Bereshis 47-50

Orthodox Jewish Bible

47 Then Yosef came and told Pharaoh, and said, Avi and my achim, and their tzon, and their bakar, and all that they have, are come out of Eretz Kena’an; and they are now in Eretz Goshen.

² And he took some of his achim, even five anashim, and presented them unto Pharaoh.

³ And Pharaoh said unto his achim, What is your occupation? And they said unto Pharaoh, Thy avadim are roeh tzon, both we, and also Avoteinu.

⁴ They said morever unto Pharaoh, For to sojourn in the land are we come; for thy avadim have no mireh (pasture) for their tzon; for the ra’av (famine) is heavy in Eretz Kena’an; now therefore, let now thy avadim dwell in Eretz Goshen.

⁵ And Pharaoh spoke unto Yosef, saying, Avicha and acheicha are come unto thee;

⁶ Eretz Mitzrayim is before thee; in the best of the land make avicha and acheicha to dwell; in Eretz Goshen let them dwell; and if thou knowest any anshei chayil among them, then make them sarei mikneh (royal overseers of livestock) of mine.

⁷ And Yosef brought in Ya’akov aviv, and set him before Pharaoh; and Ya’akov made on Pharaoh a brocha.

⁸ And Pharaoh said unto Ya’akov, How old art thou?

⁹ And Ya’akov said unto Pharaoh, The days of the shanim of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty shanah; few and bad have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my avot in the days of their pilgrimage.

¹⁰ And Ya’akov made a brocha on Pharaoh, and went out from the presence of Pharaoh.

¹¹ And Yosef settled aviv and his achim, and gave them an achuzzah (possession) in Eretz Mitzrayim, in the best of the land, in Eretz Rameses, just as Pharaoh had commanded.

¹² And Yosef provided for aviv, and his achim, and kol bais aviv, with lechem, according to the children.

¹³ And there was no lechem in kol ha’aretz; for the ra’av was very heavy, so that Eretz Mitzrayim and kol Eretz Kena’an fainted by reason of the ra’av (famine).

¹⁴ And Yosef gathered up all the kesef that was found in the Eretz Mitzrayim, and in Eretz Kena’an, for the shever (grain) which they bought; and Yosef brought the kesef into Bais Pharaoh (Pharaoh’s palace).

¹⁵ And when kesef failed in Eretz Mitzrayim, and in Eretz Kena’an, kol Mitzrayim came unto Yosef, and said, Give us lechem; for why should we die in thy presence? For the kesef is gone.

¹⁶ And Yosef said, Give your mikneh; and I will give you for your mikneh, if kesef is gone.

¹⁷ And they brought their mikneh unto Yosef; and Yosef gave them lechem in exchange for susim, and for the tzon, and for the mikneh of the bakar, and for the chamorim; and he fed them lechem for all their mikneh for that year.

¹⁸ When that year was ended, they came unto him the shanah hashenit, and said unto him, We will not hide it from adoni, how that our kesef is spent; adoni also hath our mikneh of behemah; there is not ought left in the sight of adoni, but geviyyatenu (our bodies), and adematenu (our lands);

¹⁹ Why shall we die before thine eyes, both we and adematenu? Buy us and adematenu for lechem, and we and adematenu will be avadim unto Pharaoh; and give us zera, that we may live, and not die, that the adamah be not desolate.

²⁰ And Yosef bought kol Admat Mitzrayim for Pharaoh; for the Mitzrayim sold every ish his sadeh, because the ra’av (famine) was chazak over them; so the land became Pharaoh’s.

²¹ And as for the people, he removed them to cities from one end of the borders of Mitzrayim even to the other end thereof.

²² Only the admat hakohanim bought he not; for the kohanim had a chok assigned them of Pharaoh, and did eat their chok which Pharaoh gave them; therefore they sold not their lands.

²³ Then Yosef said unto the people, See, I have bought you this day and your land for Pharaoh: lo, here is zera for you, and ye shall sow the adamah.

²⁴ And it shall come to pass in the tevu’ot, that ye shall give the fifth part unto Pharaoh, and four parts shall be your own, for zera of the sadeh, and for your ochel, and for them of your batim, and for food for your children.

²⁵ And they said, Thou hast saved our lives; let us find chen (grace, favor) in the sight of adoni, and we will be avadim to Pharaoh.

