Genesis 49 - 50 — Legacy Standard Bible

Jacob Assembles His Sons

49Then Jacob summoned his sons and said, “Gather together that I may tell you what will befall you ^ain the last days.

²“Assemble together and hear, O sons of Jacob;And ^alisten to Israel your father.³“Reuben, you are my firstborn;My might and ^athe beginning of my vigor,¹Preeminent in dignity and ²preeminent in strength.⁴“¹Uncontrolled as water, you shall not have preeminence,^aBecause you went up to your father’s bed;Then you defiled it—he went up to my couch.⁵“^aSimeon and Levi are brothers;Their swords are implements of violence.⁶“^aLet my soul not enter into their council;Let not my glory be united with their assembly;Because in their anger they killed ¹men,And in their self-will they hamstrung ²oxen.⁷“Cursed be their anger, for it is strong;And their wrath, for it is cruel.^aI will divide them amongst Jacob,And scatter them in Israel.⁸“Judah, as for you, your brothers shall praise you;Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;^aYour father’s sons shall bow down to you.⁹“Judah is a ^alion’s whelp;From the prey, my son, you have gone up.^bHe ¹crouches, he lies down as a lion,And as a lioness, who ²dares rouse him up?¹⁰“^aThe scepter shall not depart from Judah,Nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,¹Until Shiloh comes,And ^bto him shall be the obedience of the peoples.¹¹“¹^,^aHe ties his foal to the vine,And his donkey’s colt to the choice vine;^bHe washes his garments in wine,And his robes in the blood of grapes.¹²“His eyes are ¹dark from wine,And his teeth ²white from milk.¹³“^aZebulun will dwell at the seashore;And he shall be a shore for ships,And his flank shall be toward Sidon.¹⁴“Issachar is ¹a strong donkey,^aLying down between the ²sheepfolds.¹⁵“And he saw that a resting place was goodAnd that the land was pleasant,So he bowed his shoulder to bear burdens,And became a slave at forced labor.¹⁶“^aDan shall ^brender justice to his people,As one of the tribes of Israel.¹⁷“Dan shall be a serpent in the way,A horned snake in the path,That bites the horse’s heels,So that his rider falls backward.¹⁸“^aFor Your salvation I hope, O Yahweh.¹⁹“^aAs for Gad, ¹raiders shall raid him,But he will raid at their ²heels.²⁰“¹^,^aAs for ^bAsher, his ²food shall be ³rich,And he will yield royal dainties.²¹“^aNaphtali is a doe let loose,He gives beautiful words.²²“^aJoseph is a fruitful ¹bough,A fruitful ²bough by a spring;Its ³branches run over a wall.²³“And the archers bitterly attacked him and shot at him,And they bore a grudge against him;²⁴But his ^abow remained ¹firm,And ²^,^bhis arms were agile,From the hands of the ^cMighty One of Jacob,From there is ^dthe Shepherd, ^ethe Stone of Israel,²⁵From ^athe God of your father who helps you,And ¹^,^bby the ²Almighty who blesses youWith ^cblessings of heaven above,Blessings of the deep that lies beneath,Blessings of the breasts and of the womb.²⁶“The blessings of your fatherHave surpassed the blessings of my ancestorsUp to the ¹utmost bound of ^athe everlasting hills;May they be on the head of Joseph,And on the top of the head of the one distinguished among his brothers.²⁷“Benjamin is a ¹ravenous wolf;In the morning he devours the prey,And in the evening he divides the spoil.”

Jacob Breathes His Last

²⁸All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father spoke to them. So he blessed them. He blessed them, every one ¹with the blessing appropriate to him. ²⁹Then he commanded them and said to them, “I am about to be ^agathered to my people; ^bbury me with my fathers in the cave that is in ^cthe field of Ephron the Hittite, ³⁰in the ^acave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought along with the field from Ephron the Hittite as a possession for a burial site. ³¹“There they buried ^aAbraham and his wife ^bSarah, there they buried ^cIsaac and his wife Rebekah, and there I buried Leah— ³²the field and the cave that is in it, purchased from the sons of Heth.” ³³So Jacob finished commanding his sons. And he drew his feet into the bed and ^abreathed his last and was ^bgathered to his people.

50Then Joseph fell on his father’s face and wept over him and kissed him. ²And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father. So the physicians ^aembalmed Israel. ³Then the forty days to do this were fulfilled, because in this manner the days of embalming are fulfilled. And the Egyptians ^awept for him seventy days.

⁴Then the days of weeping for him were past, and Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh, saying, “If now I have found favor in your sight, please speak in the ears of Pharaoh, saying, ⁵‘^aMy father made me swear, saying, “Behold, I am about to die; in my grave ^bwhich I dug for myself in the land of Canaan, there you shall bury me.” So now, please let me go up and bury my father; then I will return.’” ⁶And Pharaoh said, “Go up and bury your father, as he made you swear.”

⁷So Joseph went up to bury his father, and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his household, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, ⁸and all the household of Joseph and his brothers and his father’s household; they left only their little ones and their flocks and their herds in the land of Goshen. ⁹There also went up with him both chariots and horsemen; and it was a very ¹immense camp. ¹⁰And they came to the ¹threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, and they ^alamented there with a very great and ²immense lamentation; and he ³observed seven days of mourning for his father. ¹¹Now the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning at ¹the threshing floor of Atad, and they said, “This is an ²immense ³mourning for the Egyptians.” Therefore it was named ⁴Abel-mizraim, which is beyond the Jordan.

Jacob’s Burial at Machpelah

¹²Thus his sons did for him as he had commanded them. ¹³Indeed, his sons carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in ^athe cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre, which Abraham had bought along with the field for his possession as a burial site from Ephron the Hittite. ¹⁴After he had buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt, he and his brothers, and all who had gone up with him to bury his father.

¹⁵Then Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, and they said, “^aWhat if Joseph bears a grudge against us and returns back to us all the evil which we dealt against him!” ¹⁶So they ¹sent a message to Joseph, saying, “Your father commanded before he died, saying, ¹⁷‘Thus you shall say to Joseph, “Please forgive, I beg you, the transgression of your brothers and their sin, for they dealt evil against you.”’ So now, please forgive the transgression of the slaves of the God of your father.” And Joseph wept when they spoke to him. ¹⁸Then his brothers also came and ^afell down before him and said, “Behold, we are your slaves.” ¹⁹But Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid, for am I in God’s place? ²⁰“As for you, ^ayou meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to do ¹what has happened on this day, to keep many people alive. ²¹“So now, do not be afraid; ^aI will provide for you and your little ones.” And he comforted them and spoke to their heart.

The Death of Joseph

²²Now Joseph stayed in Egypt, he and his father’s household, and Joseph lived 110 years. ²³And Joseph saw the third generation of Ephraim’s sons; also the sons of Machir, the son of Manasseh, were ^aborn on Joseph’s knees. ²⁴And Joseph said to his brothers, “^aI am about to die, but God will surely ¹take care of you and bring you up from this land to the land which He swore to ^bAbraham, to ^cIsaac, and to ^dJacob.” ²⁵Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, “God will surely ¹take care of you, and ^ayou shall carry my bones up from here.” ²⁶So Joseph died at the age of 110 years; and ^athey embalmed him, and he was placed in a coffin in Egypt.