Pgs. 140-148

Ch. 44-47

                                                                           SECTION XI.

                                             VAYIGGASH ALAIF YEHUDAH.

 

AND Jehuda came near to him and said, We beseech my lord, let thy servant speak a word before my lord, and let not thine anger be great with thy servant; for as Pharoh so art thou. My lord asked his servants, saying, Have you a father or a brother? And we told my lord, We have an aged father, and the youngest (son) is the son of his old age; his brother is dead; and he only remains of his mother, and his father loves him. And thou saidst to thy servants, Bring him down to me, and let me set mine eyes upon him. And we told my lord, His father cannot part with the youth; for if our father should part with him, he would die. And thou saidst to thy servants, If your youngest brother come not down with you, you shall not see my face again. And it was when we had gone up to our father, we told him these words of my lord. And our father said to us, Return, and buy us a little corn. And we said, We cannot go down: if our youngest brother go down with us, we will go down; for we shall not be able to see the man's face unless our youngest brother go down with us. And thy servant our father said to us, You know that my wife bare me two (sons). One went forth from me, and I have said, Dying he is dead; and I have not beheld him since. And if you take this one also from me, and death happen to him, you will bring down my age with evil unto sheol. And now, when I come to thy servant my father, and the youth be not with us, and his soul loveth him as his (own) soul; when he seeth that the youth is not with us, he will die; and thy servant will have brought down the age of thy servant our father with mourning unto Sheol. For thy servant was surety for the youth with our father, saying, If I bring him not to thee, let my father hold me guilty all the days. And now let thy servant remain instead of the youth, as the servant of my lord, and let the youth go up with his brothers. For how can I go up to my father, and the youth be not with me?‑lest I should see the evil that will come upon my father!

 

XLV. And Joseph was not able to sustain all that was being upon him; and he cried, Let every man go out from me; and no man stood with him, while Joseph made himself known to his brethren. And he gave forth his voice with weeping; and the Mizraee heard, and a man of Pharoh's house heard. And Joseph said to his brothers, I am Joseph! Is my father yet living? And his brethren were not able to answer him a word, for they were confounded before him. And Joseph said to his brothers, Come near now to me. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Mizraim. And now do not be troubled,[1] and let it not be afflictive in your eyes that you sold me hither; for to sustain life did the Lord send me before you. For these two years hath famine been in the land, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither seed nor harvest. And the Lord sent me before you to set a remnant in the earth, and to keep you alive by a great deliverance. And now, it was not you who sent me hither, but (it was) from before the Lord, who hath set me to be a father[2] unto Pharoh, and to rule all the men of his house, holding power over all the land of Mizraim. Hasten, (then,) and go up to my father, and say to him, Thus saith thy son Joseph, The Lord hath set me ruler over the Mizraim: come down to me, delay[3] not, and thous halt dwell in the land of Goshen, and be near me, thou, and thy sons, and thy sons' children, and thy sheep and thy oxen, and all that thou hast. And I will nourish thee[4] there; for there are yet five years of famine, lest thou, and the men of thy house, and all that thou hast, be wasted away. And, behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that in your language I speak with you. And you will show my father all my glory in Mizraim, and all that you see; and make haste, and bring down my father hither. And he fell upon the neck of Benjamin his brother, and wept; and Benjamin wept upon his neck. And he kissed all his brothers, and wept over them; and afterward his brothers discoursed with him. And a voice was heard in the house of Pharoh, saying, The brothers of Joseph are come. And it was pleasing in the eyes of Pharoh, and in the eyes of his servants. And Pharoh said to Joseph, Tell my brethren, Do this; lade your beasts and go; carry into the land of Kenaan; and take your father and the men of your house and come to me, and I will give you the good of the land of Mizraim, and you shall eat the good of the land. And (now) thou art commanded, this do. Take to you out of the land of Mizraim waggons for your children, and your wives; and bring your father, and come. And let not your eye look wistfully upon your furniture; for the good of all the land of Mizraim is your own. And the sons of Israel did so; and Joseph gave them waggons, according to the word of Pharoh, and he gave them provisions for the way. And he gave to every one of them vestments for wearing; and to Benjamin gave he three hundred shekels of silver, and five vestments for wearing. And to his father he sent ten asses laden with the good things of Mizraim , and ten she‑asses laden with corn, and bread and provisions for the way. And he dismissed his brethren, and they went, and he said to them, Do not contend by the way. And they went up from Mizraim and came into the land of Kenaan, unto Jakob their father. And they showed him, saying, Joseph is yet alive, and he ruleth over all the land of Mizraim! And these words were uncertain[5] upon his heart, because he did not believe them. And they told him all the words of Joseph which he had spoken with them; and he saw the waggons that Joseph had sent to fetch him; and the Holy Spirit rested upon Jakob their father. And Israel said, Great to me is the joy! Joseph my son is yet alive; I will go, and behold him before I die.

