[ Genesis Chapter 48 ]
1 And it came to pass after these things, that one told Joseph, Behold, thy
father is sick: and he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.
2 And one told Jacob, and said, Behold, thy son Joseph cometh unto thee: and
Israel strengthened himself, and sat upon the bed.
3 And Jacob said unto Joseph, God Almighty appeared unto me at Luz in the land
of Canaan, and blessed me,
4 And said unto me, Behold, I will make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, and I
will make of thee a multitude of people, and will give this land to thy seed
after thee for an everlasting possession.
5 And now thy two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, which were born unto thee in the
land of Egypt before I came unto thee into Egypt, are mine, as Reuben and
Simeon, they shall be mine.
6 And thy issue, which thou begettest after them, shall be thine, and shall be
called after the name of their brethren in their inheritance.
7 And as for me, when I came from Padan, Rachel died by me in the land of Canaan
in the way, when yet there was but a little way to come unto Ephrath: and I
buried her there in the way of Ephrath, the same is Bethlehem.
8 And Israel beheld Joseph's sons, and said, Who are these?
9 And Joseph said unto his father, They are my sons, whom God hath given me in
this place. And he said, Bring them, I pray thee, unto me, and I will bless
them.
10 Now the eyes of Israel were dim for age, so that he could not see. And he
brought them near unto him, and he kissed them, and embraced them.
11 And Israel said unto Joseph, I had not thought to see thy face: and, lo, God
hath shewed me also thy seed.
12 And Joseph brought them out from between his knees, and he bowed himself with
his face to the earth.
13 And Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel's left
hand, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel's right hand, and brought them
near unto him.
14 And Israel stretched out his right hand, and laid it upon Ephraim's head, who
was the younger, and his left hand upon Manasseh's head, guiding his hands
wittingly, for Manasseh was the firstborn.
15 And he blessed Joseph, and said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and
Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto this day,
16 The Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads, and let my name be
named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, and let them grow
into a multitude in the midst of the earth.
17 And when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the head of
Ephraim, it displeased him: and he held up his father's hand, to remove it from
Ephraim's head unto Manasseh's head.
18 And Joseph said unto his father, Not so, my father: for this is the
firstborn, put thy right hand upon his head.
19 And his father refused, and said, I know it, my son, I know it: he also shall
become a people, and he also shall be great: but truly his younger brother shall
be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations.
20 And he blessed them that day, saying, In thee shall Israel bless, saying, God
make thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh: and he set Ephraim before Manasseh.
21 And Israel said unto Joseph, Behold, I die: but God shall be with you, and
bring you again unto the land of your fathers.
22 Moreover I have given to thee one portion above thy brethren, which I took
out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow.
[Genesis Chapter 49 ]
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.
[ Genesis 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.
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