VayechiAnd he lived

1Reading 1 Genesis 47:28–48:9Chapter page with footnotes →

^47:28And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years; and the days of Jacob, the years of his life, were a hundred and forty-seven years.

²⁹And the days of Israel drew near to die; and he called for his son, for Joseph, and said to him, "If now I have found favor in your eyes, put, please, your hand under my thigh, and do with me kindness and truth: do not, please, bury me in Egypt; ³⁰but I shall lie with my fathers, and you shall carry me out of Egypt, and bury me in their burying-place." And he said, "I myself will do according to your word."

³¹And he said, "Swear to me." And he swore to him. And Israel bowed himself upon the head of the bed.

Jacob Blesses Ephraim and Manasseh

^48:1And it came to pass after these things, that one said to Joseph, "Behold, your father is sick." And he took his two sons with him, Manasseh and Ephraim. ²And one told Jacob and said, "Behold, your son Joseph is coming to you." And Israel strengthened himself and sat upon the bed.

³And Jacob said to Joseph, "God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and blessed me, ⁴and said to me, 'Behold, I am making you fruitful, and I will multiply you, and I will make of you a company of peoples; and I will give this land to your seed after you for an everlasting possession.'

⁵And now, your two sons who were born to you in the land of Egypt before(ad עד) I came to you into Egypt, they are mine; Ephraim and Manasseh, as Reuben and Simeon, they shall be mine. ⁶And your offspring whom you beget after them shall be yours; by the name of their brothers they shall be called in their inheritance.

⁷And as for me, when I came from Paddan, Rachel died on me in the land of Canaan on the way, when there was still some distance of land to come to Ephrath; and I buried her there on the way to Ephrath" — the same is Bethlehem.

⁸And Israel saw the sons of Joseph and said, "Who are these?"

⁹And Joseph said to his father, "They are my sons, whom God has given me here." And he said, "Take them, I pray you, to me, and I will bless them."

2Reading 2 Genesis 48:10–16Chapter page with footnotes →

^48:10Now the eyes of Israel were heavy from age; he could not see. And he brought them near to him, and he kissed them and embraced them.

¹¹And Israel said to Joseph, "I had not thought to see your face, and behold, God has let me see your seed also."

¹²And Joseph brought them out from between his knees, and he bowed himself with his face to the earth.

¹³And Joseph took the two of them, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel's left, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel's right, and brought them near to him. ¹⁴And Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it upon the head of Ephraim, though he was the younger, and his left hand upon the head of Manasseh; he crossed his hands knowingly, for Manasseh was the firstborn. ¹⁵And he blessed Joseph and said, "The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has shepherded me all my life long unto this day,

¹⁶the messenger who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be called in them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth."

3Reading 3 Genesis 48:17–22Chapter page with footnotes →

^48:17And Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the head of Ephraim, and it was evil in his eyes; and he took hold of his father's hand to remove it from the head of Ephraim to the head of Manasseh. ¹⁸And Joseph said to his father, "Not so, my father, for this is the firstborn; put your right hand upon his head."

¹⁹And his father refused and said, "I know, my son, I know; he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great; but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a fullness of nations."

²⁰And he blessed them in that day, saying, "By you shall Israel bless, saying, 'God make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh.'" And he set Ephraim before Manasseh.

²¹And Israel said to Joseph, "Behold, I am dying, but God will be with you, and will bring you back to the land of your fathers. ²²And I, I have given to you one portion above your brothers, which I took from the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow."

4Reading 4 Genesis 49:1–18Chapter page with footnotes →

Jacob Blesses His Sons

^49:1And Jacob called to his sons and said, "Gather yourselves together, and I will tell you what shall befall you in the end of days.

²Assemble and hear, O sons of Jacob, and listen to Israel your father.

³Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity and the excellency of power.

⁴Unstable as water, you shall not excel, because you went up to your father's bed; then you defiled it — he went up to my couch.

⁵Simeon and Levi are brothers; weapons of violence are their kinship.

⁶Into their council let my soul not come; with their assembly let my glory not be united; for in their anger they slew a man, and in their self-will they hamstrung an ox.

⁷Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce, and their wrath, for it was cruel; I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.

⁸Judah, you — your brothers shall praise you; your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; your father's sons shall bow down to you.

⁹A lion's whelp is Judah; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped, he crouched like a lion, and like a lioness — who shall rouse him up?

¹⁰The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, ad(עד) Shiloh comes; and to him shall be the obedience of peoples.

¹¹Binding his foal to the vine, and his donkey's colt to the choice vine, he washes his clothing in wine, and his garment in the blood of grapes.

¹²His eyes are darker than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk.

¹³Zebulun shall dwell at the shore of the seas, and he shall be a shore for ships, and his flank shall be upon Sidon.

¹⁴Issachar is a strong-boned donkey, crouching down between the sheepfolds.

¹⁵And he saw a resting-place that it was good, and the land that it was pleasant; and he bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant to forced labor.

¹⁶Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel.

¹⁷Let Dan be a serpent by the way, a horned snake by the path, that bites the heels of the horse, and its rider falls backward.

¹⁸For your salvation (Yeshuah) I wait, O LORD.

5Reading 5 Genesis 49:19–26Chapter page with footnotes →

^49:19Gad — a troop shall press him, but he shall press upon their heel.

²⁰From Asher, his bread shall be fat, and he shall give royal dainties.

²¹Naphtali is a doe let loose, who gives goodly words.

²²A fruitful son is Joseph, a fruitful son by a fountain; daughters march over a wall.

²³And the masters of arrows embittered him, and shot, and hated him.

²⁴But his bow remained in strength, and the arms of his hands were made agile, from the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob — from there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel —

²⁵from the God of your father, and he will help you; and with Shaddai, and he will bless you, with blessings of the heavens above, blessings of the deep that crouches beneath, blessings of the breasts and of the womb.

