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¹So Joseph went and informed Pharaoh: “My father and my brothers, with their flocks and herds and all that they own, have come from the land of Canaan and are now in the land of Goshen.”

²He took five of his brothers and presented them to Pharaoh.

³And Pharaoh asked his brothers, “What is your occupation?” They said to Pharaoh, “Your servants, both we and our fathers, are shepherds.”

⁴And they said to Pharaoh, “We have come to stay in the land for a while because there is no grazing land for your servants’ sheep, since the famine in the land of Canaan has been severe. So now, please let your servants settle in the land of Goshen.”

⁵Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Now that your father and brothers have come to you,

⁶the land of Egypt is open before you; settle your father and brothers in the best part of the land. They can live in the land of Goshen. If you know of any capable men among them, put them in charge of my livestock.”

⁷Joseph then brought his father Jacob and presented him to Pharaoh, and Jacob blessed Pharaoh.

⁸Pharaoh said to Jacob, “How many years have you lived?”

⁹Jacob said to Pharaoh, “My pilgrimage has lasted 130 years. My years have been few and hard, and they have not reached the years of my fathers during their pilgrimages.”

¹⁰So Jacob blessed Pharaoh and departed from Pharaoh’s presence.

¹¹Then Joseph settled his father and brothers in the land of Egypt and gave them property in the best part of the land, the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded.

¹²And Joseph provided his father, his brothers, and all his father’s family with food for their dependents.

¹³But there was no food in the entire region, for the famine was very severe. The land of Egypt and the land of Canaan were exhausted by the famine.

¹⁴Joseph collected all the silver to be found in the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan in exchange for the grain they were purchasing, and he brought the silver to Pharaoh’s palace.

¹⁵When the silver from the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan was gone, all the Egyptians came to Joseph and said, “Give us food. Why should we die here in front of you? The silver is gone!”

¹⁶But Joseph said, “Give me your livestock. Since the silver is gone, I will give you food in exchange for your livestock.”

¹⁷So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and he gave them food in exchange for the horses, the flocks of sheep, the herds of cattle, and the donkeys. That year he provided them with food in exchange for all their livestock.

¹⁸When that year was over, they came the next year and said to him, “We cannot hide from our lord that the silver is gone and that all our livestock belongs to our lord. There is nothing left for our lord except our bodies and our land.

¹⁹Why should we die here in front of you — both us and our land? Buy us and our land in exchange for food. Then we with our land will become Pharaoh’s slaves. Give us seed so that we can live and not die, and so that the land won’t become desolate.”

²⁰In this way, Joseph acquired all the land in Egypt for Pharaoh, because every Egyptian sold his field since the famine was so severe for them. The land became Pharaoh’s,

²¹and Joseph moved the people to the cities from one end of Egypt to the other.

²²The only land he did not acquire belonged to the priests, for they had an allowance from Pharaoh. They ate from their allowance that Pharaoh gave them; therefore they did not sell their land.

²³Joseph said to the people, “Understand today that I have acquired you and your land for Pharaoh. Here is seed for you. Sow it in the land.

²⁴At harvest, you are to give a fifth of it to Pharaoh, and four-fifths will be yours as seed for the field and as food for yourselves, your households, and your dependents.”

²⁵“You have saved our lives,” they said. “We have found favor with our lord and will be Pharaoh’s slaves.”

²⁶So Joseph made it a law, still in effect today in the land of Egypt, that a fifth of the produce belongs to Pharaoh. Only the priests’ land does not belong to Pharaoh.

²⁷Israel settled in the land of Egypt, in the region of Goshen. They acquired property in it and became fruitful and very numerous.

²⁸Now Jacob lived in the land of Egypt 17 years, and his life span was 147 years.

²⁹When the time approached for him to die, he called his son Joseph and said to him, “If I have found favor with you, put your hand under my thigh and promise me that you will deal with me in kindness and faithfulness. Do not bury me in Egypt.

³⁰When I rest with my fathers, carry me away from Egypt and bury me in their burial place.” Joseph answered, “I will do what you have asked.”

³¹And Jacob said, “Swear to me.” So Joseph swore to him. Then Israel bowed in thanks at the head of his bed.

¹Some time after this, Joseph was told, “Your father is weaker.” So he set out with his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.