²⁶ And Yosef made it a chok over Eretz Mitzrayim unto this day, that Pharaoh should have the fifth part, except the admat hakohanim only, which became not Pharaoh’s.

²⁷ And Yisroel settled in Eretz Mitzrayim, in Eretz Goshen; and they acquired property therein, and grew, and multiplied exceedingly.

[VAYAHI]

²⁸ And Ya’akov lived in Eretz Mitzrayim seventeen shanah; so the whole age of Ya’akov was a hundred forty and seven shanah.

²⁹ And the time drew near that Yisroel must die; and he called bno Yosef, and said unto him, If now I have found chen in thy sight, put, now, thy yad under my thigh, and do chesed and emes with me; bury me not, now, in Mitzrayim;

³⁰ But I will lie with my avot, and thou shalt carry me out of Mitzrayim, and bury me in their kever. And he said, I will do as thou hast said.

³¹ And he said, Swear unto me. And he swore unto him. And Yisroel prostrated toward the rosh hamittah.

48 And it came to pass after these things, that one told Yosef, Hinei, Avicha is choleh (ill); and he took with him his two banim, Menasheh and Ephrayim.

² And one told Ya’akov, and said, Hinei, the ben of thee Yosef cometh unto thee; and Yisroel strengthened himself, and sat up upon the mittah (bed).

³ And Ya’akov said unto Yosef, El Shaddai appeared unto me at Luz in Eretz Kena’an, and made on me a brocha,

⁴ And said unto me, Hineni, I will make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, and I will make of thee a kehal of ammim; and will give HaAretz Hazot to thy zera after thee for an achuzzat olam (everlasting possession).

⁵ And now thy two banim, Ephrayim and Menasheh, which were born unto thee in Eretz Mitzrayim before I came unto thee into Mitzrayim, are mine; like Reuven and Shimon, they shall be mine.

⁶ And thy moledet, which are born to thee after them, shall be thine, and shall be called after the shem of their achim in their nachalah.

⁷ And as for me, when I came from Padan, Rachel died by me in Eretz Kena’an in the way, when there was yet but a space of land to go unto Ephratah; and I buried her there by the derech Ephrat; the same is Beit-Lechem.

⁸ And Yisroel beheld Bnei Yosef, and said, Who are these?

⁹ And Yosef said unto aviv, They are my banim, whom Elohim hath given me in this place. And he said, Bring them, now, unto me, and I will make upon them a brocha.

¹⁰ Now the eyes of Yisroel were dim from age, so that he could not see. And he brought them near unto him; and he kissed them, and embraced them.

¹¹ And Yisroel said unto Yosef, I never expected to see thy face; and, hinei, Elohim hath showed me also thy zera.

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

¹³ And Yosef took them both, Ephrayim in his yamin toward smol Yisroel, and Menasheh on his smol toward yamin Yisroel, and brought them near unto him.

¹⁴ And Yisroel stretched out his yamin, and laid it upon rosh Ephraim, who was the younger, and his smol upon rosh Manasseh, guiding his hands intentionally; for Menasheh was the bechor.

¹⁵ And he made on Yosef a brocha, and said, HaElohim, before whom my Avot Avraham and Yitzchak did walk, HaElohim Who was Roeh to me all my life long unto this day,

¹⁶ The Malach which redeemed me from kol rah, may he make a brocha on the ne’arim, and let my shem be named on them, and the shem of my Avot Avraham and Yitzchak; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of ha’aretz.

¹⁷ And when Yosef saw that aviv laid his yamin upon the rosh Ephrayim, it displeased him; and he took hold of yad aviv, to remove it from rosh Ephrayim unto rosh Menasheh.

¹⁸ And Yosef said unto aviv, Not so, Avi; for this is the bechor; put thy yamin upon his rosh.

¹⁹ And aviv refused, and said, I know it, beni (my son), I know it; he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great; but truly achiv hakaton shall be greater than he, and his zera shall become a multitude of Goyim.

²⁰ And he made a brocha on them that day, saying, In thee shall Yisroel bless, saying, Elohim make thee like Ephrayim and like Menasheh; and he set Ephrayim before Menasheh.

²¹ And Yisroel said unto Yosef, Hinei I die; but Elohim shall be with you, and bring you back unto the Eretz Avoteichem.

