Genesis 49

1 Then Jacob called his sons, and he said to them: “Gather together, so that I may announce what will happen to you in the last days.

2 Gather together and listen, O sons of Jacob. Listen to Israel, your father.

3 Reuben, my firstborn, you are my strength and the beginning of my sorrow: first in gifts, greater in authority.

4 You are being poured out like water, may you not increase. For you climbed onto your father’s bed, and you defiled his resting place.

5 The brothers Simeon and Levi: vessels of iniquity waging war.

6 Let not my soul go by their counsel, nor my glory be within their meeting. For in their fury they killed a man, and in their self-will they undermined a wall.

7 Cursed be their fury, because it was obstinate, and their indignation, because it was harsh. I will divide them in Jacob, and I will scatter them in Israel.

8 Judah, your brothers will praise you. Your hand will be at the necks of your enemies; the sons of your father will reverence you.

9 Judah is a lion’s young. You have gone up to the prey, my son. While resting, you have lain like a lion. And just like a lioness, who would rouse him?

10 The scepter from Judah and the leader from his thigh will not be taken away, until he who will be sent arrives, and he will be the expectation of Gentiles.

11 Tying his young colt to the vineyard, and his donkey, O my son, to the vine, he will wash his robe in wine, and his cloak in the blood of the grape.

12 His eyes are more beautiful than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk.

13 Zebulun will live at the seashore and by the outpost of ships, reaching as far as Sidon.

14 Issachar will be a strong donkey, reclining between the borders.

15 He saw that rest would be good, and that the land was excellent. And so he bent his shoulder to carry, and he became a servant under tribute.

16 Dan will judge his people just like any other tribe in Israel.

17 Let Dan be a snake in the way, a viper in the path, biting the hooves of horses, so that his rider may fall backward.

18 I will wait for your salvation, O Lord.

19 Gad, being girded, will fight before him. And he himself will be girded backward.

20 Asher: his bread will be fat, and he will provide delicacies to the kings.

21 Naphtali is a stag sent forth, offering words of eloquent beauty.

22 Joseph is a growing son, a growing son and stately to behold; the daughters run back and forth on the wall.

23 But those who held darts, provoked him, and they contend with him, and they envied him.

24 His bow sits in strength, and the bands of his arms and hands have been let loose by the hands of the mighty one of Jacob. From there he went forth as a pastor, the stone of Israel.

25 The God of your father will be your helper, and the Almighty will bless you with the blessings of heaven above, with the blessings of the abyss that lies beneath, with the blessings of the breasts and of the womb.

26 The blessings of your father are strengthened by the blessings of his fathers, until the desire of the hills of eternity shall arrive. May they be at the head of Joseph, and at the summit of the Nazarite, among his brothers.

27 Benjamin is a ravenous wolf, in the morning he will eat the prey, and in the evening he will divide the spoil.”

28 All these are the twelve tribes of Israel. These things their father spoke to them, and he blessed each one with their proper blessings.

29 And he instructed them, saying: “I am being gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the double cave, which is in the field of Ephron the Hittite,

30 opposite Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought, along with its field, from Ephron the Hittite, as a possession for burial.

31 There they buried him, with his wife Sarah.” And there Isaac was buried with his wife Rebekah. There also Leah lies preserved.

32 And having finished these commands by which he instructed his sons, he drew his feet onto the bed, and he passed away. And he was gathered to his people.

Genesis 50

1 Joseph, realizing this, fell upon his father’s face, weeping and kissing him.

2 And he instructed his servant physicians to embalm his father with aromatics.

3 And while they were fulfilling his orders, forty days passed. For this was the method of embalming dead bodies. And Egypt wept for him for seventy days.

4 And when the time for mourning was fulfilled, Joseph spoke to the family of Pharaoh: “If I have found favor in your sight, speak to the ears of Pharaoh.

5 For my father made me swear, saying: ‘See, I am dying. You shall bury me in my sepulcher which I dug for myself in the land of Canaan.’ Therefore, I shall go up and bury my father, and then return.”

6 And Pharaoh said to him, “Go up and bury your father, just as he made you swear.”

7 So as he went up, all the elders of the house of Pharaoh went with him, along with every patriarch in the land of Egypt,

8 and the house of Joseph with his brothers, except their little ones and flocks and also the herds, which they left behind in the land of Goshen.

9 Likewise, he had in his company chariots and horsemen. And it became a crowd without restraint.

10 And they arrived at the threshing place of Atad, which is situated beyond the Jordan. There they spent seven full days celebrating the funeral rites with a great and vehement lamentation.

11 And when the inhabitants of the land of Canaan had seen this, they said, “This is a great Lamentation for the Egyptians.” And for this reason, the name of that place was called, “The Lamentation of Egypt.”

12 And so, the sons of Jacob did just as he had instructed them.

13 And carrying him into the land of Canaan, they buried him in the double cave, which Abraham had bought along with its field, from Ephron the Hittite, as a possession for burial, opposite Mamre.

14 And Joseph returned into Egypt with his brothers and all those of his company, having buried his father.

15 Now that he was dead, his brothers were afraid, and they said to one another: “Perhaps now he may remember the injury that he suffered and requite us for all the evil that we did to him.”

16 So they sent a message to him, saying: “Your father instructed us before he died,

17 that we should say these words to you from him: ‘I beg you to forget the wickedness of your brothers, and the sin and malice that they practiced against you.’ Likewise, we petition you to release the servants of the God of your father from this iniquity.” Hearing this, Joseph wept.

18 And his brothers went to him. And reverencing prostrate on the ground, they said, “We are your servants.”

19 And he answered them: “Do not be afraid. Are we able to resist the will of God?

20 You devised evil against me. But God turned it into good, so that he might exalt me, just as you presently discern, and so that he might bring about the salvation of many peoples.

21 Do not be afraid. I will pasture you and your little ones.” And he consoled them, and he spoke mildly and leniently.

22 And he lived in Egypt with all his father’s house; and he survived for one hundred and ten years. And he saw the sons of Ephraim to the third generation. Likewise, the sons of Machir, the son of Manasseh, were born onto Joseph’s knees.

23 After these things happened, he said to his brothers: “God will visit you after my death, and he will make you ascend from this land into the land which he swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

24 And when he had made them swear and had said, “God will visit you; carry my bones with you from this place,”

25 he died, having completed one hundred and ten years of his life. And having been embalmed with aromatics, he was laid to rest in a coffin in Egypt.