Vayechi

B'reisheet 47:28 - 50:26
B’reisheet 47:28 And Ya`akov̱ lived in the land of Mitsrayim seventeen years. So the length of Ya`akov’s life was one hundred and forty-seven years.
B’reisheet 47:29 And the time for Yisra’ĕl to die drew near, and he called his son Yosĕf and said to him, “Now if I have found favor in your eyes, please put your hand under my thigh, and show kindness and truth to me. Please do not bury me in Mitsrayim,
B’reisheet 47:30 but I shall lie with my fathers, and you shall take me up out of Mitsrayim and bury me in their burial place.” And he said, “I do as you have said.”
B’reisheet 47:31 And he said, “Swear to me.” And he swore to him, and Yisra’ĕl bowed himself on the head of the bed.
B’reisheet 48:1 And after these events it came to be that it was said to Yosĕf, “See, your father is sick.” And he took with him his two sons, Menashsheh and Ephrayim.
B’reisheet 48:2 And Ya`akov̱ was told, “See, your son Yosĕf is coming to you.” And Yisra’ĕl strengthened himself and sat up on the bed.
B’reisheet 48:3 And Ya`akov̱ said to Yosĕf, “Ěl Shaddai appeared to me at Luz in the land of Kenaʽan and blessed me,
B’reisheet 48:4 and said to me, ‘See, I am making you bear fruit and shall increase you and make of you an assembly of peoples, and give this land to your seed after you as an everlasting possession.’
B’reisheet 48:5 “And now, your two sons, Ephrayim and Menashsheh, who were born to you in the land of Mitsrayim before I came to you in Mitsrayim, are mine – as Re’uḇĕn and Shimʽon, they are mine.
B’reisheet 48:6 “Your offspring whom you shall bring forth after them are yours, and let them be called by the name of their brothers in their inheritance.
B’reisheet 48:7 “And I, when I came from Paddan, Raḥĕl died beside me in the land of Kenaʽan on the way, when there was but a little distance to go to Ephrath. And I buried her there on the way to Ephrath, that is Bĕyth Leḥem.”
B’reisheet 48:8 And Yisra’ĕl saw Yosĕf’s sons, and said, “Who are these?”
B’reisheet 48:9 And Yosĕf said to his father, “They are my sons, whom Elohim has given me in this place.” And he said, “Please bring them to me, and let me bless them.”
B’reisheet 48:10 And the eyes of Yisra’ĕl were dim with age, and he was unable to see. And he drew them near him, and he kissed them and embraced them.
B’reisheet 48:11 And Yisra’ĕl said to Yosĕf, “I had not thought to see your face. But see, Elohim has also shown me your seed!”
B’reisheet 48:12 So Yosĕf brought them from between his knees, and he bowed down with his face to the earth.
B’reisheet 48:13 And Yosĕf took them both, Ephrayim with his right hand toward Yisra’ĕl’s left hand, and Menashsheh with his left hand toward Yisra’ĕl’s right hand, and brought them near him.
B’reisheet 48:14 And Yisra’ĕl stretched out his right hand and laid it on Ephrayim’s head, who was the younger, and his left hand on Menashsheh’s head, consciously directing his hands, for Menashsheh was the first-born.
B’reisheet 48:15 And he blessed Yosĕf, and said, “The Elohim before whom my fathers Avraham and Yitzchak walked, the Elohim who has fed me all my life long to this day,
B’reisheet 48:16 the Messenger who has redeemed me from all evil – bless the youths! And let my name be called upon them, and the name of my fathers Avraham and Yitzchak. And let them increase to a multitude in the midst of the earth.”
B’reisheet 48:17 And when Yosĕf saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of Ephrayim, it was evil in his eyes; and he took hold of his father’s hand to remove it from the head of Ephrayim to the head of Menashsheh.
B’reisheet 48:18 And Yosĕf said to his father, “Not so, my father, for this one is the first-born, put your right hand on his head.”
B’reisheet 48:19 But his father refused and said, “I know, my son, I know. He also becomes a people, and he also is great. And yet, his younger brother is greater than he, and his seed is to become the completeness of the nations.”
B’reisheet 48:20 And he blessed them on that day, saying, “In you Yisra’ĕl shall bless, saying, ‘Elohim make you as Ephrayim and as Menashsheh!’ ” Thus he put Ephrayim before Menashsheh.
