Beresheet, starting at chapter 49
{49:1} Ya`akov 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.
{49:2} Assemble yourselves, and hear, you sons of Ya`akov;
Listen to Yisra'el, your father.
{49:3} "Re'uven, you are my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of
my strength;
The pre-eminence of dignity, and the pre-eminence of power.
{49:4} Boiling over as water, you shall not have the pre-eminence;
Because you went up to your father's bed;
Then defiled it. He went up to my couch.
{49:5} "Shim`on and Levi are brothers;
Weapons of violence are their swords.
{49:6} My soul, don't come into their council;
My glory, don't be united to their assembly;
For in their anger they killed a man,
In their self-will they hamstrung an ox.
{49:7} Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce;
Their wrath, for it was cruel.
I will divide them in Ya`akov,
Scatter them in Yisra'el.
{49:8} "Yehudah, your brothers will praise you:
Your hand will be on the neck of your enemies;
Your father's sons will bow down before you.
{49:9} Yehudah is a lion's whelp.
From the prey, my son, you have gone up.
He stooped down, he couched as a lion,
As a lioness. Who will rouse him up?
{49:10} The scepter will not depart from Yehudah,
Nor the ruler's staff from between his feet,
Until Shiloh comes.
To him will the obedience of the peoples be.
{49:11} Binding 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:
{49:12} His eyes will be red with wine,
His teeth white with milk.
{49:13} "Zevulun will dwell at the haven of the sea.
He will be for a haven of ships.
His border will be on Tzidon.
{49:14} "Yissakhar is a strong donkey,
Couching down between the sheepfolds.
{49:15} He saw a resting-place, that it was good,
The land, that it was pleasant;
He bowed his shoulder to bear,
And became a servant doing forced labor.
{49:16} "Dan will judge his people,
As one of the tribes of Yisra'el.
{49:17} Dan will be a serpent in the way,
An adder in the path,
That bites the horse's heels,
So that his rider falls backward.
{49:18} I have waited for your salvation, LORD.
{49:19} "Gad, a troop will press on him;
But he will press on their heel.
{49:20} Out of Asher his bread will be fat,
He will yield royal dainties.
{49:21} "Naftali is a doe set free,
Who bears beautiful fawns.
{49:22} "Yosef is a fruitful bough,
A fruitful bough by a spring;
His branches run over the wall.
{49:23} The archers have sorely grieved him,
Shot at him, and persecute him:
{49:24} But his bow abode in strength,
The arms of his hands were made strong,
By the hands of the Mighty One of Ya`akov,
(From there is the shepherd, the stone of Yisra'el),
{49:25} Even by the God of your father, who will help you,
By [1>]Shaddai[<1], who will bless you,
With blessings of heaven above,
Blessings of the deep that couches beneath,
Blessings of the breasts, and of the womb.
{49:26} The blessings of your father
Have prevailed above the blessings of the ancient mountains,
Than the bounty of the age-old hills.
They will be on the head of Yosef,
On the crown of the head of him who is separated from his brothers.
{49:27} "Binyamin is a ravenous wolf.
In the morning she will devour the prey.
At evening he will divide the spoil."
{49:28} All these are the twelve tribes of Yisra'el, and this is
what their father spoke to them and blessed them. He blessed everyone
according to his blessing. {49:29} He charged 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 `Efron the Hittite, {49:30} in the cave that
is in the field of Makhpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of
Kana`an, which Avraham bought with the field from `Efron the Hittite
for a possession of a burying-place. {49:31} There they buried Avraham
and Sarah, his wife. There they buried Yitzchak and Rivka, his wife,
and there I buried Le'ah: {49:32} the field and the cave that is
therein, which was purchased from the children of Het." {49:33} When
Ya`akov made an end of charging his sons, he gathered up his feet into
the bed, and yielded up the spirit, and was gathered to his people.
{50:1} Yosef fell on his father's face, wept on him, and kissed him.
{50:2} Yosef commanded his servants, the physicians, to embalm his
father; and the physicians embalmed Yisra'el. {50:3} Forty days were
fulfilled for him, for that is how many the days it takes to embalm.
The Mitzrim wept for him for seventy days.
{50:4} When the days of weeping for him were past, Yosef spoke to
the house of Par`oh, saying, "If now I have found favor in your eyes,
please speak in the ears of Par`oh, saying, {50:5} '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 Kana`an." Now therefore, please let me
go up and bury my father, and I will come again.'"
{50:6} Par`oh said, "Go up, and bury your father, just like he made
you swear."
{50:7} Yosef went up to bury his father; and with him went up all
the servants of Par`oh, the Zakenim of his house, all the Zakenim of
the land of Mitzrayim, {50:8} all the house of Yosef, his brothers,
and his father's house. Only their little ones, their flocks, and
their herds, they left in the land of Goshen. {50:9} There went up
with him both chariots and horsemen. It was a very great company.
{50:10} They came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the
Yarden, and there they lamented with a very great and sore
lamentation. He mourned for his father seven days. {50:11} When the
inhabitants of the land, the Kana`anim, saw the mourning in the floor
of Atad, they said, "This is a grievous mourning by the Mitzrim."
Therefore, the name of it was called Avel-Mitzrayim, which is beyond
the Yarden. {50:12} His sons did to him just as he commanded them,
{50:13} for his sons carried him into the land of Kana`an, and buried
him in the cave of the field of Makhpelah, which Avraham bought with
the field, for a possession of a burying-place, from `Efron the
Hittite, before Mamre. {50:14} Yosef returned into Mitzrayim - he, and
his brothers, and all that went up with him to bury his father, after
he had buried his father.
{50:15} When Yosef's brothers saw that their father was dead, they
said, "It may be that Yosef will hate us, and will fully pay us back
for all of the evil which we did to him. {50:16} They sent a message
to Yosef, saying, "Your father commanded before he died, saying,
{50:17} "So will you tell Yosef, '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." Yosef wept when they spoke to him. {50:18} His brothers also
went and fell down before his face; and they said, "Behold, we are
your servants." {50:19} Yosef said to them, "Don't be afraid, for am I
in the place of God? {50:20} As for you, you meant evil against me,
but God meant it for good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to
save many people alive. {50:21} Now therefore don't be afraid. I will
nourish you and your little ones." He comforted them, and spoke kindly
to them.
{50:22} Yosef lived in Mitzrayim, he, and his father's house. Yosef
lived one hundred ten years. {50:23} Yosef saw Efrayim's children to
the third generation. The children also of Makhir, the son of
Menashsheh, were born on Yosef's knees. {50:24} Yosef 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 Avraham, to Yitzchak,
and to Ya`akov." {50:25} Yosef took an oath of the children of
Yisra'el, saying, "God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up
my bones from here." {50:26} So Yosef died, being one hundred ten
years old, and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in
Mitzrayim.
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Footnotes:
[1] {49:25} the Almighty
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