Jacob, Joseph & Egypt

Out of Asher his bread is fat; And he giveth dainties of a king.

Naphtali is a hind sent away, Who is giving beauteous young ones.

Joseph is a fruitful son; A fruitful son by a fountain, Daughters step over the wall;

And embitter him--yea, they have striven, Yea, hate him do archers;

And his bow abideth in strength, And strengthened are the arms of his hands By the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob, Whence is a shepherd, a son of Israel.

By the God of thy father who helpeth thee, And the Mighty One who blesseth thee, Blessings of the heavens from above, Blessings of the deep lying under, Blessings of breasts and womb; --

Thy father's blessings have been mighty Above the blessings of my progenitors, Unto the limit of the heights age-during They are for the head of Joseph, And for the crown of the one Separate from his brethren.

Benjamin! a wolf teareth; In the morning he eateth prey, And at evening he apportioneth spoil.'

All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is that which their father hath spoken unto them, and he blesseth them; each according to his blessing he hath blessed them.

And he commandeth them, and saith unto them, `I am being gathered unto my people; bury me by my fathers, at the cave which is in the field of Ephron the Hittite;

in the cave which is in the field of Machpelah, which is on the front of Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a burying-place;

(there they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah);

the purchase of the field and of the cave which is in it, is from Sons of Heth.'

And Jacob finisheth commanding his sons, and gathereth up his feet unto the bed, and expireth, and is gathered unto his people.

And Joseph falleth on his father's face, and weepeth over him, and kisseth him;

and Joseph commandeth his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father, and the physicians embalm Israel;

and they fulfil for him forty days, for so they fulfil the days of the embalmed, and the Egyptians weep for him seventy days.

And the days of his weeping pass away, and Joseph speaketh unto the house of Pharaoh, saying, `If, I pray you, I have found grace in your eyes, speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh, saying,

My father caused me to swear, saying, Lo, I am dying; in my burying-place which I have prepared for myself in the land of Canaan, there dost thou bury me; and now, let me go up, I pray thee, and bury my father, and return;'

and Pharaoh saith, `Go up and bury thy father, as he caused thee to swear.'

And Joseph goeth up to bury his father, and go up with him do all the servants of Pharaoh, elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt,

and all the house of Joseph, and his brethren, and the house of his father; only their infants, and their flock, and their herd, have they left in the land of Goshen;

and there go up with him both chariot and horsemen, and the camp is very great.

And they come unto the threshing-floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, and they lament there, a lamentation great and very grievous; and he maketh for his father a mourning seven days,

and the inhabitant of the land, the Canaanite, see the mourning in the threshing-floor of Atad, and say, `A grievous mourning is this to the Egyptians;' therefore hath one called its name `The mourning of the Egyptians,' which is beyond the Jordan.