Genesis 49–50

¹And Jacob calleth unto his sons and saith, ‘Be gathered together, and I declare to you that which doth happen with you in the latter end of the days.

²‘Be assembled, and hear, sons of Jacob, And hearken unto Israel your father. ³Reuben! my first-born thou, My power, and beginning of my strength, The abundance of exaltation, And the abundance of strength; ⁴Unstable as water, thou art not abundant; For thou hast gone up thy father’s bed; Then thou hast polluted: My couch he went up!

⁵Simeon and Levi are brethren! Instruments of violence—their espousals! ⁶Into their secret, come not, O my soul! Unto their assembly be not united, O mine honour; For in their anger they slew a man, And in their self-will eradicated a prince. ⁷Cursed is their anger, for it is fierce, And their wrath, for it is sharp; I divide them in Jacob, And I scatter them in Israel.

⁸Judah! thou—thy brethren praise thee! Thy hand is on the neck of thine enemies, Sons of thy father bow themselves to thee. ⁹A lion’s whelp is Judah, For prey, my son, thou hast gone up; He hath bent, he hath crouched as a lion, And as a lioness; who causeth him to arise? ¹⁰The sceptre turneth not aside from Judah, And a lawgiver from between his feet, Till his Seed come; And his is the obedience of peoples. ¹¹Binding to the vine his ass, And to the choice vine the colt of his ass, He hath washed in wine his clothing, And in the blood of grapes his covering; ¹²Red are eyes with wine, And white are teeth with milk!

¹³Zebulun at a haven of the seas doth dwell, And he is for a haven of ships; And his side is unto Zidon. ¹⁴Issacher is a strong ass, Crouching between the two folds; ¹⁵And he seeth rest that it is good, And the land that it is pleasant, And he inclineth his shoulder to bear, And is to tribute a servant. ¹⁶Dan doth judge his people, As one of the tribes of Israel; ¹⁷Dan is a serpent by the way, An adder by the path, Which is biting the horse’s heels, And its rider falleth backward. ¹⁸For Thy salvation I have waited, Jehovah! ¹⁹Gad! a troop assaulteth him, But he assaulteth last. ²⁰Out of Asher his bread is fat; And he giveth dainties of a king. ²¹Naphtali is a hind sent away, Who is giving beauteous young ones.

²²Joseph is a fruitful son; A fruitful son by a fountain, Daughters step over the wall; ²³And embitter him—yea, they have striven, Yea, hate him do archers; ²⁴And his bow abideth in strength, And strengthened are the arms of his hands By the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob, Whence is a shepherd, a son of Israel. ²⁵By the God of thy father who helpeth thee, And the Mighty One who blesseth thee, Blessings of the heavens from above, Blessings of the deep lying under, Blessings of breasts and womb;— ²⁶Thy father’s blessings have been mighty Above the blessings of my progenitors, Unto the limit of the heights age-during They are for the head of Joseph, And for the crown of the one Separate from his brethren. ²⁷Benjamin! a wolf teareth; In the morning he eateth prey, And at evening he apportioneth spoil.’

²⁸All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is that which their father hath spoken unto them, and he blesseth them; each according to his blessing he hath blessed them. ²⁹And he commandeth them, and saith unto them, ‘I am being gathered unto my people; bury me by my fathers, at the cave which is in the field of Ephron the Hittite; ³⁰in the cave which is in the field of Machpelah, which is on the front of Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a burying-place; ³¹(there 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 of the cave which is in it, is from Sons of Heth.’ ³³And Jacob finisheth commanding his sons, and gathereth up his feet unto the bed, and expireth, and is gathered unto his people.

Chapter 50

¹And Joseph falleth on his father’s face, and weepeth over him, and kisseth him; ²and Joseph commandeth his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father, and the physicians embalm Israel; ³and they fulfil for him forty days, for so they fulfil the days of the embalmed, and the Egyptians weep for him seventy days. ⁴And the days of his weeping pass away, and Joseph speaketh unto the house of Pharaoh, saying, ‘If, I pray you, I have found grace in your eyes, speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh, saying, ⁵My father caused me to swear, saying, Lo, I am dying; in my burying-place which I have prepared for myself in the land of Canaan, there dost thou bury me; and now, let me go up, I pray thee, and bury my father, and return;’ ⁶and Pharaoh saith, ‘Go up and bury thy father, as he caused thee to swear.’

⁷And Joseph goeth up to bury his father, and go up with him do all the servants of Pharaoh, elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, ⁸and all the house of Joseph, and his brethren, and the house of his father; only their infants, and their flock, and their herd, have they left in the land of Goshen; ⁹and there go up with him both chariot and horsemen, and the camp is very great. ¹⁰And they come unto the threshing-floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, and they lament there, a lamentation great and very grievous; and he maketh for his father a mourning seven days, ¹¹and the inhabitant of the land, the Canaanite, see the mourning in the threshing-floor of Atad, and say, ‘A grievous mourning is this to the Egyptians;’ therefore hath one called its name ‘The mourning of the Egyptians,’ which is beyond the Jordan. ¹²And his sons do to him so as he commanded them, ¹³and his sons bear him away to the land of Canaan, and bury him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which Abraham bought with the field for a possession of a burying-place, from Ephron the Hittite, on the front of Mamre. ¹⁴And Joseph turneth back to Egypt, he and his brethren, and all who are going up with him to bury his father, after his burying his father.

¹⁵And the brethren of Joseph see that their father is dead, and say, ‘Peradventure Joseph doth hate us, and doth certainly return to us all the evil which we did with him.’ ¹⁶And they give a charge for Joseph, saying, ‘Thy father commanded before his death, saying, ¹⁷Thus ye do say to Joseph, I pray thee, bear, I pray thee, with the transgression of thy brethren, and their sin, for they have done thee evil; and now, bear, we pray thee, with the transgression of the servants of the God of thy father;’ and Joseph weepeth in their speaking unto him. ¹⁸And his brethren also go and fall before him, and say, ‘Lo, we are to thee for servants.’ ¹⁹And Joseph saith unto them, ‘Fear not, for am I in the place of God? ²⁰As for you, ye devised against me evil—God devised it for good, in order to do as at this day, to keep alive a numerous people; ²¹and now, fear not: I do nourish you and your infants;’ and he comforteth them, and speaketh unto their heart.

²²And Joseph dwelleth in Egypt, he and the house of his father, and Joseph liveth a hundred and ten years, ²³and Joseph looketh on Ephraim’s sons of the third generation; sons also of Machir, son of Manasseh, have been born on the knees of Joseph. ²⁴And Joseph saith unto his brethren, ‘I am dying, and God doth certainly inspect you, and hath caused you to go up from this land, unto the land which He hath sworn to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.’ ²⁵And Joseph causeth the sons of Israel to swear, saying, ‘God doth certainly inspect you, and ye have brought up my bones from this place.’ ²⁶And Joseph dieth, a son of an hundred and ten years, and they embalm him, and he is put into a coffin in Egypt.

Chapter 1