January 17
Genesis 48:1 —
50:26
48
And it came about after these things that it was said to Joseph: “Look, your
father is becoming weak.” At that he took with him his two sons Manasseh
and Ephraim.
2 Then
it was reported to Jacob and said: “Here your son Joseph has come to you.” So
Israel exerted his strength and sat up on his couch.
3 And
Jacob proceeded to say to Joseph:
“God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan that he might bless
me.
4 And
he went on to say to me, ‘Here I am making you fruitful, and I will make you
many and I will transform you into a congregation of peoples and I will give
this land to your seed after you for a possession to time indefinite.’
5 And
now your two sons who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came here
to you into Egypt, they are mine. Ephraim
and Manasseh
will become mine like Reuben and Simeon.
6 But
your progeny to which you shall become father after them will become yours.
Together with the name of their brothers they will be called in their
inheritance.
7 And
as for me, when I was coming from Paddan, Rachel died alongside me in the land
of Canaan on the way while there was yet a good stretch of land before coming
to Ephrath, so that I buried her there on the way to Ephrath, that is to say,
Bethlehem.”
8 Then
Israel saw Joseph’s sons and said: “Who are these?”
9 So
Joseph said to his father: “They are my sons whom God has given me in this
place.” At this he said: “Bring them, please, to me that I may bless them.”
10 Now
the eyes of Israel were dull from old age. He was unable to see. Accordingly he
brought them close to him, and he then kissed them and embraced them.
11 And
Israel went on to say to Joseph: “I had no idea of seeing your face, but here
God has let me see also your offspring.”
12 After
that Joseph brought them out away from his knees, and he bowed down with his
face to the earth.
13 Joseph
now took the two of them, Ephraim
by his right hand to Israel’s left, and Manasseh
by his left hand to Israel’s right, and brought them close to him.
14 However,
Israel put out his right hand and placed it on Ephraim’s
head, although he was the younger, and his left hand upon Manasseh’s
head. He purposely laid his hands so, since Manasseh
was the firstborn.
15 And
he proceeded to bless Joseph and to say:
“The [true] God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked,
The [true] God who has been shepherding me during all my existence until
this day,
16 The
angel who has been recovering me from all calamity, bless the boys.
And let my name be called upon them and the name of my fathers, Abraham and
Isaac,
And let them increase to a multitude in the midst of the earth.”
17 When
Joseph saw that his father kept his right hand placed on Ephraim’s
head, it was displeasing to him, and he tried to take hold of his father’s hand
to remove it from Ephraim’s
head to Manasseh’s
head.
18 Hence
Joseph said to his father: “Not so, my father, because this is the firstborn.
Put your right hand on his head.”
19 But
his father kept refusing and said: “I know it, my son, I know it. He too will
become a people and he too will become great. But, just the same, his younger
brother will become greater than he will, and his offspring will become the full
equivalent of nations.”
20 And
he continued to bless them on that day, saying:
“By means of you let Israel repeatedly pronounce blessing, saying,
‘May God constitute you like Ephraim
and like Manasseh.’”
Thus he kept putting Ephraim
before Manasseh.
21 After
that Israel said to Joseph: “Look, I am dying, but God will certainly continue
with YOU people and return YOU to the land of YOUR forefathers.
22 As
for me, I do give you one shoulder [of land] more than to your brothers, which I
took from the hand of the Amorites
by my sword and by my bow.”
49
Later on Jacob called his sons and said: “Gather yourselves together that I may
tell YOU what will happen to YOU in the final part of the days.
2 Assemble
yourselves and listen, YOU sons of Jacob, yes, listen to Israel YOUR father.
3 “Reuben,
you are my firstborn, my vigor and the beginning of my generative power, the
excellence of dignity and the excellence of strength.
4 With
reckless license like waters, do not you excel, because you have gone up to your
father’s bed. At that time you profaned my lounge. He went up to it!
5 “Simeon
and Levi are brothers. Instruments of violence are their slaughter weapons.
6 Into
their intimate group do not come, O my soul. With their congregation do not
become united, O my disposition, because in their anger they killed men, and in
their arbitrariness they hamstrung bulls.
7 Cursed
be their anger, because it is cruel, and their fury, because it acts harshly.
Let me parcel them out in Jacob and let me scatter them in Israel.
8 “As
for you, Judah, your brothers will laud you. Your hand will be on the back of
the neck of your enemies. The sons of your father will prostrate themselves to
you.
9 A
lion cub Judah is. From the prey, my son, you will certainly go up. He bowed
down, he stretched himself out like a lion and, like a lion, who dares rouse
him?
10 The
scepter will not turn aside from Judah, neither the commander’s staff from
between his feet, until Shiloh comes; and to him the obedience of the peoples
will belong.
11 Tying
his full-grown ass to a vine and the descendant of his own she-ass to a choice
vine, he will certainly wash his clothing in wine and his garment in the blood
of grapes.
12 Dark
red are his eyes from wine, and the whiteness of his teeth is from milk.
13 “Zebulun
will reside by the seashore, and he will be by the shore where the ships lie
anchored; and his remote side will be toward Sidon.
14 “Issachar
is a strong-boned ass, lying down between the two saddlebags.
15 And
he will see that the resting-place is good and that the land is pleasant; and he
will bend down his shoulder to bear burdens and he will become subject to
slavish forced labor.
16 “Dan
will judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel.
17 Let
Dan prove to be a serpent by the roadside, a horned snake at the wayside, that
bites the heels of the horse so that its rider falls backward.
