seph, Lo I die. But God will be with you and bring you back 22 to the land of your fathers. Now to thee exclusively above thy brothers, I give Sikima, which I took out of the hand of the Amorites with my sword and with my bow.

XLIX. Then Jacob called his sons and said to them, Assemble that I may tell you what will happen to you in the latter days.

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5

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9

Assemble and hear me, ye sons of Jacob:

Hearken to Israel; hearken to your father.

Reuben my first born!

Thou my strength and the head of my children!

Too imperious and too self sufficient!

In the excess of thy insolence,

Thou shouldst not have burst forth like water.

For thou wentest up to thy father's bed,

Then thou pollutedst the couch to which thou wentest up.

Symeon and Levi are brothers.

They accomplished their iniquitous purpose.

O my soul, come not into their council;

And in their conspiracy let not my passions be engaged.

Because in their wrath they slew men,

And in their rage ham-strung a bull;

Cursed be their wrath, for it was headstrong;

And their enmity, for it was bitter.

I will parcel them out in Jacob

And scatter them among Israel.

Judas! Let thy brethren praise thee:

Thy hands will be on the back of thy enemies.
The sons of thy father shall bow down to thee.
Judas is a lion's whelp.

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From a vigorous stem, my son, thou art sprung.
Couching down thou art gone to sleep

Like a young lion: Who dare rouse him!
A chief shall not fail from Judas.

Nor a leader from his loins;

Till the things reserved for him shall come-
Even He, the expectation of nations.

Binding his colt to a vine

And his asses colt to the young vine,

:

15

But seeing the resting place, that it was good,

That the horseman may fall backwards;

Waiting continually the salvation of the Lord.

Gad: Troops of plunderers will plunder him;

And he to his utmost, will plunder them.
Aser. His meat will be fat

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And he will furnish dainties for princes.
Nephthaleim is a spreading stock,

Super-adding beauty by its product.

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Abide with me, my younger son,

Against whom calumniators brought false accusations.
Though the masters of bows took aim at him;
Yet their bows and their strength were broken,
And the sinewy arms of their hands enfeebled
By the hand of the mighty One of Jacob.
Thence he who hath strengthened Israel
Is from the God of thy father;

And My God hath helped thee; and blessed thee
With the blessing of heaven from above,

And with the blessing of a land having all things,,

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By reason of the blessing of breasts and womb,
He hath made the blessings of thy father and mother,
More durable than the blessings of perpetual mountains,
And more permanent than the blessings of everlasting hills.

They shall be on the head of Joseph

And on the crown of the head of brothers

Of whom he was the leader.

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Benjamin is a ravening wolf.
In the morning he is still eating,
And for the evening he provideth food.

All these were the twelve sons of Jacob. And these were the words which their father spoke to them when he blessed 29 them, each according to his peculiar blessing. And when he had blessed them he said, I am going to be added to my peo30 ple, and you shall bury me with my fathers, in the cave which is in the field of Ephron the Chettite, in the double cave which is over against Mambre in the land of Chanaan-the cave 31 which Abraham bought of Ephron the Chettite for the posssession of a burying place. There they buried Abraham and Sa32 rah his wife. There they buried Isaak and Rebekka his wife. There Leia was buried in the field namely in the cave in it, 33 which was purchased of the children of Chet. And when Jacob had finished this charge to his sons he drew up his feet into the bed and gave up the ghost and was added to his people. L. Then Joseph fell upon his father's face and bewailed him 2 and kissed him. And Joseph gave orders to his servants the 3 embalmers to embalm his father. And when the embalmers had embalmed Israel, and compleated his forty days; (for this is the time allowed for embalming) the Egyptians mourned 4 for him seventy days. And when the days of mourning were over, Joseph spoke to the princes of Pharao saying, If I have found favour in your sight, speak for me to Pharao and say, 5 My father adjured me saying, In the tomb which I cut out for myself in the land of Chanaan there thou shalt bury me. Now therefore let me go up and bury my father and I will return 6 again. And Pharao said to Joseph, Go up and bury thy father 7 as he adjured thee. So Joseph went up to bury his father. And there went up with him all the servants of Pharao and the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, and all Joseph's family and his brothers and all his father's household 8 and his kindred. But their flocks and herds they left in the 9 land of Gesem. There went up also with him chariots and 10 horsemen, so that the camp was very large. And when they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is on the bank of the Jordan, they mourned for him with a very great and sore lamentation. And he continued the mourning for his father