 

XLVI. And Israel journeyed, and all that he had, and came to Beershava; and he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Izhak. And the Lord spake to Israel in a vision of the night, and said, Jakob, Jakob. And he said, Behold, I am. And He said, I am God, the God of thy father: fear not to go down into Mizraim; for a great people will I make thee there. I will go down with thee into Mizraim, and will surely bring thee up; but Joseph shall lay his hand upon thine eyes. And Jakob arose from Beershava. And the sons of Israel carried Jakob their father, and their children, and their wives, in the waggons which Pharoh had sent to fetch them. And they took their flocks and their substance which they had gotten in the land of Kenaan, and came to Mizraim, Jakob and all his sons with him. His sons, and his son's sons with him, his daughters, and the daughters of his sons, and all his seed, he brought with him into Mizraim.

 

And these are the names of the sons of Israel which came into Mizraim, Jakob and his sons. The firstborn of Jakob, Reuben. And the sons of Reuben., Hanuk and Phallu, Hesron and Karmi. And the sons of Sheemon, Jemuel, and Janin, and Ahad, and Jakin, and Zochar, and Shaul, the son of a Kenaanitha. And the sons of Levi, Gershon, Kehath, and Merari. And the sons of Jehuda, Er, and Onan, and Shelah, and Pharets, and Zarach. But Er and Onan had died in the land of Kenaan. And the sons of Pharets, Heshron and Chamul. And the sons of Issakar, Tola, and Pheua, and Job, and Semeron. And the sons of Zabulon, Sered, and Elon, and Jahleel. These are the sons of Leah, which she bare to Jakob in Padan Aram, and Dinah his daughter; all the souls, his sons and his daughters, thirty and three. And the children of Gad, Sephyon and Haggi, Shuni and Ezbon, Eri, and Arodi, and Areli. And the sons of Asher, Jemna, and Jesva, and Jesvi, and Beriah, and Serach, their sister. And the sons of Beriah, Heber and Malchiel. These are the sons of Zilpha, whom Laban gave to Leah his daughter; and she bare these unto Jakob, sixteen souls. The sons of Rahel, the wife of Jakob, Joseph and Benjamin. And to Joseph were born in the land of Mizraim Menashe and Ephraim, whom Asenath, daughter of Potiphera, prince of On, bare unto him. And the sons of Benjamin, Bela, and Bekor, and Ashbel, Gera, and Naaman, Achi, and Rosh, Muppim, and Huphim, and Arede. These are the sons of Rahel which were born to Jakob; all the souls fourteen. And the sons of Dan, Hushim: and the sons of Naphtali, Jahziel, and Guni, and Jezer, and Shilem. These are the children of Billah, whom Laban gave to Rahel his daughter, and she bare them to Jakob; all the souls seven. All the souls which went with Jakob into Mizraim, which came forth from his loins, besides the wives of Jakob's sons, all the souls, sixty and six. And the sons of Joseph, which were born to him in Mizraim, two souls. All the souls of the house of Jakob which went into Mizraim were seventy.

 

And he sent Jehuda before him to Joseph, to make the way clear before him at Goshen, and he came to the land of Goshen. And Joseph arrayed his chariot, and went up to meet Israel his father in Goshen. And he saw him, and fell upon his neck, and wept. And he wept still upon his neck! And Israel said to Joseph, I could‑die at this time! I have consolation now that I have seen thy face; for thou art yet alive. And Joseph said to his brothers, and to the house of his father, I will go up and show Pharoh, and will tell him, My brethren and the house of my father, who were in the land of Kenaan, have come to me. But the men are shepherds of sheep: for the men are masters of flocks, and their sheep and oxen and all that they have they have brought. And it shall be when Pharoh calleth you, and shall ask you, What is your employment? you will say, Thy servants have been men, the masters of flocks from our youth until now; both we and our fathers: that you may dwell in the land of Goshen; because the Mizraee keep at a distance all shepherds of flocks.

