Pgs. 314-326
Ch. 44-47
SECTION XI
VAYIGGASH.
And Jehuda came near to him and said, In implor&endash;ing my lord, let thy servant, I implore, speak a word in the hearing of my lord, and let not thy anger grow strong against thy servant; for at the hour that we came to thee thou didst say to us, I fear before the Lord; and now thy judgments are rendered like (the judgments) of a prince of Pharoh. My lord asked his servants, saying, Have you a father or a brother?
[JERUSALEM. And Jehuda came near him, and said, In beseeching thee, my lord, let thy servant now speak a word in the hearing of my lord, and let not thy anger be strong against thy servant; for at the first time we came down to thee into Mizraim didst thou not tell us, I fear before the Lord? And now thy judgments are returned like the judgments of Pharoh thy lord, by whom thou adjurest. Yet I am honourable as thou art, and my father is honourable as Pharoh thy lord is, by whom thou dost adjure. Can I not swear by the life of the head of my father, and not lie? For if I draw my sword from within its sheath, I would not return it till I had filled all the land of Mizraim with the slain; to its sheath I would not return it, till I had made all Mizraim desolate of inhabitants, beginning with thyself, and ending with Pharoh thy lord, were it not against the will of my father. Or, hath it not been heard by thee, or not told thee, what my two brothers Shimeon and Levi did, who went up against the town of Shekem, while they were dwelling in security, and killed every male by the edge of the sword, because they bad corrupted Dinah our sister, who hath not been numbered in the tribes, nor hath portion or inheritance with us in the dividing of the land? By how much more then (shall it be done) for Benjamin our brother, who is numbered with us among the tribes, and who hath portion and inheritance with us in the dividing of the land ? And in force is more unyielding than theirs, because I have become the sponsor for the youth at the hands of my father, saying, If I bring him not to thee, and set him before thee, I will be guilty with thee and be removed from thy salutation all the days. Hast thou not beard, or hath it not been told thee, that in the land of Kenaan we are kings and princes, as thou art ?
[19. When Joseph, the beloved and honourable, saw that the strength of Jehuda his brother bad risen up, and that the thoughts of his heart came forth, and that they rent their garments, in that hour beckoned Joseph to Menasheh his first‑born, and stamped with his shoe; and all Joseph's palace trembled. In that hour Jehuda said, If it bad not been on the side of the house of my father, it would not have been done so. Then began Jehuda to be milder in his words, and he said, My lord asked his servants, saying, Have you a father, or a brother ?]
And we told my lord, We have an aged father, and a son of his old age, a little one, whose brother is dead, and he only remains of his mother; and his father on that account loveth him. And thou saidst to thy servants, Bring him down to me, and I will set mine eyes on him for good. [Jerusalem Mine eyes shall be gracious upon him.] But we told my lord, The youth cannot leave his father: for if he leave his father, he will die. Yet thou saidst to thy servants, If you bring not your youngest brother down, you shall not again see my face. And it was when we went up to thy servant our father, we related to him my lord's words. And our father said to us, Return, and buy us a little corn. But we told him, We cannot go down if our youngest brother be not with us when we go down, for we shall not be able to see the man's face, unless our youngest brother be with us. And thy servant our father said to us, You know that my wife bare me two sons. One went forth from me, and I said, Surely he is dead, and I have not beheld him since; and you will now take this other from before me; and if death happen to him, you will bring down mine age with mourning to the house of the grave. Therefore thy servant became surety for the youth with my father, saying, If I restore him not to thee, let me be guilty before my father all the days. And now let thy servant remain, I beseech thee, as the slave of my lord, instead of the young man; and let the young man go up with his brothers. For how can I go up to my father, and the young man be not with us lest I behold the evil that will strike my father through!
XLV. And Joseph could not endure not to (be able to) weep, on account of all who stood before him. And he said, Let every man go out from me: and no one stood with him, while Joseph made himself known to his brothers.
And he lifted up his voice with weeping; and the Mizraee heard, and a man of the house of Pharoh heard.
And Joseph said to his brothers, I am Joseph ! Is my father yet alive ?
But his brothers could not answer him a word; for they were troubled before him.
And Joseph said to his brothers, Come near, I pray, and examine me. And they came near. And he said to them, I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Mizraim. Now, therefore, be not grieved, nor consider it a hard thing[1] that you sold me hither; for the Lord sent me hither before you to preserve you. For these two years hath the famine been in the midst of the land, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither ploughing nor harvest. But the Lord sent me before you to set you a remnant in the land, and to preserve you by a great deliverance.
