Page images
PDF
EPUB

at your command. Permit them to dwell in the best places, and give to them the land of Goshen. And if you know that they are skilful herdsmen, make them masters of my beasts."

After this Joseph brought his father in and made him stand before the king, and the king blessed him and asked how old he was.

"The days of the pilgrimage of my life," he answered, “are a hundred and thirty years, small and evil, and yet have I not come under the days that my fathers have lived." Then he blessed the king and went out.

Then Joseph established his father and his brothers in Egypt in the best soil of the kingdom.

In all the world then was there a scarcity of bread, and hunger and famine oppressed the whole land, but especially, and most, the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan. And Joseph collected all the money for selling wheat and brought it into the treasury of the king.

When people lacked money to buy bread, they came to Joseph, saying, "Give us bread, or we die, for we have no money.

To them he answered, "Bring to me your beasts, and for them will I give you victuals, if you have no money."

When they had brought their beasts he gave them, in exchange for their horses, sheep, oxen and asses, food for a year.

The second year they came and said, "We hide not from you, our lord, that our money is gone, and our beasts are gone, and there is nothing left but our bodies and our land. Shall we die in your sight? Rather buy us and our land into bondship and serv

itude to the king, and give us seed to sow lest the world turn utterly into wilderness.'

[ocr errors]

Then Joseph bought all the land of Egypt, every man selling his possessions because of the vehement hunger he had. All this land he returned unto Pharaoh, even to the uttermost, except the land belonging to the priests, for to them victuals were given openly out of all the barns and granaries, so that they were not compelled to sell their possessions.

Then Joseph spoke to all the people, saying, "Lo! now you see and know that Pharaoh owns and is in possession of you and of your land. Take seed, now, and sow the fields, that you may have fruit. The fifth part of the fruit you shall give to the king, and four parts I promise to you, that you may have seed and may have meat for your servants and your children."

"Our health and our lives are in your hands," the people answered; "gladly will we serve the king.”

From that time until this present day, in all the land of Egypt, the fifth part is paid to the king, except that which is produced from the lands belonging to the priests.

Now, all this time Jacob dwelt in the land of Goshen, and his flocks and his herds increased and multiplied greatly. When the years of his life were an hundred and seven and forty, he understood that the day of his death approached. Then he called to him his son Joseph, and said unto him:

"If I may find so much grace in your sight, show me so much mercy as to promise and swear that you will bury me not in Egypt. Take and carry me from this land and lay me in the sepulchre of my forefathers, that I may rest with them."

"I shall do as you have commanded," answered Joseph.

"Swear it to me," said his father.

And Joseph swore as he had been commanded. As he listened to Joseph, Jacob adored and worshipped God and turned his face away to the wall.

Soon after it was told to Joseph that his father was feeble and sick. So the prince took his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, and went to his father.

When Jacob heard that Joseph was approaching, he sat up in his bed and was comforted; and when Joseph entered, his father said, "Almighty God appeared to me in the land of Canaan and blessed me and said, 'I shall give to thee this land, to thee and thy seed after thee in perpetual possession.'

"Therefore, the two sons that were born to you in this land of Egypt, before I came hither, shall be my sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, and they shall be to me as Simeon and Reuben."

Then, seeing Joseph's two sons, he said, "Who be these children?"

"They are my sons," answered Joseph, "whom God hath given me in this place."

"Bring them hither to me," said Jacob, "that I may bless them."

The old man's eyes were dimmed, and he could not see clearly because of his great age, but he took them to him and kissed them, and said to Joseph, "I have not been defrauded from the sight of you, and, furthermore, God hath showed me your children."

Then Joseph took his sons from his father's lap and worshipped him, kneeling low to the earth, and he set Ephraim on Jacob's left side, and Manasseh

on the right side, but Jacob laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim, the younger brother, and his left hand upon the head of Manasseh, who was the firstborn.

Then blessed he the sons of Joseph, saying, "God in whose sight walked my fathers Abraham and Isaac; God that fed me from my youth until this present day; the angel that kept me from all evil, bless these my children, and may my name be given them, and the names of my fathers, Abraham and Isaac, and may they grow into multitudes upon the earth."

But Joseph, seeing that his father's right hand lay upon Ephraim, the younger brother, felt sad, and took his father's hand and would have laid it on the head of Manasseh, saying, "Nay, father, this is not right that you do. This is my older son. Put your right hand upon his head."

But Jacob would not do as Joseph had said. “I know, my son," he replied, "I know what I do. This son shall increase into peoples and multiply, but his younger brother shall be greater than he, and he shall grow into larger power."

Then Jacob blessed them again, saying at the same time, “In these shall be blessed my name."

Then he turned to Joseph, his son, and said, "Lo! now I die, and God shall be with you. He shall again bring you into the land of your fathers. And I give to you, above your brethren, the lands which I won from the hands of the Amorite with my sword and my bow."

After speaking in this manner, Jacob called his sons before him and said to them, "Gather now about me, that I may show you the things that are to come,

and listen while your father Jacob speaks." Then told he to each of the brothers his condition and future, one after another, and when he had blessed his twelve sons he commanded them to bury him with his fathers in the sepulchre which Abraham bought in the land of Canaan. And when he had finished, he lay down and died.

When Joseph saw that his father was dead he fell on his face and kissed him. Then he commanded his servants, the physicians, that they should embalm his father's body with sweet spices, and decreed that there should be mourning for forty days.

When the wailing time was passed, Joseph told Pharaoh how he had sworn and promised to bury Jacob in the land of Canaan.

"Go and bury thy father as thou hast sworn,” said Pharaoh.

So Joseph took his father's body, and accompanied by the aged men of Pharaoh's house and the noblest men of birth in all the land of Egypt, and the men of the house of Joseph also, went forth into Canaan. There were chariots, carts and horsemen, and a great gathering of people that came over the Jordan, where they mourned and wailed for seven days longer.

And the people of Canaan said, "This is a great sorrow to the Egyptians likewise." And the place is still called "The Wailing Place of Egypt."

When Jacob the father was buried, Joseph and all his fellowship returned into Egypt, where they had left their children and flocks and herds.

Then the brethren, after they had spoken together alone, fearing that Joseph would avenge the wrong that they had done to him, came and said:

« PreviousContinue »