Genesis 49–50 · Exodus 1

1Jacob called to his sons, and said: “Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which will happen to you in the days to come.

2Assemble yourselves, and hear, you sons of Jacob. Listen to Israel, your father.

3“Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, excelling in dignity, and excelling in power.

4Boiling over like water, you shall not excel, because you went up to your father’s bed, then defiled it. He went up to my couch.

5“Simeon and Levi are brothers. Their swords are weapons of violence.

6My soul, don’t come into their council. My glory, don’t be united to their assembly; for in their anger they killed men. In their self-will they hamstrung cattle.

7Cursed 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, your brothers will praise you. Your hand will be on the neck of your enemies. Your father’s sons will bow down before you.

9Judah is a lion’s cub. From the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down, he crouched as a lion, as a lioness. Who will rouse him up?

10The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs. The obedience of the peoples will be to him.

11Binding his foal to the vine, his donkey’s colt to the choice vine, he has washed his garments in wine, his robes in the blood of grapes.

12His eyes will be red with wine, his teeth white with milk.

13“Zebulun will dwell at the haven of the sea. He will be for a haven of ships. His border will be on Sidon.

14“Issachar is a strong donkey, lying down between the saddlebags.

15He saw a resting place, that it was good, the land, that it was pleasant. He bows his shoulder to the burden, and becomes a servant doing forced labor.

16“Dan will judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel.

17Dan will be a serpent on the trail, an adder in the path, that bites the horse’s heels, so that his rider falls backward.

18I have waited for your salvation, Yahweh.

19“A troop will press on Gad, but he will press on their heel.

20“Asher’s food will be rich. He will produce royal dainties.

21“Naphtali is a doe set free, who bears beautiful fawns.

22“Joseph is a fruitful vine, a fruitful vine by a spring. His branches run over the wall.

23The archers have severely grieved him, shot at him, and persecuted him:

24But his bow remained strong. The arms of his hands were made strong, by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob, (from there is the shepherd, the stone of Israel),

25even by the God of your father, who will help you, by the Almighty, who will bless you, with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lies below, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb.

26The blessings of your father have prevailed above the blessings of my ancestors, above the boundaries of the ancient hills. They will be on the head of Joseph, on the crown of the head of him who is separated from his brothers.

27“Benjamin is a ravenous wolf. In the morning he will devour the prey. At evening he will divide the plunder.”

28All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father spoke to them, and blessed them. He blessed everyone according to his own blessing.

29He instructed them, and said to them, “I am to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in 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, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite as a burial place.

31There they buried Abraham and Sarah, his wife. There they buried Isaac and Rebekah, his wife, and there I buried Leah:

32the field and the cave that is therein, which was purchased from the children of Heth.”

33When Jacob finished charging his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, breathed his last breath, and was gathered to his people.

1Joseph fell on his father’s face, wept on him, and kissed him.

2Joseph commanded his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father; and the physicians embalmed Israel.

3Forty days were used for him, for that is how many days it takes to embalm. The Egyptians wept for Israel for seventy days.

4When the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph spoke to Pharaoh’s staff, saying, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, please speak in the ears of Pharaoh, saying,

5‘My father made me swear, saying, “Behold, I am dying. Bury me in my grave which I have dug for myself in the land of Canaan.” Now therefore, please let me go up and bury my father, and I will come again.’”

6Pharaoh said, “Go up, and bury your father, just like he made you swear.”

7Joseph went up to bury his father; and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, all the elders of the land of Egypt,

8all 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.

9Both chariots and horsemen went up with him. It was a very great company.

10They came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, and there they lamented with a very great and severe lamentation. He mourned for his father seven days.

11When the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning in the floor of Atad, they said, “This is a grievous mourning by the Egyptians.” Therefore its name was called Abel Mizraim, which is beyond the Jordan.

12His sons did to him just as he commanded them,

13for 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, as a possession for a burial site, from Ephron the Hittite, near Mamre.

14Joseph returned into Egypt—he, and his brothers, and all that went up with him to bury his father, after he had buried his father.

15When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “It may be that Joseph will hate us, and will fully pay us back for all the evil which we did to him.”

16They sent a message to Joseph, saying, “Your father commanded before he died, saying,

17‘You shall tell Joseph, “Now please forgive the disobedience of your brothers, and their sin, because they did evil to you.”’ Now, please forgive the disobedience of the servants of the God of your father.” Joseph wept when they spoke to him.

18His brothers also went and fell down before his face; and they said, “Behold, we are your servants.”

19Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid, for am I in the place of God?

20As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to save many people alive, as is happening today.

21Now therefore don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your little ones.” He comforted them, and spoke kindly to them.

22Joseph lived in Egypt, he, and his father’s house. Joseph lived one hundred ten years.

23Joseph saw Ephraim’s children to the third generation. The children also of Machir, the son of Manasseh, were born on Joseph’s knees.

24Joseph said to his brothers, “I am dying, but God will surely visit you, and bring you up out of this land to the land which he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.”

25Joseph took an oath from the children of Israel, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.”

26So Joseph died, being one hundred ten years old, and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.

1Now these are the names of the sons of Israel, who came into Egypt (every man and his household came with Jacob):

2Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah,

3Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin,

4Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher.

5All the souls who came out of Jacob’s body were seventy souls, and Joseph was in Egypt already.

6Joseph died, as did all his brothers, and all that generation.

7The children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and grew exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them.

8Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who didn’t know Joseph.

9He said to his people, “Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we.

10Come, let’s deal wisely with them, lest they multiply, and it happen that when any war breaks out, they also join themselves to our enemies and fight against us, and escape out of the land.”

11Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. They built storage cities for Pharaoh: Pithom and Raamses.

12But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and the more they spread out. They started to dread the children of Israel.

13The Egyptians ruthlessly made the children of Israel serve,

14and they made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and in brick, and in all kinds of service in the field, all their service, in which they ruthlessly made them serve.

15The king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah,

16and he said, “When you perform the duty of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birth stool, if it is a son, then you shall kill him; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.”

17But the midwives feared God, and didn’t do what the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the baby boys alive.

18The king of Egypt called for the midwives, and said to them, “Why have you done this thing and saved the boys alive?”

19The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women aren’t like the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.”

20God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied, and grew very mighty.

21Because the midwives feared God, he gave them families.

22Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “You shall cast every son who is born into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive.”