And now, it was not you who sent me hither, but it was from before the Lord that the thing was occasioned, that He might set me for a prince unto Pharoh, a chief over his house, and a ruler in all the land of Mizraim. Make haste, and go up to my father, and say to him, Thus saith thy son Joseph, The Lord hath set me for a chief over all the Mizraee; come down to me, delay not, and thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen, and be near me, thou, and thy sons, and thy sons' children, thy sheep, thy oxen, and all that thou hast. And I will sustain you there, for there are yet five years of famine, lest thou and the men of thy house, and all that thou hast be wasted away. And, behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that my mouth speaketh with you in the language of the house of holiness. And you must show my father all the honour I have in Mizraim, and all my greatness which you see, and hasten my father hither.
And he bowed himself upon his brother Benjamin's neck, and wept; because it would be that the house of holiness should be builded in the portion of Benjamin, and be twice destroyed: and Benjamin wept upon Joseph's neck, because he saw that the tabernacle of Shiloh would be in the portion of Joseph and be destroyed. And he kissed all his brethren, and wept over them, because he saw that the sons of his people would be brought into bondage. And afterward his brethren discoursed with him.
And a voice was heard in the royal house of Pharoh, saying, The brothers of Joseph are come. And the thing was pleasing in the eyes of Pharoh, and in the eyes of his servants. And he said to Joseph, Tell thy brethren, Do this. Lade your beasts, and go, carry into the land of Kenaan; and take your father and the men of your house, and come to me, and I will give you the best of what is desirable in the land of Mizraim, and you shall eat the fat of the land. And thou Joseph shalt appoint for the honour of thy father: therefore tell thy brethren, Do this. Take with you from the land of Mizraim waggons drawn by oxen, in which to carry your children and your wives, and bring your father, and come. And your eyes must not look wistfully on your utensils: for the best of what is desirable in all the land of Mizraim is yours.
And the sons of Israel did so. And Joseph gave them waggons according to the word of Pharoh, and he furnished them with provision for the way. And to each of them he gave vestments and apparel; but to Benjamin he gave three hundred shekels of silver, and five vestments for apparel. And these presents he sent to his father; ten asses laden with wine and the good things of Mizraim, and ten she asses laden with corn and bread, and provisions for his father's journey. And he dismissed his brothers to go, and said to them, Do not contend about my having been sold, lest you quarrel in passing along the way.
And they went up from Mizraim, and came to the land of Kenaan unto Jakob their father. And they declared to him, saying, Joseph is yet alive, and is ruler over all the land of Mizraim. But his heart was divided, because he did not believe them. [JERUSALEM. And his heart was divided.] And they told him all the words of Joseph which he had spoken to them. And when he saw the waggons which Joseph had sent to bring him, the Spirit of Prophecy which had gone up from him at the time that Joseph was sold, returning, rested upon Jakob their father. And Israel said, Many benefits hath the Lord wrought for me; He delivered me from the hand of Esau and from the hand of Laban, and from the hands of the Kenaanites who pursued me; and many consolations have I seen and have expected to see; but this I had not expected, that Joseph my son should yet be alive. I will go now, and behold him before I die. [JERUSALEM. And Israel said, Many benefits and consolations I had hoped to see; but this I had not expected, that, behold, Joseph my son should be yet alive. I will go and see him before I die.]
XLVI. And Israel journeyed with all that he had, and came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices to the God of his father Izhak. And the Lord spake to Israel in a prophecy of the night, and said, Jakob! and he said, Behold me. And He said, I am God, the God of thy father; fear not to go down into Mizraim on account of the servitude I have decreed with Abraham: for a great people will I make thee there. I am He who in My Word will go down with thee into Mizraim; I will regard the affliction of thy children, and My Word shall bring thee up from thence, and cause thy children to come up; but Joseph shall lay his hand upon thine eyes.
And Jakob arose from Beer de Sheba; and the sons of Israel journeyed, with Jakob their father, their little ones, and their wives, in the waggons which Pharoh had sent to carry him. They took their possessions and the substance which they had gotten in the land of Kenaan, and came into Mizraim, Jakob and all his sons with him, his sons and his sons' children with him, his daughters, and the daughters of his sons; and all his seed came with him to Mizraim.
