Genesis 49–50

Chapter 49

Israel’s Prophecy concerning His Sons

¹Then Jacob summoned his sons and said, “Assemble yourselves that I may tell you what will befall you ^ain the ¹days to come.

²“Gather together and hear, O sons of Jacob;

And ^alisten to Israel your father.

³“Reuben, you are my firstborn;

My might and ^athe beginning of my strength,

¹Preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power.

⁴“¹Uncontrolled as water, you shall not have preeminence,

^aBecause you went up to your father’s bed;

Then you defiled it—he went up to my couch.

⁵“^aSimeon and Levi are brothers;

Their swords are implements of violence.

⁶“^aLet my soul not enter into their council;

Let not my glory be united with their assembly;

Because in their anger they slew ¹men,

And in their self-will they lamed ²oxen.

⁷“Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce;

And their wrath, for it is cruel.

^aI will ¹disperse them in Jacob,

And scatter them in Israel.

⁸“Judah, your brothers shall praise you;

Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;

^aYour father’s sons shall bow down to you.

⁹“Judah is a ^alion’s whelp;

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

^bHe ¹couches, he lies down as a lion,

And as a ²lion, who ³dares rouse him up?

¹⁰“^aThe scepter shall not depart from Judah,

Nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,

¹Until Shiloh comes,

And ^bto him shall be the obedience of the peoples.

¹¹“^1aHe ties his foal to the vine,

And his donkey’s colt to the choice vine;

^bHe washes his garments in wine,

And his robes in the blood of grapes.

¹²“His eyes are ¹dull from wine,

And his teeth ²white from milk.

¹³“^aZebulun will dwell at the seashore;

And he shall be ¹a haven for ships,

And his flank shall be toward Sidon.

¹⁴“Issachar is ¹a strong donkey,

^aLying down between the ²sheepfolds.

¹⁵“When he saw that a resting place was good

And that the land was pleasant,

He bowed his shoulder to bear burdens,

And became a slave at forced labor.

¹⁶“^aDan shall ^bjudge his people,

As one of the tribes of Israel.

¹⁷“Dan shall be a serpent in the way,

A horned snake in the path,

That bites the horse’s heels,

So that his rider falls backward.

¹⁸“^aFor Your salvation I wait, O Lord.

¹⁹“^aAs for Gad, ¹raiders shall raid him,

But he will raid at their ²heels.

²⁰“^1aAs for ^bAsher, his ²food shall be ³rich,

And he will yield royal dainties.

²¹“^aNaphtali is a doe let loose,

He gives beautiful words.

²²“^aJoseph is a fruitful ¹bough,

A fruitful bough by a spring;

Its ²branches run over a wall.

²³“The archers bitterly attacked him,

And shot at him and harassed him;

²⁴But his ^abow remained ¹firm,

And ^2bhis arms were agile,

From the hands of the ^cMighty One of Jacob

(From there is ^dthe Shepherd, ^ethe Stone of Israel),

²⁵From ^athe God of your father who helps you,

And ^1bby the ²Almighty who blesses you

With ^cblessings of heaven above,

Blessings of the deep that lies beneath,

Blessings of the breasts and of the womb.

²⁶“The blessings of your father

Have surpassed the blessings of my ancestors

Up to the ¹utmost bound of ^athe everlasting hills;

May they be on the head of Joseph,

And on the crown of the head of the one distinguished among his brothers.

²⁷“Benjamin is a ¹ravenous wolf;

In the morning he devours the prey,

And in the evening he divides the spoil.”

²⁸All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father said to them ¹when he blessed them. He blessed them, every one ²with the blessing appropriate to him.

²⁹Then he charged them and said to them, “I am about to be ^agathered to my people; ^bbury me with my fathers in the cave that is in ^cthe field of Ephron the Hittite,

³⁰in the ^acave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought along with the field from Ephron the Hittite for a ¹burial site.

³¹“There they buried ^aAbraham and his wife ^bSarah, there they buried ^cIsaac and his wife Rebekah, and there I buried Leah—

³²the field and the cave that is in it, purchased from the sons of Heth.”

³³When Jacob finished charging his sons, he drew his feet into the bed and ^abreathed his last, and was ^bgathered to his people.

Chapter 50

The Death of Israel

¹Then Joseph fell on his father’s face, and wept over him and kissed him.

²Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father. So the physicians ^aembalmed Israel.

³Now forty days were ¹required for ²it, for ³such is the period required for embalming. And the Egyptians ^awept for him seventy days.

⁴When the days of ¹mourning for him were past, Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh, saying, “If now I have found favor in your sight, please speak ²to Pharaoh, saying,

⁵‘^aMy father made me swear, saying, “Behold, I am about to die; in my grave ^bwhich I dug for myself in the land of Canaan, there you shall bury me.” Now therefore, please let me go up and bury my father; then I will return.’ ”

⁶Pharaoh said, “Go up and bury your father, as he made you swear.”

⁷So Joseph went up to bury his father, and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his household and all the elders of the land of Egypt,

⁸and all the household of Joseph and his brothers and his father’s household; they left only their little ones and their flocks and their herds in the land of Goshen.

⁹There also went up with him both chariots and horsemen; and it was a very great company.

¹⁰When they came to the ¹threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, they ^alamented there with a very great and ²sorrowful lamentation; and he ³observed seven days mourning for his father.

¹¹Now when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning at ¹the threshing floor of Atad, they said, “This is a ²grievous ³mourning for the Egyptians.” Therefore it was named ⁴Abel-mizraim, which is beyond the Jordan.

Burial at Machpelah

¹²Thus his sons did for him as he had charged them;

¹³for his sons carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in ^athe cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre, which Abraham had bought along with the field for a ¹burial site from Ephron the Hittite.

¹⁴After he had buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt, he and his brothers, and all who had gone up with him to bury his father.

¹⁵When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “^aWhat if Joseph bears a grudge against us and pays us back in full for all the wrong which we did to him!”

¹⁶So they ¹sent a message to Joseph, saying, “Your father charged before he died, saying,

¹⁷‘Thus you shall say to Joseph, “Please forgive, I beg you, the transgression of your brothers and their sin, for they did you wrong.” ’ And 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 also came and ^afell down before him and said, “Behold, we are your servants.”

¹⁹But Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid, for am I in God’s place?

²⁰“As for you, ^ayou meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about ¹this present result, to preserve many people alive.

²¹“So therefore, do not be afraid; ^aI will provide for you and your little ones.” So he comforted them and spoke ¹kindly to them.

Death of Joseph

²²Now Joseph stayed in Egypt, he and his father’s household, and Joseph lived one hundred and ten years.

²³Joseph saw the third generation of Ephraim’s sons; also the sons of Machir, the son of Manasseh, were ^aborn on Joseph’s knees.

²⁴Joseph said to his brothers, “^aI am about to die, but God will surely ¹take care of you and bring you up from this land to the land which He ²promised on oath to ^bAbraham, to ^cIsaac and to ^dJacob.”

²⁵Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, “God will surely ¹take care of you, and ^ayou shall carry my bones up from here.”

²⁶So Joseph died at the age of one hundred and ten years; and ¹he was ^aembalmed and placed in a coffin in Egypt.