18 I
shall indeed wait for salvation from you, O Jehovah.
19 “As
for Gad, a marauder band will raid him, but he will raid the extreme rear.
20 “Out
of Asher his bread will be fat, and he will give the dainties of a king.
21 “Naphtali
is a slender hind. He is giving words of elegance.
22 “Offshoot
of a fruit-bearing tree, Joseph is the offshoot of a fruit-bearing tree by the
fountain, that propels its branches up over a wall.
23 But
the archers kept harassing him and shot at him and kept harboring animosity
against him.
24 And
yet his bow was dwelling in a permanent place, and the strength of his hands was
supple. From the hands of the powerful one of Jacob, from there is the shepherd,
the stone of Israel.
25 He
is from the God of your father, and he will help you; and he is with the
Almighty, and he will bless you with the blessings of the heavens above, with
the blessings of the watery deep lying down below, with the blessings of the
breasts and womb.
26 The
blessings of your father will indeed be superior to the blessings of the eternal
mountains, to the ornament of the indefinitely lasting hills. They will continue
upon the head of Joseph, even upon the crown of the head of the one singled out
from his brothers.
27 “Benjamin
will keep on tearing like a wolf. In the morning he will eat the animal seized
and at evening he will divide spoil.”
28 All
these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father spoke to
them when he was blessing them. He blessed them each one according to his own
blessing.
29 After
that he commanded them and said to them: “I am being gathered to my people. Bury
me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite,
30 in
the cave that is in the field of Machpelah
that is in front of Mamre in the land of Canaan, the field that Abraham
purchased from Ephron the Hittite for the possession of a burial place.
31 There
they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife. There they buried Isaac and Rebekah
his wife, and there I buried Leah.
32 The
field purchased and the cave that is in it were from the sons of Heth.”
33 Thus
Jacob finished giving commands to his sons. Then he gathered his feet up onto
the couch and expired and was gathered to his people.
50
Then Joseph fell upon the face of his father and burst into tears over him and kissed
him.
2 After
that Joseph commanded his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father. So the
physicians embalmed Israel,
3 and
they took fully forty days for him, for this many days they customarily take for
the embalming, and the Egyptians continued to shed tears for him seventy days.
4 Finally
the days of weeping for him passed, and Joseph spoke to Pharaoh’s household,
saying: “If, now, I have found favor in YOUR eyes, speak, please, in the hearing
of Pharaoh, saying,
5 ‘My
father made me swear, saying: “Look! I am dying. In my burial place which I have
excavated for myself in the land of Canaan is where you are to bury me.” And
now, please, let me go up and bury my father, after which I am willing to
return.’”
6 Accordingly
Pharaoh said: “Go up and bury your father just as he made you swear.”
7 So
Joseph went up to bury his father, and there went up with him all of Pharaoh’s
servants, the older men of his household and all the older men of the land of
Egypt,
8 and
all of Joseph’s household and his brothers and the household of his father. Only
their little children and their flocks and their herds they left in the land of
Goshen.
9 There
also went up with him both chariots and horsemen, and the camp came to be very
numerous.
10 Then
they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is in the region of the Jordan,
and there they carried on a very great and heavy wailing and he kept up the
mourning rites for his father seven days.
11 And
the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites,
got to see the mourning rites in the threshing floor of Atad, and they
exclaimed: “This is a heavy mourning for the Egyptians!” That is why its name
was called Abel-mizraim,
which is in the region of the Jordan.
12 And
his sons proceeded to do for him exactly as he had commanded them.
13 So
his sons carried him into the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the
field of Machpelah,
the field that Abraham had purchased for the possession of a burial place from
Ephron the Hittite in front of Mamre.
14 Afterward
Joseph returned to Egypt, he and his brothers and all those who went up with him
to bury his father, after he had buried his father.
15 When
the brothers of Joseph saw that their father was dead, they began to say: “It
may be that Joseph is harboring animosity against us and he will be sure to
repay us for all the evil that we have rendered him.”
16 So
they expressed a command to Joseph in these words: “Your father gave the command
before his death, saying,
17 ‘This
is what YOU are to say to Joseph: “I beseech you, pardon, please, the revolt of
your brothers and their sin in that they have rendered evil to you.”’ And now
pardon, please, the revolt of the servants of your father’s God.” And Joseph
burst into tears when they spoke to him.
18 Following
that his brothers also came and fell down before him and said: “Here we are as
slaves to you!”
19 Then
Joseph said to them: “Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God?
20 As
for YOU, YOU had evil in mind against me. God had it in mind for good for the
purpose of acting as at this day to preserve many people alive.
21 So
now do not be afraid. I myself shall keep supplying YOU and YOUR little children
with food.” Thus he comforted them and spoke reassuringly to them.
22 And
Joseph continued to dwell in Egypt, he and the house of his father; and Joseph
lived for a hundred and ten years.
23 And
Joseph got to see Ephraim’s
sons of the third generation, also the sons of Machir, Manasseh’s
son. They were born upon Joseph’s knees.
24 At
length Joseph said to his brothers: “I am dying; but God will without fail turn
his attention to YOU, and he will certainly bring YOU up out of this land to the
land about which he swore to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob.”
25 Hence
Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying: “God will without fail turn his
attention to YOU. Accordingly YOU must take my bones up out of here.”
26 After
that Joseph died at the age of a hundred and ten years; and they had him
embalmed, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.