²When Jacob was told, “Your son Joseph has come to you,” Israel summoned his strength and sat up in bed.

³Jacob said to Joseph, “God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me.

⁴He said to me, ‘I will make you fruitful and numerous; I will make many nations come from you, and I will give this land as a permanent possession to your future descendants.’

⁵Your two sons born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt are now mine. Ephraim and Manasseh belong to me just as Reuben and Simeon do.

⁶Children born to you after them will be yours and will be recorded under the names of their brothers with regard to their inheritance.

⁷When I was returning from Paddan, to my sorrow Rachel died along the way, some distance from Ephrath in the land of Canaan. I buried her there along the way to Ephrath” (that is, Bethlehem).

⁸When Israel saw Joseph’s sons, he said, “Who are these?”

⁹And Joseph said to his father, “They are my sons God has given me here.” So Israel said, “Bring them to me and I will bless them.”

¹⁰Now his eyesight was poor because of old age; he could hardly see. Joseph brought them to him, and he kissed and embraced them.

¹¹Israel said to Joseph, “I never expected to see your face again, but now God has even let me see your offspring.”

¹²Then Joseph took them from his father’s knees and bowed with his face to the ground.

¹³Then Joseph took them both — with his right hand Ephraim toward Israel’s left, and with his left hand Manasseh toward Israel’s right — and brought them to Israel.

¹⁴But Israel stretched out his right hand and put it on the head of Ephraim, the younger, and crossing his hands, put his left on Manasseh’s head, although Manasseh was the firstborn.

¹⁵Then he blessed Joseph and said: The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day,

¹⁶the angel who has redeemed me from all harm  — may he bless these boys. And may they be called by my name and the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, and may they grow to be numerous within the land.

¹⁷When Joseph saw that his father had placed his right hand on Ephraim’s head, he thought it was a mistake and took his father’s hand to move it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s.

¹⁸Joseph said to his father, “Not that way, my father! This one is the firstborn. Put your right hand on his head.”

¹⁹But his father refused and said, “I know, my son, I know! He too will become a tribe, and he too will be great; nevertheless, his younger brother will be greater than he, and his offspring will become a populous nation.”

²⁰So he blessed them that day, putting Ephraim before Manasseh when he said, “The nation Israel will invoke blessings by you, saying, ‘May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.’”

²¹Israel said to Joseph, “Look, I am about to die, but God will be with you and will bring you back to the land of your fathers.

²²Over and above what I am giving your brothers, I am giving you the one mountain slope that I took from the Amorites with my sword and bow.”

¹Then Jacob called his sons and said, “Gather around, and I will tell you what will happen to you in the days to come.

²Come together and listen, sons of Jacob; listen to your father Israel:

³Reuben, you are my firstborn, my strength and the firstfruits of my virility, excelling in prominence, excelling in power.

⁴Turbulent as water, you will not excel, because you got into your father’s bed and you defiled it — he got into my bed.

⁵Simeon and Levi are brothers; their knives are vicious weapons.

⁶May I never enter their council; may I never join their assembly. For in their anger they kill men, and on a whim they hamstring oxen.

⁷Their anger is cursed, for it is strong, and their fury, for it is cruel! I will disperse them throughout Jacob and scatter them throughout Israel.

⁸Judah, your brothers will praise you. Your hand will be on the necks of your enemies; your father’s sons will bow down to you.

⁹Judah is a young lion  — my son, you return from the kill. He crouches; he lies down like a lion or a lioness — who dares to rouse him?

¹⁰The scepter will not depart from Judah or the staff from between his feet until he whose right it is comes and the obedience of the peoples belongs to him.

¹¹He ties his donkey to a vine, and the colt of his donkey to the choice vine. He washes his clothes in wine and his robes in the blood of grapes.

¹²His eyes are darker than wine, and his teeth are whiter than milk.

¹³Zebulun will live by the seashore and will be a harbor for ships, and his territory will be next to Sidon.

¹⁴Issachar is a strong donkey lying down between the saddlebags.

¹⁵He saw that his resting place was good and that the land was pleasant, so he leaned his shoulder to bear a load and became a forced laborer.

¹⁶Dan will judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel.

¹⁷Dan will be a snake by the road, a viper beside the path, that bites the horses’ heels so that its rider falls backward.

