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Genesis 49

Jacob Blesses His Sons

 ² "Assemble and listen, sons of Jacob;
       listen to your father Israel.

 ³ "Reuben, you are my firstborn,
       my might, the first sign of my strength,
       excelling in honor, excelling in power.

 ⁴ Turbulent as the waters, you will no longer excel,
       for you went up onto your father's bed,
       onto my couch and defiled it.

 ⁵ "Simeon and Levi are brothers—
       their swords ^[a] are weapons of violence.

 ⁶ Let me not enter their council,
       let me not join their assembly,
       for they have killed men in their anger
       and hamstrung oxen as they pleased.

 ⁷ Cursed be their anger, so fierce,
       and their fury, so cruel!
       I will scatter them in Jacob
       and disperse them in Israel.

 ⁸ "Judah, ^[b] your brothers will praise you;
       your hand will be on the neck of your enemies;
       your father's sons will bow down to you.

 ⁹ You are a lion's cub, O Judah;
       you return from the prey, my son.
       Like a lion he crouches and lies down,
       like a lioness—who dares to rouse him?

 ¹⁰ The scepter will not depart from Judah,
       nor the ruler's staff from between his feet,
       until he comes to whom it belongs ^[c]
       and the obedience of the nations is his.

 ¹¹ He will tether his donkey to a vine,
       his colt to the choicest branch;
       he will wash his garments in wine,
       his robes in the blood of grapes.

 ¹² His eyes will be darker than wine,
       his teeth whiter than milk. ^[d]

 ¹³ "Zebulun will live by the seashore
       and become a haven for ships;
       his border will extend toward Sidon.

 ¹⁴ "Issachar is a rawboned ^[e] donkey
       lying down between two saddlebags. ^[f]

 ¹⁵ When he sees how good is his resting place
       and how pleasant is his land,
       he will bend his shoulder to the burden
       and submit to forced labor.

 ¹⁶ "Dan ^[g] will provide justice for his people
       as one of the tribes of Israel.

 ¹⁷ Dan will be a serpent by the roadside,
       a viper along the path,
       that bites the horse's heels
       so that its rider tumbles backward.

 ¹⁸ "I look for your deliverance, O LORD.

 ¹⁹ "Gad ^[h] will be attacked by a band of raiders,
       but he will attack them at their heels.

 ²⁰ "Asher's food will be rich;
       he will provide delicacies fit for a king.

 ²¹ "Naphtali is a doe set free
       that bears beautiful fawns. ^[i]

 ²² "Joseph is a fruitful vine,
       a fruitful vine near a spring,
       whose branches climb over a wall. ^[j]

 ²³ With bitterness archers attacked him;
       they shot at him with hostility.

 ²⁴ But his bow remained steady,
       his strong arms stayed ^[k] limber,
       because of the hand of the Mighty One of Jacob,
       because of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel,

 ²⁵ because of your father's God, who helps you,
       because of the Almighty, ^[l] who blesses you
       with blessings of the heavens above,
       blessings of the deep that lies below,
       blessings of the breast and womb.

 ²⁶ Your father's blessings are greater
       than the blessings of the ancient mountains,
       than ^[m] the bounty of the age-old hills.
       Let all these rest on the head of Joseph,
       on the brow of the prince among ^[n] his brothers.

 ²⁷ "Benjamin is a ravenous wolf;
       in the morning he devours the prey,
       in the evening he divides the plunder."

 ²⁸ All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father said to them when he blessed them, giving each the blessing appropriate to him.

The Death of Jacob

 ³³ When Jacob had finished giving instructions to his sons, he drew his feet up into the bed, breathed his last and was gathered to his people.

Genesis 50

 ¹ Joseph threw himself upon his father and wept over him and kissed him. ² Then Joseph directed the physicians in his service to embalm his father Israel. So the physicians embalmed him, ³ taking a full forty days, for that was the time required for embalming. And the Egyptians mourned for him seventy days.

 ⁴ When the days of mourning had passed, Joseph said to Pharaoh's court, "If I have found favor in your eyes, speak to Pharaoh for me. Tell him, ⁵ 'My father made me swear an oath and said, "I am about to die; bury me in the tomb I dug for myself in the land of Canaan." Now let me go up and bury my father; then I will return.' "

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

 ⁷ So Joseph went up to bury his father. All Pharaoh's officials accompanied him—the dignitaries of his court and all the dignitaries of Egypt- ⁸ besides all the members of Joseph's household and his brothers and those belonging to his father's household. Only their children and their flocks and herds were left in Goshen. ⁹ Chariots and horsemen ^[p] also went up with him. It was a very large company.

 ¹⁰ When they reached the threshing floor of Atad, near the Jordan, they lamented loudly and bitterly; and there Joseph observed a seven-day period of mourning for his father. ¹¹ When the Canaanites who lived there saw the mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, they said, "The Egyptians are holding a solemn ceremony of mourning." That is why that place near the Jordan is called Abel Mizraim. ^[q]

 ¹² So Jacob's sons did as he had commanded them: ¹³ They carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave in the field of Machpelah, near Mamre, which Abraham had bought as a burial place from Ephron the Hittite, along with the field. ¹⁴ After burying his father, Joseph returned to Egypt, together with his brothers and all the others who had gone with him to bury his father.

Joseph Reassures His Brothers

 ¹⁸ His brothers then came and threw themselves down before him. "We are your slaves," they said.

 ¹⁹ But Joseph said to them, "Don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God? ²⁰ You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. ²¹ So then, don't be afraid. I will provide for you and your children." And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them.

The Death of Joseph

 ²⁴ Then Joseph said to his brothers, "I am about to die. But God will surely come to your aid and take you up out of this land to the land he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob." ²⁵ And Joseph made the sons of Israel swear an oath and said, "God will surely come to your aid, and then you must carry my bones up from this place."

 ²⁶ So Joseph died at the age of a hundred and ten. And after they embalmed him, he was placed in a coffin in Egypt.

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The Parables of the Mustard Seed and the Yeast

 ³³He told them still another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount^[a] of flour until it worked all through the dough."

 ³⁴Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable. ³⁵So was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet:
   "I will open my mouth in parables,
      I will utter things hidden since the creation of the world."^[b]

The Parable of the Weeds Explained

 ³⁷He answered, "The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. ³⁸The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, ³⁹and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.

 ⁴⁰"As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. ⁴¹The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. ⁴²They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. ⁴³Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.

The Parables of the Hidden Treasure and the Pearl

 ⁴⁵"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. ⁴⁶When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.

The Parable of the Net

 ⁵¹"Have you understood all these things?" Jesus asked.
      "Yes," they replied.

 ⁵²He said to them, "Therefore every teacher of the law who has been instructed about the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old."

A Prophet Without Honor

 ⁵⁸And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.