ויחי

Jacob had lived seventeen years in Egypt, and he was 147 when his last days came near. He called Joseph close and said, “Please promise me: do not bury me in Egypt. Put your hand under my thigh as a pledge, and swear you will carry me up and bury me with my ancestors.” Joseph agreed and swore, and Jacob bowed at the head of the bed.

Later Joseph was told, “Your father is ill,” so he hurried in with his sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. Jacob gathered his strength and sat up. He reminded Joseph how God had appeared to him at Luz in Canaan and promised that his family would grow and receive the land. Then Jacob said that Ephraim and Manasseh would be counted as his own sons, like Reuben and Simeon. When Jacob asked, “Who are these?” Joseph answered, “They are my sons, whom God has given me here.” Jacob, whose eyes were dim with age, kissed and hugged them and said he never expected to see Joseph again, but now he could see Joseph’s children too.

Joseph placed the boys carefully, Ephraim at Jacob’s left and Manasseh at Jacob’s right. But Jacob crossed his hands and put his right hand on Ephraim, the younger. He blessed them, speaking of “the God who has been my shepherd” and asking that the boys grow into “teeming multitudes upon the earth.” Joseph tried to move his father’s hand, saying, “Not so, Father, the other is the first-born.” Jacob answered, “I know,” and said the younger would become greater. He added that people would bless by saying, “God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.”

Then Jacob called all his sons together: “Come, that I may tell you what will happen in days to come.” He spoke to each one with words that fit them. Reuben, though first-born, would not keep the highest honor. Simeon and Levi would be scattered. Judah was compared to a lion, and Jacob said a ruler’s staff would stay with Judah. He also spoke of the other tribes, and he gave Joseph a strong blessing, remembering how Joseph had been attacked but remained firm.

After his words, Jacob instructed his sons to bury him in the cave of Machpelah (a Hebrew name meaning “double cave”), near Mamre in Canaan, where Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, and Leah were buried. When Jacob finished, he drew his feet into the bed, breathed his last, and was gathered to his kin. Joseph wept over his father and kissed him.

Joseph ordered physicians to embalm Jacob. The embalming took forty days, and the Egyptians mourned seventy days. When the mourning ended, Joseph asked Pharaoh’s court for permission to go and bury his father as he had sworn. Pharaoh agreed, and a large group went up with chariots. They held a great lament at Goren ha-Atad beyond the Jordan, and Jacob’s sons carried him to Machpelah and buried him there.

Back in Egypt, the brothers feared Joseph would repay them. They begged forgiveness and offered to be his slaves. Joseph cried and said, “Have no fear! Am I a substitute for God? You intended me harm, but God intended it for good… the survival of many people.” He promised to sustain them. Joseph lived to 110, saw great-grandchildren, and before he died he made the Israelites swear to carry his bones up when God brought them out of Egypt.