B’reisheet 48:21 And Yisra’ĕl said to Yosĕf, “See, I am dying, but Elohim shall be with you and bring you back to the land of your fathers.
B’reisheet 48:22 “And I, I have given to you one portion above your brothers, which I took from the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow.”
B’reisheet 49:1 And Ya`akov̱ called his sons and said, “Gather together, so that I declare to you what is to befall you in the last days:
B’reisheet 49:2 “Gather together and hear, you sons of Ya`akov̱, and listen to Yisra’ĕl your father.
B’reisheet 49:3 “Re’uḇĕn, you are my first-born, my power and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of exaltation and the excellency of power.
B’reisheet 49:4 “Boiling like water, you do not excel, because you went up to your father’s bed, then you defiled it – he went up to my couch.
B’reisheet 49:5 “Shimʽon and Lĕwi are brothers, their weapons are implements of violence.
B’reisheet 49:6 “Let my being not enter their council, let my esteem not be united to their assembly; because they slew a man in their displeasure, and they lamed an ox in pleasure.
B’reisheet 49:7 “Cursed be their displeasure for it is fierce, and their wrath for it is cruel! I divide them in Ya`akov̱ and scatter them in Yisra’ĕl.
B’reisheet 49:8 “You, Yehuḏah, your brothers praise you; your hand is on the neck of your enemies; your father’s children bow down before you.
B’reisheet 49:9 “Yehuḏah is a lion’s cub; from the prey you have gone up, my son! He bowed down, he crouched like a lion. And like a lion, who does rouse him?
B’reisheet 49:10 “The scepter shall not turn aside from Yehuḏah, nor a Lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and to Him is the obedience of peoples.
B’reisheet 49:11 “Binding his donkey to the vine, and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine, he washed his garments in wine, and his robes in the blood of grapes.
B’reisheet 49:12 “His eyes are darker than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk.
B’reisheet 49:13 “Zeḇulun dwells at the seashore, he is for a haven for ships, and his border is unto Tsiḏon.
B’reisheet 49:14 “Yissasḵar is a strong donkey lying down between two burdens,
B’reisheet 49:15 and he saw that a resting place was good, and that the land was pleasant, and he inclined his shoulder to bear a burden, and became a subject to slave labor.
B’reisheet 49:16 “Dan rightly rules his people as one of the tribes of Yisra’ĕl.
B’reisheet 49:17 “Dan is a serpent by the way, an adder by the path, that bites the horse’s heels so that its rider falls backward.
B’reisheet 49:18 “I have waited for your deliverance, O יהוה!
B’reisheet 49:19 “Gaḏ, a raiding band raids him, but he raids its heel.
B’reisheet 49:20 “Bread from Ashĕr is rich, and he gives delicacies of a sovereign.
B’reisheet 49:21 “Naphtali is a deer let loose, he gives words of elegance.
B’reisheet 49:22 “Yosĕf is an offshoot of a fruit-bearing tree, an offshoot of a fruit-bearing tree by a fountain, his branches run over a wall.
B’reisheet 49:23 “And the archers have bitterly grieved him, shot at him and hated him.
B’reisheet 49:24 “But his bow remained in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the Mighty One of Ya`akov̱ – from there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Yisra’ĕl –
B’reisheet 49:25 from the Ěl of your father who helps you, and by the Almighty who blesses you with blessings of the heavens above, blessings of the deep that lies beneath, blessings of the breasts and of the womb.
B’reisheet 49:26 “The blessings of your father have excelled the blessings of my ancestors, up to the limit of the everlasting hills. They are on the head of Yosĕf, and on the crown of the head of him who was separated from his brothers.
B’reisheet 49:27 “Binyamin is a wolf that tears, in the morning he eats prey, and at night he divides the spoil.”
B’reisheet 49:28 All these are the twelve tribes of Yisra’ĕl, and this is what their father spoke to them. And he blessed them, he blessed each one according to his own blessing.
B’reisheet 49:29 And he commanded them, and said to them, “I am to be gathered to my people, bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Ḥittite,
B’reisheet 49:30 in the cave that is in the field of Maḵpĕlah, which is before Mamrĕ in the land of Kenaʽan, which Avraham bought with the field of Ephron the Ḥittite as a possession for a burial site.
