Jacob, Joseph & Egypt

Then Ioseph sayd vnto the people, Behold, I haue bought you this daye, and your lande for Pharaoh: lo, here is seede for you: sowe therefore the grounde.

And of the encrease ye shall giue the fifth part vnto Pharaoh, and foure partes shalbe yours for the seede of the fielde, and for your meate, and for them of your housholdes, and for your children to eate.

Then they answered, Thou hast saued our liues: let vs finde grace in the sight of my Lord, and we will be Pharaohs seruants.

Then Ioseph made it a lawe ouer the land of Egypt vnto this day, that Pharaoh should haue the fift part, except the land of the priests only, which was not Pharaohs.

And Israel dwelt in the lande of Egypt, in the countrey of Goshen: and they had their possessions therein, and grewe and multiplied exceedingly.

Moreouer, Iaakob liued in the lande of Egypt seuenteene yeeres, so that the whole age of Iaakob was an hundreth fourtie and seuen yeere.

Now when the time drewe neere that Israel must dye, he called his sonne Ioseph, and sayde vnto him, If I haue nowe founde grace in thy sight, put thine hand nowe vnder my thigh, and deale mercifully and truely with me: burie me not, I pray thee, in Egypt.

But when I shall sleepe with my fathers, thou shalt carry me out of Egypt, and bury mee in their buryall. And he answered, I will doe as thou hast sayde.

The he said, Sweare vnto me. And he sware vnto him. And Israel worshipped towardes the beds head.

Againe after this, one sayd to Ioseph, Loe, thy father is sicke: then hee tooke with him his two sonnes, Manasseh and Ephraim.

Also one told Iaakob, and said, Behold, thy sonne Ioseph is come to thee, and Israel tooke his strength vnto him and sate vpon the bed.

Then Iaakob sayde vnto Ioseph, God almightie appeared vnto me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and blessed me.

And he sayde vnto me, Behold, I wil make thee fruitefull, and will multiplie thee, and will make a great number of people of thee, and will giue this lande vnto thy seede after thee for an euerlasting possession.

And now thy two sonnes, Manasseh and Ephraim, which are borne vnto thee in the lande of Egypt, before I came to thee into Egypt, shall be mine, as Reuben and Simeon are mine.

But the linage, which thou hast begotten after them, shalbe thine: they shall be called after the names of their brethren in their inheritance.

Nowe when I came from Padan, Rahel died vpon mine hande in the lande of Canaan, by the way when there was but halfe a dayes iourney of grounde to come to Ephrath: and I buryed her there in the way to Ephrath: the same is Beth-lehem.

Then Israel beheld Iosephs sonnes and sayd, Whose are these?

And Ioseph sayd vnto his father, They are my sonnes, which God hath giuen mee here. Then he sayd, I pray thee, bring them to me, that I may blesse them:

(For the eyes of Israel were dimme for age, so that hee coulde not well see) Then he caused them to come to him, and he kissed them and embraced them.

And Israel sayde vnto Ioseph, I had not thought to haue seene thy face: yet lo, God hath shewed me also thy seede.

And Ioseph tooke them away from his knees, and did reuerence downe to the ground.

Then tooke Ioseph them both, Ephraim in his right hand towarde Israels left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israels right hand, so he brought them vnto him.

But Israel stretched out his right hand, and layde it on Ephraims head, which was the yonger, and his left hande vpon Manassehs head (directing his handes of purpose) for Manasseh was the elder.

Also he blessed Ioseph and sayde, The God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Izhak did walke, the God, which hath fed me al my life long vnto this day, blesse thee.

The Angel, which hath deliuered me from all euill, blesse the children, and let my name be named vpon them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Izhak, that they may growe as fish into a multitude in the middes of the earth.