Genesis 49-50
Tree of Life Version
Jacob Speaks Over His Sons
49 Jacob called his sons and said to them:
Gather together so that I can tell you
what will happen to you in the last days.
2 Be assembled and listen, sons of Jacob,
and listen to Israel your father.
3 Reuben, my firstborn are you,
my vigor and firstborn of my power,
endowed with extra dignity,
endowed with extra strength—
4 like water boiling over
you will not have extra,
for you got up into your father’s bed,
when you defiled a maid’s couch.
5 Simeon and Levi are brothers,
instruments of violence are their knives.
6 In their secret counsel
may my soul not enter.
In their contingent may my honor
never be united.
For in their anger they slew men,
and in their self-will they maimed oxen.
7 Cursed be their anger for it was strong
and their rage for it was cruel—
I will disperse them in Jacob,
I will scatter them in Israel.
8 Judah, so you are—
your brothers will praise you:
Your hand will be on your enemies’ neck.
Your father’s sons will bow down to you.
9 A lion’s cub is Judah—
from the prey, my son,
you have gone up.
He crouches, lies down like a lion,
or like a lioness—
who would rouse him?[a]
10 The scepter will not pass from Judah,
nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,[b]
until he to whom it belongs will come.
To him will be the obedience of the peoples.[c]
11 Binding his foal to the vine,
his donkey’s colt to the choice vine,[d]
he washes his garments in wine,
and in the blood of grapes his robe.[e]
12 His eyes are darker than wine,
and teeth that are whiter than milk.
13 Zebulun will dwell by the seashore,
and be by a harbor for ships—
his distant border reaches Sidon.
14 Issachar is a strong-boned donkey,
lying down between two saddlebags.
15 He saw that a resting place was good,
and that the land was pleasant.
He leaned his shoulder to bear a burden,
and became a forced laborer.
16 Dan will judge his people,
as one of the tribes of Israel.
17 Let Dan be a serpent beside a road,
a viper beside a path,
who strikes a horse’s heels,
so that its rider falls backward.
18 For your salvation I wait, Adonai!
19 Gad—attackers will attack him,
but he will attack their heels.
20 Asher—rich is his food—
he will provide delicacies fit for a king.
21 Naphtali is a doe let loose,
who offers words of beauty.
22 A fruitful son is Joseph,
a fruitful son beside a spring—
daughters walk along a wall.
23 The archers were bitter and shot arrows
and were hostile towards him.
24 Yet his bow was always filled,
and his arms quick-moving—
by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob.
From there a Shepherd,
the Stone of Israel,[f]
25 from the God of your father
who helps you,
and Shaddai who blesses you,
with blessings of heavens above,
blessings of the deep that lies below,
blessings of breasts and womb.
26 The blessings of your father surpassed
the blessings of the ancient mountains,
the desire of the everlasting hills.
May they be upon Joseph’s head,
upon the crown of the one set apart from his brothers.
27 Benjamin is a ravening wolf—
in the morning he devours spoils,
and in the evening divides plunder.
28 These are the tribes of Israel, twelve in all, and this is what their father spoke to them. He blessed them, each one he blessed with a suitable blessing. 29 Then he charged them and said to them, “I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, 30 in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, that is next to Mamre in the land of Canaan—the field that Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite as a property for burial. 31 There they buried Abraham and his wife Sarah. There they buried Isaac and Rebekah, and there I buried Leah. 32 The field was purchased along with the cave in it from the sons of Het.”
33 When Jacob finished commanding his sons, he drew his feet up into the bed, then breathed his last and was gathered to his peoples.
Lamentation for Jacob
50 Joseph fell upon his father’s face, wept over him and kissed him. 2 Then Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father, so the physicians embalmed Israel. 3 They took 40 days for him, because that is how long embalming takes, and Egypt wept 70 days.
4 When the days of formal weeping passed, Joseph spoke to Pharaoh’s house saying, “If I’ve found favor in your eyes, please say in Pharaoh’s ears, 5 “My father made me take an oath saying, ‘Behold, I am about to die. In my tomb—which I dug for myself in the land of Canaan—there you must bury me.’ So now, please allow me to go up and bury my father, and then return.”
6 Pharaoh said, “Go up and bury your father just as he made you swear on oath.”
7 So Joseph went up to bury his father. Also all of Pharaoh’s servants, the elders of his household and all the elders of the land of Egypt went up with him, 8 along with all of Joseph’s house, his brothers, and his father’s household. Only their children and their flocks and cattle were left in the land of Goshen. 9 Chariots and horsemen also went up with him—it was a very impressive company.
10 When they came to the threshing floor of the bramble on the other side of the Jordan, they mourned there—a very great and solemn lamentation. He observed seven days of mourning for his father. 11 When the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning ritual at the threshing floor of the prickly bush, they said, “A solemn mourning ritual this is for the Egyptians.” That is why it is named Abel-Mizraim, which is on the other side of the Jordan.
12 So Jacob’s sons did for him just as he commanded them. 13 His sons carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, the field that Abraham bought as a property for burial from Ephron the Hittite, next to Mamre.
14 After burying his father, Joseph returned to Egypt, he and his brothers and all those who went up with him to bury his father.
Joseph Comforts His Brothers
15 When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father had died, they said, “Maybe Joseph will be hostile towards us and pay us back in full for all the evil we showed him. 16 So they charged Joseph saying, “Before his death, your father gave a command, saying, 17 “Thus you must say to Joseph: ‘Please forgive, I beg you, the transgression of your brothers and their sin because they treated you wrongly.’ Therefore, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.”
Then Joseph wept when they spoke to him, 18 and his brothers also came and fell down before him and said, “Behold, we are your slaves!”
19 But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. For am I in the place of God? 20 Yes, you yourselves planned evil against me. God planned it for good, in order to bring about what it is this day—to preserve the lives of many people. 21 So now, don’t be afraid. I myself will provide food for you and your little ones.” So he reassured them, speaking kindly to them.
22 Joseph remained in Egypt—he and his father’s household—and Joseph lived 110 years. 23 Joseph saw the third generation of Ephraim’s sons. Also the sons of Machir, Manasseh’s son, were born upon Joseph’s knees.
24 Then Joseph said to his brothers, “I’m about to die. But God will surely take notice of you and will bring you up from this land to the land that He swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” 25 Then Joseph made Israel’s sons swear an oath saying, “When God takes notice of you, you will bring my bones up from here.”
26 So Joseph died at 110 years old, and they embalmed him and he was placed in a coffin in Egypt.
Footnotes
- Genesis 49:9 cf. Rev. 5:5.
- Genesis 49:10 cf. Rev. 19:15.
- Genesis 49:10 Or tribute comes or Shiloh comes . . .
- Genesis 49:11 cf. Zech. 9:9-10; Matt. 21:5; John 12:15.
- Genesis 49:11 cf. Isa. 63:1-2; Rev. 19:13.
- Genesis 49:24 cf. Ps. 118:22; Isa. 28:16; 1 Pet. 2:6-8.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.