Jacob, Joseph & Egypt

Asher’s food will be rich; he shall provide royal delicacies.

Naphtali is a doe set free that bears beautiful fawns.

Joseph is a fruitful vine— a fruitful vine by a spring, whose branches scale the wall.

The archers attacked him with bitterness; they aimed at him in hostility.

Yet he steadied his bow, and his strong arms were tempered by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob, in the name of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel,

by the God of your father who helps you, and by the Almighty who blesses you, with blessings of the heavens above, with blessings of the depths below, with blessings of the breasts and womb.

The blessings of your father have surpassed the blessings of the ancient mountains and the bounty of the everlasting hills. May they rest on the head of Joseph, on the brow of the prince of his brothers.

Benjamin is a ravenous wolf; in the morning he devours the prey, in the evening he divides the plunder.”

These are the tribes of Israel, twelve in all, and this was what their father said to them. He blessed them, and he blessed each one with a suitable blessing.

Then Jacob instructed them, “I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite.

The cave is in the field of Machpelah near Mamre, in the land of Canaan. This is the field Abraham purchased from Ephron the Hittite as a burial site.

There Abraham and his wife Sarah are buried, there Isaac and his wife Rebekah are buried, and there I buried Leah.

The field and the cave that is in it were purchased from the Hittites.”

When Jacob had finished instructing his sons, he pulled his feet into the bed and breathed his last, and he was gathered to his people.

Then Joseph fell upon his father’s face, wept over him, and kissed him.

And Joseph directed the physicians in his service to embalm his father Israel. So they embalmed him,

taking the forty days required to complete the embalming. And the Egyptians mourned for him seventy days.

When the days of mourning had passed, Joseph said to Pharaoh’s court, “If I have found favor in your eyes, please tell Pharaoh that

my father made me swear an oath when he said, ‘I am about to die. You must bury me in the tomb that I dug for myself in the land of Canaan.’ Now let me go and bury my father, and then return.”

Pharaoh replied, “Go up and bury your father, as he made you swear to do.”

Then Joseph went to bury his father, and all the servants of Pharaoh accompanied him—the elders of Pharaoh’s household and all the elders of the land of Egypt—

along with all of Joseph’s household, and his brothers, and his father’s household. Only their children and flocks and herds were left in Goshen.

Chariots and horsemen alike went up with him, and it was an exceedingly large procession.

When they reached the threshing floor of Atad, which is across the Jordan, they lamented and wailed loudly, and Joseph mourned for his father seven days.

When the Canaanites of the land saw the mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, they said, “This is a solemn ceremony of mourning by the Egyptians.” Thus the place across the Jordan is called Abel-mizraim.