These are the names of the sons of Israel who came into Mizraim. Jakob and his sons. The firstborn of Jakob, Reuben. And the sons of Reuben, Hanok and Phallu Hetsron and Karmi. The sons of Shimeon, Jemuel and Jamin, Ochad, Jakin, Sochar and Shaul: he is Zimri, who made the work of the Kenaanites in Shittim. And the sons of Levi, Gershon, Kehath and Merari. The sons of Jehuda, Er, Onan, Shelah, Pherets, and Zarach. But Er and Onan died, on account of their evil work in the land of Kenaan; and Shelah and Zarach had no children in the land of Kenaan; but the sons of Pherets who went down to Mizraim were Hetsron and Chamul. The sons of Issakar, sages, and masters of reasoning, their names were Tola, Phua, Job, and Shimron The sons of Zebulon, merchants, masters of commerce nourishing their brethren, the sons of Issakar, and receiving a reward like theirs; and their names were Sered, Elon, and Jahleel. These are the sons of Leah, whom she bare unto Jakob in. Padan Aram, with Dinah his daughter; all the souls of his sons and his daughter; thirty and three. And the children of Gad, Sephon, Haggi, Suni Ezbon, Eri, Arodi, and Areli. The children of Asher, Yimna, Yishvah, Yishvi, Beriah and Serach their sister, who was carried away while alive into the Garden (of Eden), because she had announced to Jakob that Joseph still lived. It was she who saved the inhabitants of (the city) Abel from the judgment of death, in the days of Joab. The sons of Beriah who went down into Mizraim were Heber and Malkiel. These are the children of Zilpha, whom Laban gave to Leah his daughter, and she bare them to Jakob; sixteen souls. The sons of Rahel, wife of Jakob, Joseph and Benjamin. And to Joseph were born two sons in the land of Mizraim, whom Asenath the daughter of Dinah, educated in the house of Potiphera prince of Tanis, bare, Menasheh and Ephraim. The sons of Benjamin, ten; and their names, according to the interpretation of Joseph his brother: Bela,[2] who was swallowed up from him; Beker, who was the chosen of his mother; Eshbal, who went into captivity; Gera, who became a sojourner in a foreign land; Naaman, who was pleasant and honourable; Achi, who had a (twin) brother, the son of his mother; Rosh, who was a chief in his father's house; Muppim, who was sold into Muph; Chuppim, because at the time that he was separated from him he was the son of eighteen years and was eligible for marriage (Chupha, thalamus nuptialis) ; and Ared, who descended into Mizraim. These are the children of Rahel who were born unto Jakob, all the souls fourteen. The sons of Dan, able men (or armed) and merchants, of whose numbers there is no end (or sum). And the sons of Naphtali, Jakzeel, Guni, Jetser, and Shillem. These are the sons of Bilhah whom Laban gave to Rahel his daughter; and she bare them unto Jakob, all the souls seven. All the souls which went into Mizraim with Jakob which had come forth from his thigh; besides the wives of Jakob's sons, all the souls were sixty and six. But the sons of Joseph who were born to him in Mizraim were two souls; and Joseph who was in Mizraim, and Jokebed the daughter of Levi, who was born among the hills in their journey to Mizraim, the sum of all the souls of the house of Jakob who came into Mizraim, seventy.
And he sent Jehuda before him to Joseph to indicate the way before him, to subdue the pillars of the earth, and to provide him a house of dwelling in Goshena. And they came to the land of Goshen. [JERUSALEM. To prepare him a place of habitation in Goshena.]
And Joseph made ready his chariot, and went up to meet Israel his father in Goshen; and his father, before he recognised him, worshipped him, and thus became liable to be shortened (or cut off) in his years. And he wondered, and beheld him, and fell upon his neck, and wept still upon his neck, because he had worshipped him. And Israel said to Joseph, If at this time I die, I am Comforted: for with the death that the righteous die shall I die, after seeing thy face, because thou art yet alive.
And Joseph said to his brethren and his father's house, I will go up and tell Pharoh, and say to him, My brethren and my father's house from the land of Kenaan have come to me. The men are pastors of sheep; for they are men, the masters of flocks; and their sheep and oxen and all which they have, they have brought. And it must be, when Pharoh calleth you, and saith, Tell me, what is your work? you must say, Thy servants have been masters of flocks from our youth until now: that you may dwell in the land of Goshen; because the Mizraee reject[3] all shepherds.
