Jacob, Joseph & Egypt

Then Yosef said to the people, "As of today I have acquired you and your land for Pharaoh. Here is seed for you to sow the land.

When harvest time comes, you are to give twenty percent to Pharaoh; eighty percent will be yours to keep for seed to plant in the fields, as well as for your food and for that of your households and your little ones."

They replied, "You have saved our lives! So if it pleases my lord, we will be Pharaoh's slaves."

Yosef made it a law for the country of Egypt, valid to this day, that Pharaoh should have twenty percent. Only the property belonging to the priests did not become Pharaoh's.

Isra'el lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years. They acquired possessions in it and were productive, and their numbers multiplied greatly.

Ya'akov lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years; thus Ya'akov lived to be 147 years old.

The time came when Isra'el was approaching death; so he called for his son Yosef and said to him, "If you truly love me, please put your hand under my thigh and pledge that, out of consideration for me, you will not bury me in Egypt.

Rather, when I sleep with my fathers, you are to carry me out of Egypt and bury me where they are buried." He replied, "I will do as you have said."

He said, "Swear it to me," and he swore to him. Then Isra'el bowed down at the head of his bed.

Awhile later someone told Yosef that his father was ill. He took with him his two sons, M'nasheh and Efrayim.

Ya'akov was told, "Here comes your son Yosef."Isra'el gathered his strength and sat up in bed.

Ya'akov said to Yosef, "El Shaddai appeared to me at Luz in the land of Kena'an and blessed me,

saying to me, 'I will make you fruitful and numerous. I will make of you a group of peoples; and I will give this land to your descendants to possess forever.'

Now your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, are mine; Efrayim and M'nasheh will be as much mine as Re'uven and Shim'on are.

The children born to you after them will be yours, but for purposes of inheritance they are to be counted with their older brothers.

"Now as for me, when I came from Paddan, Rachel died suddenly, as we were traveling through the land of Kena'an, while we were still some distance from Efrat; so I buried her there on the way to Efrat (also known as Beit-Lechem)."

Then Isra'el noticed Yosef's sons and asked, "Whose are these?"

Yosef answered his father, "They are my sons, whom God has given me here." Ya'akov replied, "I want you to bring them here to me, so that I can bless them."

Now Isra'el's eyes were dim with age, so that he could not see. Yosef brought his sons near to him, and he kissed them and embraced them.

Isra'el said to Yosef, "I never expected to see even you again, but God has allowed me to see your children too!"

Yosef brought them out from between his legs and prostrated himself on the ground.

Then Yosef took them both, Efrayim in his right hand toward Isra'el's left hand and M'nasheh in his left hand toward Isra'el's right hand, and brought them near to him.

But Isra'el put out his right hand and laid it on the head of the younger one, Efrayim, and put his left hand on the head of M'nasheh - he intentionally crossed his hands, even though M'nasheh was the firstborn.

Then he blessed Yosef: "The God in whose presence my fathers Avraham and Yitz'chak lived, the God who has been my own shepherd all my life long to this day,

the angel who has rescued me from all harm, bless these boys. May they remember who I am and what I stand for, and likewise my fathers Avraham and Yitz'chak, who they were and what they stood for. And may they grow into teeming multitudes on the earth."