Jacob, Joseph & Egypt

"Asher's food is rich -he will provide food fit for a king.

"Naftali is a doe set free that bears beautiful fawns.

"Yosef is a fruitful plant, a fruitful plant by a spring, with branches climbing over the wall.

The archers attacked him fiercely, shooting at him and pressing him hard;

but his bow remained taut; and his arms were made nimble by the hands of the Mighty One of Ya'akov, from there, from the Shepherd, the Stone of Isra'el,

by the God of your father, who will help you, by El Shaddai, who will bless you with blessings from heaven above, or: that says beautiful words. blessings from the deep, lying below, blessings from the breasts and the womb.

The blessings of your father are more powerful than the blessings of my parents, extending to the farthest of the everlasting hills; they will be on the head of Yosef, on the brow of the prince among his brothers.

"Binyamin is a ravenous wolf, in the morning devouring the prey, in the evening still dividing the spoil."

All these are the twelve tribes of Isra'el, and this is how their father spoke to them and blessed them, giving each his own individual blessing.

Then he charged them as follows: "I am to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my ancestors in the cave that is in the field of 'Efron the Hitti,

the cave in the field of Makhpelah, by Mamre, in the land of Kena'an, which Avraham bought together with the field from 'Efron the Hitti as a burial-place belonging to him -

there they buried Avraham and his wife Sarah, there they buried Yitz'chak and his wife Rivkah, and there I buried Le'ah -

the field and the cave in it, which was purchased from the sons of Het."

When Ya'akov had finished charging his sons, he drew his legs up into the bed, breathed his last and was gathered to his people.

Yosef fell on his father's face, wept over him and kissed him.

Then Yosef ordered the physicians in his service to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Isra'el.

Forty days were spent at this, the normal amount of time for embalming. Then the Egyptians mourned for him seventy days.

When the period of mourning was over, Yosef addressed to the household of Pharaoh: "I would like to ask a favor. Tell Pharaoh,

'My father had me swear an oath. He said, "I am going to die. You are to bury me in my grave, which I dug for myself in the land of Kena'an."Therefore, I beg you, let me go up and bury my father; I will return.'"

Pharaoh responded, "Go up and bury your father, as he made you swear."

So Yosef went up to bury his father. With him went all Pharaoh's servants, the leaders of his household and the leaders of the land of Egypt,

along with the entire household of Yosef, his brothers and his father's household; only their little ones, their flocks and their cattle did they leave in the land of Goshen.

Moreover, there went up with him both chariots and horsemen - it was a very large caravan.

When they arrived at the threshing-floor in Atad, beyond the Yarden, they raised a loud and bitter lamentation, mourning for his father seven days.

When the local inhabitants, the Kena'ani, saw the mourning on the floor of Atad they said, "How bitterly the Egyptians are mourning!"This is why the place was given the name Avel-Mitzrayim [mourning of Egypt], there beyond the Yarden.