Genesis 49–50

Jacob’s Last Words to His Sons

49And Jacob called his sons and said, “Gather together, that I may ^atell you what shall befall you ^bin the last days:

²“Gather together and hear, you sons of Jacob,

And listen to Israel your father.

³“Reuben, you are ^cmy firstborn,

My might and the beginning of my strength,

The excellency of dignity and the excellency of power.

⁴Unstable as water, you shall not excel,

Because you ^dwent up to your father’s bed;

Then you defiled it—

He went up to my couch.

⁵“Simeon and Levi are brothers;

Instruments of ¹cruelty are in their dwelling place.

^6eLet not my soul enter their council;

Let not my honor be united ^fto their assembly;

^gFor in their anger they slew a man,

And in their self-will they ²hamstrung an ox.

⁷Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce;

And their wrath, for it is cruel!

^hI will divide them in Jacob

And scatter them in Israel.

⁸“Judah, ⁱyou are he whom your brothers shall praise;

^jYour hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;

^kYour father’s children shall bow down before you.

⁹Judah is ^la lion’s whelp;

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

^mHe ³bows down, he lies down as a lion;

And as a lion, who shall rouse him?

¹⁰ⁿThe ⁴scepter shall not depart from Judah,

Nor ^oa lawgiver from between his feet,

^pUntil Shiloh comes;

^qAnd to Him shall be the obedience of the people.

¹¹Binding his donkey to the vine,

And his donkey’s colt to the choice vine,

He washed his garments in wine,

And his clothes in the blood of grapes.

¹²His eyes are darker than wine,

And his teeth whiter than milk.

¹³“Zebulun ^rshall dwell by the haven of the sea;

He shall become a haven for ships,

And his border shall ^sadjoin Sidon.

¹⁴“Issachar ^tis a strong donkey,

Lying down between two burdens;

¹⁵He saw that rest was good,

And that the land was pleasant;

He bowed ^uhis shoulder to bear a burden,

And became a band of slaves.

¹⁶“Dan ^vshall judge his people

As one of the tribes of Israel.

^17wDan shall be a serpent by the way,

A viper by the path,

That bites the horse’s heels

So that its rider shall fall backward.

^18xI have waited for your salvation, O Lord!

¹⁹“Gad, ^y5a troop shall ⁶tramp upon him,

But he shall triumph at last.

²⁰“Bread from ^zAsher shall be rich,

And he shall yield royal dainties.

²¹“Naphtali ^ais a deer let loose;

He uses beautiful words.

²²“Joseph is a fruitful bough,

A fruitful bough by a well;

His branches run over the wall.

²³The archers have ^bbitterly grieved him,

Shot at him and hated him.

²⁴But his ^cbow remained in strength,

And the arms of his hands were ⁷made strong

By the hands of ^dthe Mighty God of Jacob

^e(From there ^fis the Shepherd, ^gthe Stone of Israel),

^25hBy the God of your father who will help you,

ⁱAnd by the Almighty ^jwho will bless you

With blessings of heaven above,

Blessings of the deep that lies beneath,

Blessings of the breasts and of the womb.

²⁶The blessings of your father

Have excelled the blessings of my ancestors,

^kUp to the utmost bound of the everlasting hills.

^lThey shall be on the head of Joseph,

And on the crown of the head of him who was separate from his brothers.

²⁷“Benjamin is a ^mravenous wolf;

In the morning he shall devour the prey,

ⁿAnd at night he shall divide the spoil.”

²⁸All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father spoke to them. And he blessed them; he blessed each one according to his own blessing.

Jacob’s Death and Burial

²⁹Then he charged them and said to them: “I ^oam to be gathered to my people; ^pbury me with my fathers ^qin 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, ^rwhich Abraham bought with the field of Ephron the Hittite as a possession for a burial place. ^31sThere they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife, ^tthere they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife, and there I buried Leah. ³²The field and the cave that is there were purchased from the sons of Heth.” ³³And when Jacob had finished commanding his sons, he drew his feet up into the bed and breathed his last, and was gathered to his people.

50Then Joseph ^afell on his father’s face and ^bwept over him, and kissed him. ²And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to ^cembalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel. ³Forty days were required for him, for such are the days required for those who are embalmed; and the Egyptians ^dmourned ¹for him seventy days.

⁴Now when the days of his mourning were past, Joseph spoke to ^ethe household of Pharaoh, saying, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, please speak in the hearing of Pharaoh, saying, ^5f‘My father made me swear, saying, “Behold, I am dying; in my grave ^gwhich 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, and I will come back.’ ”

⁶And Pharaoh 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 house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, ⁸as well as all the house of Joseph, his brothers, and his father’s house. Only their little ones, their flocks, and their herds they left in the land of Goshen. ⁹And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen, and it was a very great gathering.

¹⁰Then they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, and they ^hmourned there with a great and very solemn lamentation. ⁱHe observed seven days of mourning for his father. ¹¹And when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, they said, “This is a deep mourning of the Egyptians.” Therefore its name was called ²Abel Mizraim, which is beyond the Jordan.

¹²So his sons did for him just as he had commanded them. ¹³For ^jhis sons carried him to the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, before Mamre, which Abraham ^kbought with the field from Ephron the Hittite as property for a burial place. ¹⁴And after he had buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt, he and his brothers and all who went up with him to bury his father.

Joseph Reassures His Brothers

¹⁵When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, ^lthey said, “Perhaps Joseph will hate us, and may ³actually repay us for all the evil which we did to him.” ¹⁶So they sent messengers to Joseph, saying, “Before your father died he commanded, saying, ¹⁷‘Thus you shall say to Joseph: “I beg you, please forgive the trespass of your brothers and their sin; ^mfor they did evil to you.” ’ Now, please, forgive the trespass of the servants of ⁿthe God of your father.” And Joseph wept when they spoke to him.

¹⁸Then his brothers also went and ^ofell down before his face, and they said, “Behold, we are your servants.”

¹⁹Joseph said to them, ^p“Do not be afraid, ^qfor am I in the place of God? ^20rBut as for you, you meant evil against me; but ^sGod meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive. ²¹Now therefore, do not be afraid; ^tI will provide for you and your little ones.” And he comforted them and spoke ⁴kindly to them.

Death of Joseph

²²So Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he and his father’s household. And Joseph lived one hundred and ten years. ²³Joseph saw Ephraim’s children ^uto the third generation. ^vThe children of Machir, the son of Manasseh, ^wwere also brought up on Joseph’s knees.

²⁴And Joseph said to his brethren, “I am dying; but ^xGod will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land to the land ^yof which He swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” ²⁵Then ^zJoseph took an oath from the children of Israel, saying, “God will surely ⁵visit you, and ^ayou shall carry up my ^bbones from here.” ²⁶So Joseph died, being one hundred and ten years old; and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.