11 seven days. And when the inhabitants of the land of Chanaan saw the mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, they said, This is a great grief to the Egyptians. For this cause they called its name Grief of Egypt. It is on the bank of the Jordan.

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When his sons had done this for him when they had car-.

ried him to the land of Chanaan and buried him in the double 13 cave-the cave which Abraham bought for the possession of a 14 burying place from Ephron the Chettite over against Mambre, then Joseph returned to Egypt, he and his brethren and those who went up with him to bury his father.

15

Now when Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, Perhaps Joseph may bear us a grudge and requite 16 us for all the ills which we have done to him. So they came to Joseph and said, Our father before he died adjured us saying, 17 Thus shall you say to Joseph, Forgive them their iniquity and their sin for having done thee evil. Now therefore forgive the 18 iniquity of the servants of the God of thy father. And while they were speaking to him, Joseph wept. And they came near

to him and said, We are thy servants, upon which Joseph said 19 to them, Fear not, for I am God's servant. You indeed con20 sulted against me for evil: but God determined concerning

me for good, to bring to pass as at this day, that much people 21 might be nourished. Moreover he said to them, Be not afraid. I will continue to nourish you and your families. So he com22 forted them, and spoke affectionately to them. And Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he and his brothers and all his father's family. 23 And when Joseph had lived a hundred and ten years and saw Ephraim's children to the third generation; and the children of Machir the son of Manasses were also dandled on his knees; 24 Joseph spoke to his brothers, saying, I die, but God will assuredly visit you and conduct you out of this land into the land which God with an oath gave to our fathers, Abraham,

25 Isaak and Jacob. And Joseph adjured the children of Israel saying, In the visitation wherewith God will visit you, you shall 26 carry my bones hence with you. So Joseph died being a hundred and ten years old, and when they had embalmed him they put him into a coffin in Egypt.

I.

EXODUS.

These are the names of Israel's sons who went down to Egypt with their father Jacob. They went every one with his whole family; Reuben, Symeon, Levi, Judas, Issachar, Zabu5 lon, Benjamin, Dan and Nephthaleim, Gad and Aser. Now Joseph was in Egypt. And all the souls from Jacob were seven6 ty five. And when Joseph was dead and all his brothers and all 7 that generation and the children of Israel had increased and multiplied and were become numerous and grew more and 8 more powerful and the land caused them to abound, there 9 arose another king over Egypt, who knew not Joseph. And he said to his nation, Behold the race of the children of Israel is 10 become a great multitude, and is mightier than we. Come therefore, let us deal subtilly with them. Perhaps when they are multiplied, if a war should happen to us, they will join our enemies and fight against us and depart out of the land. 11 So he set task masters over them to afflict them with labours and they built for Pharao fortified cities, namely, Peitho and Rames12 ses and On, which is Heliopolis. But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew stronger and stronger. So 13 the Egyptians were abhorred by the children of Israel; and the Egyptians ruled over the Israelites with rigour and made their lives bitter with hard labour in working clay and making 14 bricks and with all the toils of the field, according to the several kinds of service to which they forcibly subjected them. 15 Moreover the king of the Egyptians spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of the first in rank was Sep16 phora and the name of the second Phua, and said, When you do the office of midwives to the Hebrew women and they are delivered, if it be a male child, kill it; but if it be a female pre17 serve it alive. But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the males.