²² Moreover, I have given to thee one portion above thy achim, which I took out of the yad HaEmori with my cherev and with my keshet.

49 And Ya’akov called unto his banim, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the acharit hayamim (last days).

² Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye Bnei Ya’akov; and pay heed unto Yisroel Avichem.

³ Reuven, thou art my bechor, my koach, and the reshit of my strength, the excellency of honor, and excellency of oz (power):

⁴ Unstable as mayim, thou shalt not excel; because thou wentest up to mishkevei avicha (thy father’s bed, i.e. incest); then defiledst thou it; he went up to my couch.

⁵ Shimon and Levi are achim; kelei chamas (instruments of violence) are in their swords.

⁶ O my nefesh, enter not thou into their sod (secret, council); unto their kehal, mine kavod, be not thou united; for in their anger they slaughtered ish, and in their ratzon (self-will) they lamed shor (ox).

⁷ Arur (cursed) be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel; I will dispense them in Ya’akov, and scatter them in Yisroel.

⁸ Yehudah, thou art he whom thy achim yoducha (they will praise you); thy yad shall be in the oref (neck) of thine enemies; Bnei Avicha shall bow down before thee.

⁹ Yehudah is the cub of an aryeh (lion); from the prey, beni (my son), thou hast gone up; he stooped down, he couched like an aryeh, and like a lioness; who shall rouse him?

¹⁰ The shevet (sceptre) shall not depart from Yehudah, nor a Mekhokek (Lawgiver) from between his raglayim, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall be the obedience of the amim (peoples, nations).

¹¹ He ties his foal unto the gefen (vine), and his donkey’s colt unto the choice vine; he will wash his levush (garments) in yayin, and his robe in the dahm anavim (blood of grapes);

¹² His eyes shall be darker with yayin, and his shinayim (teeth) whiter than cholov (milk).

¹³ Zevulun shall dwell at the seashore; and he shall be a haven for oniyyot (ships); and his border shall be unto Tzidon.

¹⁴ Yissakhar is a strong chamor (donkey) lying down between two saddlebags;

¹⁵ And he saw that a menuchah (resting place) was tov, and haaretz that it was pleasant; and bowed his shoulder to bear, and became oved (submitting, enslaved) at forced labor.

¹⁶ Dan yadin (shall judge) his people, as one of the Shivtei Yisroel.

¹⁷ Dan shall be a nachash beside the derech, a viper along the orach (path) that biteth the ikkvei sus (the horse heels), so that its rider shall fall backward.

¹⁸ I have waited for Thy Yeshuah (Salvation), Hashem.

¹⁹ Gad, gedud (raider) shall raid him; but he shall raid akev ([at] the heel).

²⁰ Out of Asher his lechem shall be rich, and he shall yield royal dainties.

²¹ Naphtali is a doe let loose; he giveth goodly sayings.

²² Yosef is a ben of a fruittree, even ben of a fruit-tree near an ayin (spring, well); its daughters (i.e., branches) run over the wall;

²³ The ba’alei khitzim (archers) provoke him, and shoot at him, and hate him;

²⁴ But his keshet (bow) remained steady, and the arms of his hands remain strong, from the hands of the Avir Ya’akov, from there, from the Ro’eh, Even Yisroel;

²⁵ And from El Avicha, who shall help thee; and Shaddai, who shall make brocha over thee with Birkat Shomayim above, Birkat Tehom that lieth beneath, Birkat Shadayim and of Rekhem.

²⁶ Birkat Avicha surpass the Birkat of my progenitors unto the utmost border of the giveot olam (everlasting hills); they shall come on the rosh Yosef, and on the brow of the Prince among his achim.

²⁷ Binyamin—a ze’ev (wolf) which tears in pieces; in the boker he shall devour the prey, and at erev he shall divide the plunder.

²⁸ All these are the Shivtei Yisroel; and this is it that Avichem spoke unto them, and made a brocha on them; every one according to his brocha he blessed them.

²⁹ And he charged them, and said unto them, I am to be gathered unto my people; bury me with Avotai in the me’arah (cave) that is in the sadeh of Ephron the Chitti,

³⁰ In the me’arah that is in the sadeh of Machpelah, which is near Mamre, in Eretz Kena’an, which Avraham bought with the sadeh of Ephron the Chitti for an achuzzat kever (burial estate).

