16 And Joseph said, Give your cattle; and I will give you for your cattle, if money hath failed.
17 And they brought their cattle to Joseph: and Joseph gave them bread in exchange for horses, and for the flocks, and for the cattle of the herds, and for the donkeys: and he fed them with bread for all their cattle for that year. [1]
18 When that year was ended, they came to him the second year, and said to him, We will not hide from my lord, how that our money is spent; my lord also hath our herds of cattle; there is nothing left in the sight of my lord, but our bodies, and our lands:
19 Why shall we die before thy eyes, both we and our land? buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants to Pharaoh: and give us seed, that we may live, and not die, that the land be not desolate.
20 And Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh; for the Egyptians sold every man his field, because the famine prevailed over them: so the land became Pharaoh’s.
21 And as for the people, he removed them to cities from one end of the borders of Egypt even to its other end.
22 Only the land of the priests bought he not; for the priests had a portion assigned them by Pharaoh, and ate their portion which Pharaoh gave them: therefore they sold not their lands. [2]
23 Then Joseph said to the people, Behold, I have bought you this day and your land for Pharaoh: lo, here is seed for you, and ye shall sow the land.
24 And it shall come to pass in the harvest, that ye shall give the fifth part to Pharaoh, and four parts shall be your own, for seed of the field, and for your food, and for them of your households, and for food for your little ones.
25 And they said, Thou hast saved our lives: let us find grace in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh’s servants.
26 And Joseph made it a law over the land of Egypt to this day, that Pharaoh should have the fifth part ; except the land of the priests only, which became not Pharaoh’s. [3]
27 And Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the country of Goshen; and they had possessions in it, and grew, and multiplied exceedingly.
28 And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years: so the whole age of Jacob was an hundred and forty and seven years. [4]
29 And the time drew near that Israel must die: and he called his son Joseph, and said to him, If now I have found grace in thy sight, put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh, and deal kindly and truly with me; bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt:
30 But I will lie with my fathers, and thou shalt carry me out of Egypt, and bury me in their buryingplace. And he said, I will do as thou hast said.
31 And he said, Swear to me. And he swore to him. And Israel bowed himself upon the bed’s head.
CHAP. 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 to thee: and Israel strengthened himself, and sat upon the bed.
3 And Jacob said to Joseph, God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and blessed me,
4 And said to 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, who were born to thee in the land of Egypt before I came to 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 to 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 to his father, They are my sons, whom God hath given me in this place . And he said, Bring them, I pray thee, to 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 to him; and he kissed them, and embraced them. [5]
11 And Israel said to Joseph, I had not thought to see thy face: and, lo, God hath shown 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 to 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 knowingly; for Manasseh was the firstborn.
15 And he blessed Joseph, and said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God who hath fed me all my life long to this day,
16 The Angel who hath 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. [6]
17 And when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the head of Ephraim, it displeased him: and he lifted his father’s hand, to remove it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head. [7]
18 And Joseph said to 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. [8]
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 to Joseph, Behold, I die: but God shall be with you, and bring you again to 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.
CHAP. 49.
1 And Jacob called to 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 to 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 thou didst defile it : he went up to my couch. [9] [10]
5 Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations. [11]
6 O my soul, come not thou into their secret; to their assembly, my honour, be not thou united: for in their anger they slew a man, and in their selfwill they digged down a wall. [12]
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 on the neck of thy enemies; thy father’s children shall bow down before thee.
9 Judah is a lion’s whelp: from the prey, my son, thou hast gone up: he stooped down, he crouched 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 shall come; and to him shall be the obedience of the people.
11 Binding his foal to the vine,
- ↑ fed...: Heb. led them
- ↑ priests: or, princes
- ↑ priests: or, princes
- ↑ the whole...: Heb. the days of the years of his life
- ↑ dim: Heb. heavy
- ↑ grow: Heb. as fishes do increase
- ↑ displeased...: was evil in his eyes
- ↑ multitude: Heb. fulness
- ↑ thou shalt...: Heb. do not thou excel
- ↑ he went...: or, my couch is gone
- ↑ instruments...: or, their swords are weapons of violence
- ↑ digged...: or, houghed oxen