 

XLVII. And Joseph came and showed Pharoh, and said, My father and my brethren, and their sheep and their oxen, and all that they have, are come from the land of Kenaan, and, behold, they are in the land of Goshen. And of the extreme[6] of his brethren he took five men, and made them stand before Pharoh. And Pharoh said to his brethren, What are your employments? And they said to Pharoh, thy servants are shepherds; both we and our fathers. And they said to Pharoh, To dwell in the land are we come for there is no pasture for thy servants' flocks; for the famine prevails in the land of Kenaan, and we pray thee let thy servants dwell in the land of Goshen. And Pharoh spake to Joseph, saying, Thy father and thy brethren are come to thee; the land of Mizraim is before thee in the best of it let thy father and thy brethren dwell, (even) in the land of Goshen: and if thou know any of them to be men of ability, appoint them to be chiefs over my flocks. And Joseph brought Jakob his father, and presented him before Pharoh: and Jakob blessed Pharoh. And Pharoh said to Jakob, How many are the days of the years of thy life? And Jakob said to Pharoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty years. Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and I have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers, in the days of their pilgrimage. And Jakob blessed Pharoh, and went out from before Pharoh. And Joseph made his father and his brethren to dwell, and gave them a possession in the land of Mizraim, in the best of the land, in the land of Ramesis, as Pharoh had commanded. And Joseph sustained[7] his father and his brethren, and all the house of his father, with bread, according to the mouth of the family (of each). And there was no bread in all the land; for the famine prevailed greatly, and the people of the land of Mizraim and the people of the land of Kenaan failed before the famine. And Joseph collected all the money which was found in the land of Mizraim and in the land of Kenaan, for the corn which they bought. And Joseph brought the money into the house of Pharoh. And the money was finished from the land of Mizraim and from the land of Kenaan; and all the Mizraee came to Joseph, saying, Give us bread: for why should we die before thee? for the money is finished. And Joseph said, Bring your cattle, and I will give you provision, if your money is finished. And they brought their cattle to Joseph, and Joseph gave them bread for their horses, and for their flocks of sheep, and for their herds of oxen, and for their asses, and for all their cattle; he fed[8] them with bread for that year. And that year was completed; and they came to him in the second year, and said to him, We will not conceal it from our lord, but the money is ended, and (we have delivered up) our cattle to our lord, and there is nothing left before our lord but our bodies and our land. Why should we perish before thee, both we and our land? Buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants to Pharoh, and give us seed corn, that we may live and not die, and the land may not be desolate. And Joseph acquired all the land of Mizraim for Pharoh; for the Mizraee sold every man his portion, because the famine prevailed over them, and the land became Pharoh's. And the people he made him[9] to pass from city to city, from one end of the limit of Mizraim to the other. Only the land of the priests he did not buy; for a portion (was given) by Pharoh to the priests: and they ate their portion which Pharoh gave them; therefore they sold not their land. And Joseph said to the people, Behold, I have bought you this day and your land for Pharoh. Behold, (I give) you seed corn, that you may sow the land. And it shall be, when it bringeth forth produce, that you shall give one in five to Pharoh, and four parts shall be yours, of the corn of the field, that you and the men of your house may eat, and your little ones have food. And they said, Thou hast preserved us; may we find grace in the eyes of my lord, and we will be the servants of Pharoh. And Joseph made it a statute unto this day over the land of Mizraim, that one of five should be given to Pharoh; only the land of the priests alone was not Pharoh's. And Israel dwelt in the land of Mizraim in the land of Goshen, and possessed it: and they increased and multiplied greatly.

 

[1] Sam. Vers. "be not afflicted."

[1] Sam. Vers. "a friend."

[1] Sam. Vers. "stand not."

[1] Sam. Vers. "I will give thee sufficiency."

[1] Or. "faint."

[1] Of the entire number comprised between the first and last?

[1] Sam. Vers. "sufficiently fed."

[1] Sam. Vers. "he allotted them bread."

[1] Thus literally following the Hebrew.

 



[1] Sam. Vers. "be not afflicted."

[2] Sam. Vers. "a friend."

[3] Sam. Vers. "stand not."

[4] Sam. Vers. "I will give thee sufficiency."

[5] Or. "faint."

[6] Of the entire number comprised between the first and last?

[7] Sam. Vers. "sufficiently fed."

[8] Sam. Vers. "he allotted them bread."

[9] Thus literally following the Hebrew.