³¹ There they buried Avraham and Sarah his isha; there they buried Yitzchak and Rivkah his isha; and there I buried Leah.

³² The purchase of the sadeh and of the me’arah (cave) that is therein was from the Bnei Chet (Heth).

³³ And when Ya’akov had made an end of commanding his banim, he gathered up his raglayim into the mittah, and expired, and was gathered unto his people.

50 And Yosef fell upon the face of Aviv, and wept over him, and kissed him.

² And Yosef commanded his avadim the rofe’im (physicians) to embalm Aviv; and the rofe’im embalmed Yisroel.

³ And arba’im yom were fulfilled for him; for so are fulfilled the days of those which are embalmed; and the Mitzra’im mourned for him shivim yom (seventy days).

⁴ And when the days of his mourning were past, Yosef spoke unto the Bais Pharaoh, saying, If now I have found chen in your eyes, speak, now, in the oznayim of Pharaoh, saying,

⁵ Avi made me swear, saying, Hinei, I die; in my kever which I dug for myself in Eretz Kana’an, there shalt thou bury me. Therefore let me go up, now, and bury Avi, and I will return.

⁶ And Pharaoh said, Go up, and bury Avicha, according as he made thee swear.

⁷ And Yosef went up to bury Aviv; and with him went up all the avadim of Pharaoh, the zekenim of his Bais, and all the zekenim of Eretz Mitzrayim,

⁸ And kol Bais Yosef, and his achim, and Bais Aviv; only their little ones, and their tzon, and their bakar (cattle), they left in Eretz Goshen.

⁹ And there went up with him both merkavot and parashim; and it was a very great machaneh.

¹⁰ And they came to the goren (threshing floor) of Atad, which is beyond the Yarden, and there they mourned with a gadol and very bitter lamentation; and he made evel (mourning) for Aviv shivat yamim.

¹¹ And when the inhabitants of HaAretz, the Kena’ani, saw the evel (mourning) in the goren Atad, they said, This is a grievous evel to the Mitzrayim; therefore the shem of it was called Evel Mitzrayim. It is beyond the Yarden.

¹² And his [Ya’akov’s] banim did unto him according as he commanded them;

¹³ For his banim carried him into Eretz Kena’an, and buried him in the me’arah (cave) of the sadeh of Machpelah, near Mamre, the sadeh which Avraham had bought for an achuzzat kever (burial estate) and made the purchase from Ephron the Chitti.

¹⁴ And, after burying Aviv, Yosef returned into Mitzrayim, he, and his achim, and all that went up with him to bury Aviv.

¹⁵ And when the Achei Yosef (the brothers of Yosef) saw that Avihem was dead, they said, What if Yosef will hate us, and will certainly requite us all the ra’ah which we did unto him.

¹⁶ And they sent word unto Yosef, saying, Avicha did command before he died, saying,

¹⁷ So shall ye say unto Yosef, Forgive, now, the peysha of thy achim, and their chattat; for they did unto thee ra’ah; and now, forgive the peysha of the Avdei Elohei Avicha. And Yosef wept when they spoke unto him.

¹⁸ And his achim also went and fell down before him; and they said, Behold us, we are thy avadim.

¹⁹ And Yosef said unto them, Fear not; for am I in the place of Elohim?

²⁰ But as for you, ye intended ra’ah against me; but Elohim intended it for tovah, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save Am Rav (much people) alive.

²¹ Now therefore fear ye not; I will provide for you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spoke kindly unto their hearts.

²² And Yosef dwelt in Mitzrayim, he, and Bais Aviv; and Yosef lived one hundred and ten shanim.

²³ And Yosef saw Ephraim’s bnei shileshim (children to the third generation); also the Bnei Machir Ben Menasheh were brought up upon the birkei Yosef (knees of Yosef).

²⁴ And Yosef said unto his achim, I die; and Elohim will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land unto HaAretz which He promised by oath to Avraham, to Yitzchak, and to Ya’akov.

²⁵ And Yosef made the Bnei Yisroel take an oath, saying, Elohim will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my atzmot from hence.

²⁶ So Yosef died, being in age one hundred and ten shanim; and they embalmed him, and he was placed in an aron in Mitzrayim.