XLVII. And Joseph came and informed Pharoh, and said, My father and my brethren, with their sheep all oxen and all that they have, are come from the land of Kenaan, and, behold, they are in the land of Goshen. And from the extreme of his brethren he took five men, Zebulon, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher, and resented them before Pharoh. And Pharoh said to Joseph's brethren, What is your work? And they said to Pharoh, Thy servants are pastors of sheep, both we and our fathers. And they said to Pharoh, To dwell in the land are we come, because there is no place of pasture for thy servants' sheep, for the famine hath prevailed in the land of Kenaan; let thy servants therefore now dwell in the land of Goshen.
And Pharoh spake to Joseph, saying, Thy father and thy brethren have come to thee. The land of Mizraim is before thee. In the fairest part of the land make thy father and thy brethren to dwell: let them dwell in the land of Goshen. And if thou know any among them men of ability, appoint them masters over my flocks.
And Joseph brought Jakob his father, and presented him before Pharoh. And Jakob blessed Pharoh, and said, May it please the Almighty that the waters of Nilos may be replenished, and may the famine pass away from the world in thy days! And Pharoh said to Jakob, How many are the days of the years of thy life? And Jakob answered Pharoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years. Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life; for in my youth I fled before Esau my brother, and sojourned in a land not my own; and now in the time of my old age have I come down to sojourn here. And my days have not reached the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage. And Jakob blessed Pharoh, and went out from before Pharoh.
And Joseph brought his father and brethren to dwell, and gave them a possession in the land of Mizraim, in a goodly part of the country, in the country of Pilusin, as Pharoh had commanded. [JERUSALEM. Pelusim.] And Joseph sustained his father and his brethren and all his father's house with bread, according to the need of their families. But there was no bread (grown) in all the land, because the famine prevailed greatly, and the inhabitants of the land of Mizraim failed, and the dwellers in the land of Kenaan, in presence of the famine. And Joseph collected all the money which was found in the land of Mizraim, and in the land of Kenaan, for the corn which he sold to them; and Joseph brought the money into the treasure‑house of Pharoh. And the money was finished from the land of Mizraim, and from the land of Kenaan; and the Mizraee came to Joseph, saying, Give us bread; why should we die before thee? for all our money is finished. [JERUSALEM. And hath failed.] And Joseph said, Give your flocks, and for your flocks I will give you provisions, if the money be consumed. And they brought their cattle to Joseph, and Joseph gave them bread for their horses, and for the flocks of sheep, the oxen, and the asses; and he sustained them with bread for all their flocks for that year And that year being ended, all the Mizraee came to him, in the second year, and said to him, We will not hide it from my lord, that the money is finished and my lord hath the flocks of cattle: there is nothing left us before my lord except our bodies, and our land. Why should we die and thine eye seeing (it), both we and our land also? Buy us, and our land, for bread, and we and our land will be servants of Pharoh, and give the seed of corn, that we may live and not die, and the land be not desolated. And Joseph bought all the land of Mizraim for Pharoh; for the Mizraee sold every man his portion, because the famine prevailed over them, and the land became the property of Pharoh. And the people of a province be removed to a city, and the people of the city he removed to a province, for the sake of the brethren of Joseph, that they might not be called wanderers: therefore he made them migrate from one end of Mizraim to the other. [JERUSALEM. And the people who were dwelling in the province he removed into the city; and the people who dwelt in the city he removed into the province, that they might not deride the sons of Jakob, and call them Galilean (wandering) guests.] Only the land of the priests he bought not because they had considered him innocent at the time when his master was seeking to put him to death, and they had delivered him from the judgment of death: and besides he had said that a portion should be given them from Pharoh. So they ate the portion which Pharoh gave them, and sold not their land.
And Joseph said to the people, Behold, I have this day bought you and your land for Pharoh: behold, (I give) you seed corn to sow the land; and at the time of the ingathering of your produce you shall give the fifth part to Pharoh, and four parts shall be yours, for the seeding of your land, and for food and for provision for your houses and little ones. And they said, Thou hast preserved us: let us find favour in the eyes of my lord, and we will be Pharoh's servants. And Joseph established it a law unto this day over the land of Mizraim to take to Pharoh a fifth part of the produce, except only the land of the priests which was not Pharoh's.
And Israel dwelt in the land of Mizraim, and they built there schools and mansions in the land of Goshen, and inherited therein fields and vineyards; and they increased and multiplied greatly.