1 And Jacob called unto his sons,
and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that
which shall befall you in the last days.
2 Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; and
hearken unto Israel your father.
3 Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning
of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency
of power:
4 Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel; because thou wentest
up to thy father's bed; then defiledst thou it: he went up to
my couch.
5 Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in
their habitations.
6 O my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly,
mine honour, be not thou united: for in their anger they slew
a man, and in their selfwill they digged down a wall.
7 Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath,
for it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them
in Israel.
8 Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand
shall be in the neck of thine enemies; thy father's children
shall bow down before thee.
9 Judah is a lion's whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone
up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion;
who shall rouse him up?
10 The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from
between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the
gathering of the people be.
11 Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass's colt unto the
choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes
in the blood of grapes:
12 His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with
milk.
13 Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea; and he shall
be for an haven of ships; and his border shall be unto Zidon.
14 Issachar is a strong ass couching down between two burdens:
15 And he saw that rest was good, and the land that it was pleasant;
and bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant unto tribute.
16 Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel.
17 Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path,
that biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward.
18 I have waited for thy salvation, O LORD.
19 Gad, a troop shall overcome him: but he shall overcome at
the last.
20 Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal
dainties.
21 Naphtali is a hind let loose: he giveth goodly words.
22 Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well;
whose branches run over the wall:
23 The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and
hated him:
24 But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands
were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob; (from
thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel:)
25 Even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee; and by
the Almighty, who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven
above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of
the breasts, and of the womb:
26 The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings
of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills:
they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the
head of him that was separate from his brethren.
27 Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf: in the morning he shall devour
the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil.
28 All these are the twelve tribes of Israel: and this is it
that their father spake unto them, and blessed them; every one
according to his blessing he blessed them.
29 And he charged them, and said unto them, I am to be gathered
unto 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, which is before
Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the
field of Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a buryingplace.
31 There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they
buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah.
32 The purchase of the field and of the cave that is therein
was from the children of Heth.
33 And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he
gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost,
and was gathered unto his people.
Chapter 50
1 And Joseph fell upon his father's
face, and wept upon him, and kissed him.
2 And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm
his father: and the physicians embalmed Israel.
3 And forty days were fulfilled for him; for so are fulfilled
the days of those which are embalmed: and the Egyptians mourned
for him threescore and ten days.
4 And when the days of his mourning were past, Joseph spake
unto the house of Pharaoh, saying, If now I have found grace
in your eyes, speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh, saying,
5 My father made me swear, saying, Lo, I die: in my grave which
I have digged for me in the land of Canaan, there shalt thou
bury me. Now therefore let me go up, I pray thee, and bury my
father, and I will come again.
6 And Pharaoh said, Go up, and bury thy father, according as
he made thee swear.
7 And 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,
8 And all the house of Joseph, and his brethren, and his father's
house: only their little ones, and their flocks, and their herds,
they left in the land of Goshen.
9 And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen: and
it was a very great company.
10 And they came to the threshingfloor of Atad, which is beyond
Jordan, and there they mourned with a great and very sore lamentation:
and he made a mourning for his father seven days.
11 And when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw
the mourning in the floor of Atad, they said, This is a grievous
mourning to the Egyptians: wherefore the name of it was called
Abelmizraim, which is beyond Jordan.
12 And his sons did unto him according as he commanded them:
13 For his sons carried him into the land of Canaan, and buried
him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which Abraham bought
with the field for a possession of a buryingplace of Ephron
the Hittite, before Mamre.
14 And Joseph returned into Egypt, he, and his brethren, and
all that went up with him to bury his father, after he had buried
his father.
15 And when Joseph's brethren saw that their father was dead,
they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will certainly
requite us all the evil which we did unto him.
16 And they sent a messenger unto Joseph, saying, Thy father
did command before he died, saying,
17 So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the
trespass of thy brethren, and their sin; for they did unto thee
evil: and now, we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants
of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake unto
him.
18 And his brethren also went and fell down before his face;
and they said, Behold, we be thy servants.
19 And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place
of God?
20 But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant
it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much
people alive.
21 Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little
ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them.
22 And Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he, and his father's house: and
Joseph lived an hundred and ten years.
23 And Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third generation:
the children also of Machir the son of Manasseh were brought
up upon Joseph's knees.
24 And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die: and God will surely
visit you, and bring you out of this land unto the land which
he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
25 And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying,
God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from
hence.
26 So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years old: and they
embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt. |