B’reisheet 49:31 There they buried Avraham and Sarah his wife, there they buried Yitzchak and Rivkah his wife, and there I buried Lĕ’ah –
B’reisheet 49:32 the field purchased, and the cave which is in it, from the sons of Ḥĕth.”
B’reisheet 49:33 And when Ya`akov̱ ended commanding his sons, he drew his feet up into the bed and breathed his last, and was gathered to his people.
B’reisheet 50:1 And Yosĕf fell on his father’s face, and wept over him, and kissed him.
B’reisheet 50:2 And Yosĕf commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Yisra’ĕl.
B’reisheet 50:3 And forty days were completed for him, for so are completed the days of embalming. And the Mitsrites wept for him seventy days.
B’reisheet 50:4 And when the days of weeping for him were past, Yosĕf spoke to the household of Pharaoh, saying, “If, now, I have found favor in your eyes, please speak in the hearing of Pharaoh, saying,
B’reisheet 50:5 ‘My father made me swear, saying, “See, I am dying, bury me in my grave which I dug for myself in the land of Kenaʽan.” And now, please let me go up and bury my father, and return.’ ”
B’reisheet 50:6 And Pharaoh said, “Go up and bury your father, as he made you swear.”
B’reisheet 50:7 And Yosĕf went up to bury his father. And with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Mitsrayim,
B’reisheet 50:8 and all the house of Yosĕf, and his brothers, and his father’s house. Only their little ones, and their flocks, and their herds they left in the land of Goshen.
B’reisheet 50:9 And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen, and it was a very great company.
B’reisheet 50:10 And they came to the threshing-floor of Ataḏ, which is beyond the Yardĕn, and they lamented there with a great and very heavy lamentation. And he observed seven days of mourning for his father.
B’reisheet 50:11 And when the inhabitants of the land, the Kenaʽanites, saw the mourning at the threshing-floor of Ataḏ, they said, “This is a grievous mourning for the Mitsrites.” That is why its name was called Aḇĕl Mitsrayim, which is beyond the Yardĕn.
B’reisheet 50:12 And his sons did to him as he had commanded them,
B’reisheet 50:13 for his sons brought him to the land of Kenaʽan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Maḵpĕlah, before Mamrĕ, which Avraham bought with the field from Ephron the Ḥittite as property for a burial site.
B’reisheet 50:14 And after he had buried his father, Yosĕf returned to Mitsrayim, he and his brothers and all who went up with him to bury his father.
B’reisheet 50:15 And when Yosĕf’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “What if Yosĕf hates us, and pays us back all the evil which we did to him?”
B’reisheet 50:16 And they sent word to Yosĕf, saying, “Before your father died he commanded, saying,
B’reisheet 50:17 ‘This is what you are to say to Yosĕf, “I beg you, please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, for they did evil to you.” ’ And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the Elohim of your father.” And Yosĕf wept when they spoke to him.
B’reisheet 50:18 And his brothers also went and fell down before his face, and they said, “See, we are your slaves.”
B’reisheet 50:19 And Yosĕf said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of Elohim?
B’reisheet 50:20 “And you, you intended evil against me, but Elohim intended it for good, in order to do it as it is this day, to keep a great many people alive.
B’reisheet 50:21 “And now, do not fear, I provide for you and your little ones.” So he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.
B’reisheet 50:22 And Yosĕf dwelt in Mitsrayim, he and his father’s household. And Yosĕf lived one hundred and ten years.
B’reisheet 50:23 And Yosĕf saw Ephrayim’s children to the third generation. The children of Maḵir, son of Menashsheh, were also brought up on Yosĕf’s knees.
B’reisheet 50:24 And Yosĕf said to his brothers, “I am dying, but Elohim shall certainly visit you and bring you out of this land to the land of which He swore to Avraham, to Yitzchak, and to Ya`akov̱.”
B’reisheet 50:25 And Yosĕf made the children of Yisra’ĕl swear, saying, “Elohim shall certainly visit you, and you shall bring up my bones from here.”
B’reisheet 50:26 And Yosĕf died, being one hundred and ten years old. And they embalmed him, and he was placed in a sarcophagus in Mitsrayim.