²⁶The blessings of your father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors, unto the desire of the everlasting hills; they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of the prince among his brothers.

6Reading 6 Genesis 49:27–50:20Chapter page with footnotes →

^49:27Benjamin is a wolf that tears; in the morning he devours prey, and at evening he divides spoil."

²⁸All these are the tribes of Israel, twelve; and this is what their father spoke to them and blessed them; each man according to his blessing he blessed them.

The Death of Jacob

²⁹And he commanded them and said to them, "I am being gathered to my people; bury me with my fathers, in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, ³⁰in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a burial-place. ³¹There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah — ³²the purchase of the field and the cave that is in it, from the sons of Heth."

³³And Jacob finished commanding his sons, and he gathered his feet into the bed, and expired, and was gathered to his people.

Mourning and Burial for Jacob

^50:1And Joseph fell upon his father's face, and wept upon him, and kissed him.

²And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father; and the physicians embalmed Israel. ³And forty days were fulfilled for him, for so are fulfilled the days of the embalmed; and Egypt wept for him seventy days.

⁴And the days of weeping for him passed, and Joseph spoke to the house of Pharaoh, saying, "If now I have found favor in your eyes, speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh, saying, ⁵'My father made me swear, saying, Behold, I am dying; in my grave which I dug for myself in the land of Canaan, there you shall bury me.' And now let me go up, I pray, and bury my father, and I will return."

⁶And Pharaoh said, "Go up and bury your father, as he made you swear."

⁷And Joseph went up to bury his father, and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, ⁸and all the house of Joseph, and his brothers, and his father's house; only their little ones and their flocks and their herds they left in the land of Goshen.

⁹And there went up with him both chariot and horsemen, and the camp was very heavy. ¹⁰And they came to the threshing-floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, and there they lamented with a great and very heavy lamentation; and he made for his father a mourning of seven days.

¹¹And the inhabitant of the land, the Canaanite, saw the mourning at the threshing-floor of Atad, and they said, "This is a heavy mourning for Egypt"; therefore its name was called Abel-mizraim, which is beyond the Jordan.

¹²And his sons did for him so, as he had commanded them. ¹³And his sons carried him to the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which Abraham bought with the field for a possession of a burial-place, from Ephron the Hittite, before Mamre.

¹⁴And Joseph returned to Egypt, he and his brothers and all who went up with him to bury his father, after he had buried his father.

Joseph Comforts His Brothers

¹⁵And the brothers of Joseph saw that their father was dead, and they said, "It may be that Joseph will hate us, and will surely repay us all the evil which we dealt to him."

¹⁶And they commanded unto Joseph, saying, "Your father commanded before his death, saying, ¹⁷'Thus you shall say to Joseph: I pray, lift up, please, the transgression of your brothers and their sin, for they dealt evil to you.' And now, lift up, we pray, the transgression of the servants of the God of your father." And Joseph wept when they spoke to him. ¹⁸And his brothers also went and fell down before his face, and they said, "Behold, we are your servants."

¹⁹And Joseph said to them, "Fear not, for am I in the place of God? ²⁰And you, you devised evil against me; God devised it for good, in order to do as it is this day, to keep alive a numerous people.

7Reading 7 Genesis 50:21–26Chapter page with footnotes →

^50:21And now, fear not; I will sustain you and your little ones." And he comforted them, and spoke to their heart.

The Death of Joseph

²²And Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he and his father's house; and Joseph lived a hundred and ten years. ²³And Joseph saw the third generation of Ephraim's children; also the children of Machir the son of Manasseh were born upon Joseph's knees.

²⁴And Joseph said to his brothers, "I am dying, but God will surely visit you, and bring you up out of this land to the land which he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob." ²⁵And Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, "God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here."

²⁶And Joseph died, a son of a hundred and ten years; and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.

P1 Kings 2:1–12Chapter page with footnotes →

David Instructs Solomon

^2:1And the days of David drew near to die; and he commanded Solomon his son, saying: ²"I am going in the way of all the earth; and you shall be strong, and you shall become a man. ³And you shall keep the charge of the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, his commandments, and his judgments, and his testimonies, as written in the Torah of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn there; ⁴that the LORD may establish his word which he spoke concerning me, saying: 'If your sons keep their way, to walk before me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul' — saying, there shall not be cut off from you a man on the throne of Israel.

⁵And also you yourself know what Joab son of Zeruiah did to me, what he did to the two captains of the hosts of Israel, to Abner son of Ner and to Amasa son of Jether, and he killed them, and put the blood of war in peace, and put the blood of war on his belt that was on his loins, and on his sandals that were on his feet. ⁶And you shall do according to your wisdom, and not let his gray head go down in peace to Sheol.

⁷But to the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite you shall do kindness, and let them be among those who eat at your table; for so they drew near to me when I fled from before Absalom your brother.

⁸And behold, with you is Shimei son of Gera the Benjamite, of Bahurim, and he cursed me with a grievous curse on the day I went to Mahanaim; but he came down to meet me at the Jordan, and I swore to him by the LORD, saying: I will not put you to death with the sword. ⁹And now, do not hold him guiltless, for you are a wise man; and you shall know what you shall do to him, and you shall bring his gray head down with blood to Sheol."

David’s Reign and Death

¹⁰And David slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David. ¹¹And the days that David reigned over Israel were forty years: in Hebron he reigned seven years, and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty and three years.

¹²And Solomon sat on the throne of David his father; and his kingdom was firmly established.

AHebrews 11:21–22Chapter page with footnotes →

^11:21By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff.

²²By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the sons of Israel and gave directions concerning his bones.