¹⁸I wait for your salvation, LORD.

¹⁹Gad will be attacked by raiders, but he will attack their heels.

²⁰Asher’s food will be rich, and he will produce royal delicacies.

²¹Naphtali is a doe set free that bears beautiful fawns.

²²Joseph is a fruitful vine, a fruitful vine beside a spring; its branches climb over the wall.

²³The archers attacked him, shot at him, and were hostile toward him.

²⁴Yet his bow remained steady, and his strong arms were made agile by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob, by the name of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel,

²⁵by the God 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 below, and blessings of the breasts and the womb.

²⁶The blessings of your father excel the blessings of my ancestors and the bounty of the ancient hills. May they rest on the head of Joseph, on the brow of the prince of his brothers.

²⁷Benjamin is a wolf; he tears his prey. In the morning he devours the prey, and in the evening he divides the plunder.”

²⁸These are the tribes of Israel, twelve in all, and this is what their father said to them. He blessed them, and he blessed each one with a suitable blessing.

²⁹Then he commanded them: “I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hethite.

³⁰The cave is in the field of Machpelah near Mamre, in the land of Canaan. This is the field Abraham purchased from Ephron the Hethite as burial property.

³¹Abraham and his wife Sarah are buried there, Isaac and his wife Rebekah are buried there, and I buried Leah there.

³²The field and the cave in it were purchased from the Hethites.”

³³When Jacob had finished giving charges to his sons, he drew his feet into the bed, took his last breath, and was gathered to his people.

¹Then Joseph, leaning over his father’s face, wept and kissed him.

²He commanded his servants who were physicians to embalm his father. So they embalmed Israel.

³They took forty days to complete this, for embalming takes that long, and the Egyptians mourned for him seventy days.

⁴When the days of mourning were over, Joseph said to Pharaoh’s household, “If I have found favor with you, please tell Pharaoh that

⁵my father made me take an oath, saying, ‘I am about to die. You must bury me there in the tomb that I made for myself in the land of Canaan.’ Now let me go and bury my father. Then I will return.”

⁶So Pharaoh said, “Go and bury your father in keeping with your oath.”

⁷Then Joseph went to bury his father, and all Pharaoh’s servants, the elders of his household, and all the elders of the land of Egypt went with him,

⁸along with all Joseph’s family, his brothers, and his father’s family. Only their dependents, their flocks, and their herds were left in the land of Goshen.

⁹Horses and chariots went up with him; it was a very impressive procession.

¹⁰When they reached the threshing floor of Atad, which is across the Jordan, they lamented and wept loudly, and Joseph mourned seven days for his father.

¹¹When the Canaanite inhabitants of the land saw the mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, they said, “This is a solemn mourning on the part of the Egyptians.” Therefore the place is named Abel-mizraim. It is across the Jordan.

¹²So Jacob’s sons did for him what he had commanded them.

¹³They carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave at Machpelah in the field near Mamre, which Abraham had purchased as burial property from Ephron the Hethite.

¹⁴After Joseph buried his father, he returned to Egypt with his brothers and all who had gone with him to bury his father.

¹⁵When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said to one another, “If Joseph is holding a grudge against us, he will certainly repay us for all the suffering we caused him.”

¹⁶So they sent this message to Joseph, “Before he died your father gave a command:

¹⁷‘Say this to Joseph: Please forgive your brothers’ transgression and their sin — the suffering they caused you.’ Therefore, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.” Joseph wept when their message came to him.

¹⁸His brothers also came to him, bowed down before him, and said, “We are your slaves!”

¹⁹But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God?

²⁰You planned evil against me; God planned it for good to bring about the present result — the survival of many people.

²¹Therefore don’t be afraid. I will take care of you and your children.” And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.

²²Joseph and his father’s family remained in Egypt. Joseph lived 110 years.

²³He saw Ephraim’s sons to the third generation; the sons of Manasseh’s son Machir were recognized by Joseph.

²⁴Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die, but God will certainly come to your aid and bring you up from this land to the land he swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

²⁵So Joseph made the sons of Israel take an oath: “When God comes to your aid, you are to carry my bones up from here.”

²⁶Joseph died at the age of 110. They embalmed him and placed him in a coffin in Egypt.