e of a fruitful vine,

a fruitful bough^f by a spring.

His branches climb over the wall.

²³The archers^g fiercely attacked him.

They shot arrows at him and were hostile to him.

²⁴But his bow remained in a steady position;

his arms^h were made agile

by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob.

From there is the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel.

²⁵Because of the God of your father he will help you

and by Shaddaiⁱ he will bless you

with the blessings of heaven above,

blessings of the deep that crouches beneath,

blessings of the breasts and the womb.

²⁶The blessings of your father

are superior to the blessings of my ancestors,

to the bounty of the everlasting hills.

May they be on the head of Joseph,

and on the forehead of the prince of his brothers.

²⁷Benjamin is a devouring wolf,

devouring the prey in the morning,

and dividing the plunder in the evening.

The Death and Burial of Jacob

²⁸All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father said to them when he blessed them; each according to his blessing he blessed them. ²⁹Then he instructed them and said to them, “I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me among my ancestors^j in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, ³⁰in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah that is before^k Mamre in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite as a burial site. ³¹There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife. There they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife. And there I buried Leah—³²the purchase of the field and the cave which was in it from the Hittites.” ³³When Jacob finished instructing his sons he drew his feet up to the bed. Then he took his last breath and was gathered to his people.

Jacob’s Funeral and Joseph’s Remaining Time in Egypt

50Then Joseph fell on the face of his father and wept upon him and kissed him. ²And Joseph instructed his servants the physicians to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel. ³Forty days were required for it,^a for thus are the days required for^b embalming. And the Egyptians wept for him seventy days. ⁴When the days of his weeping had passed, Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh, saying, “If I have found favor in your eyes, please speak in the hearing of Pharaoh, saying, ⁵‘My father made me swear, saying, “Behold, I am about to die. In my tomb that I have hewed out for myself in the land of Canaan—there you must bury me.” So then, please let me go up and let me bury my father; then I will return.’ ” ⁶Then Pharaoh said, “Go up and bury your father as he made you swear.” ⁷So Joseph went up to bury his father. And all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his household, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, went up with him, ⁸with all the household of Joseph, his brothers, and the household of his father. They left only their little children and their flocks and their herds in the land of Goshen. ⁹And there also went up with him chariots and horsemen. The company was very great. ¹⁰When they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which was beyond the Jordan, they lamented there with a very great and sorrowful wailing. And he made a mourning ceremony for his father seven days. ¹¹And when the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land, saw the mourning ceremony at the threshing floor of Atad they said, “This is a severe mourning for the Egyptians.” Therefore its name was called Abel-Mizraim, which is beyond the Jordan.¹²Thus his sons did to him just as he had instructed them. ¹³And his sons carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which field Abraham had bought as a burial site from Ephron the Hittite before^c Mamre. ¹⁴And after burying his father, Joseph returned to Egypt, he and his brothers and all who had gone up with him to bury his father.

¹⁵And when the brothers of Joseph saw that their father was dead, they said, “It may be that Joseph will hold a grudge against us and pay us back dearly for all the evil that we did to him.” ¹⁶So they sent word to Joseph saying, “Your father commanded us before his death, saying, ¹⁷“Thus you must say to Joseph, ‘O, please now forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, for they did evil to you.’ So now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.” And Joseph wept when they spoke to him. ¹⁸Then his brothers went also and fell before him and said, “Behold, we are your servants.” ¹⁹Then Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God? ²⁰As for you, you planned evil against me, but God planned it for good, in order to do this—to keep many people alive—as it is today. ²¹So then, do not be afraid. I myself will provide for you and your little ones. And he consoled them and spoke kindly^d to them.

The Death of Joseph

²²So Joseph remained in Egypt, he and the house of his father. And Joseph lived one hundred and ten years. ²³And Joseph saw Ephraim’s children to the third generation. Moreover, the children of Makir, son of Manasseh, were born on the knees of Joseph. ²⁴And Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die, but God will certainly visit you and bring you up from this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” ²⁵Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear an oath, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall bring up my bones from here.” ²⁶So Joseph died, being one hundred and ten years old.^e They embalmed him and he was placed in a coffin in Egypt.