Joseph; doth my father yet live? And his brethren could not answer him, for they were troubled at his presence: [and he said] Be not angry with yourselves, for God did send me before you to preserve life. For these two years hath the famine been in the land, and there are five more years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to save your lives by a great deliverance. so now it was not you that sent me hither, but God. And He hath made me a father to Pharaoh and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt. Haste ye and say [unto my father:] Thus saith thy son Joseph, God hath made me lord of all Egypt; and thou shalt be near unto me. And ye shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt and of all that ye have seen; and ye shall haste and bring my father down hither. Then he kissed all his brethren and wept over them, and after that his brethren talked with him. And the fame thereof was heard in Pharaoh's house, that Joseph's brethren were come; and it pleased Pharaoh and his servants well. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph: Say unto thy brethren: This do ye; lade your beasts and go, get you unto the land of Canaan, and take your father and your households and come unto me; and I will give you the good of the land of Egypt, and ye shall eat the fat of the land. So Joseph gave them wagons, according to the commandment of Pharaoh, and gave them provision for the way. To each one of them he gave changes of raiment; but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver and five changes of raiment. And to his father he sent after this manner: ten asses laden with the good things of Egypt, and ten asses laden with grain and bread and meat for his father by the way. So he sent his brethren away, and they departed; and he said unto them: See that ye fall not out by the way. And they went up out of Egypt, and came into the land of Canaan unto Jacob their father, and told him, saying: Joseph is yet alive, and he is governor over all the land of Egypt. And Jacob's heart fainted, for he believed them not. But when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father revived. And he went to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices unto the God of his father Isaac. And God spake to Israel in visions of the night, and said: Jacob! Jacob! And he said: Here am I. And he said: I am God, the God of thy father. Fear not to go down into Egypt, for I will there make of thee a great nation. I will go down with thee into Egypt, and I will surely bring thee up again; and Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes. And Jacob rose up from Beersheba; and the sons of Israel carried Jacob, their father, and their little ones and their wives, in the wagons which Pharaoh had sent to carry him. And Pharaoh spake unto Joseph, saying: Thy father and thy brethren are come unto thee; the land of Egypt is before thee; in the best of the land make thy father and thy brethren to dwell. And it came to pass after these things, that one said to Joseph: Behold, thy father is sick. And he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Benjamin. And one told Jacob: Behold, thy son Joseph cometh unto thee. And Israel strengthened himself, and sat up on the bed. And Israel beheld Joseph's sons, and said: Who are these? And Joseph said unto his father: They are my sons, whom God hath given me here. And he said: Bring them unto me, I pray thee, and I will bless them. (Now the eyes of Israel were dimmed with age, so that he could not see.) And he brought them near unto him; and he kissed them and embraced them. And Israel said unto Joseph: I had not thought to see thy face, and lo, God hath showed me also thy seed. And Joseph brought them out from between his knees, and bowed his face to the earth. And Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel's left hand and Manasseh in his left hand towards Israel's right hand, and brought them near unto him. And Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it upon Ephraim's head who was the younger, and his left hand upon Manasseh's head, guiding his hands wittingly; for Manasseh was the first-born. And he blessed Joseph and said: The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God who hath been my shepherd all my life long unto this day, the Messenger who hath redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named in them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth. Now when Joseph saw that his father was laying his right hand on the head of Ephraim it displeased him; and he held up his father's hand to remove it from Ephraim's head unto Manasseh's head. And Joseph said unto his father: Not so, my father, for this is the first-born; put thy right hand upon his head. And his father refused and said: I know it, my son, I know it; he also shall become a great people, and he also shall be great; howbeit, his younger brother shall be goodlier than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations. And he blessed them that day, saying: By thee shall Israel bless, saying: God make thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh. And he set Ephraim before Manasseh. And Israel said unto Joseph: Behold, I die; but God will be with you and bring you back unto the land of your fathers. Moreover, I have given unto thee one portion above thy brethren, which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow. Now, when Joseph's brethren saw that their father was dead, they said: Joseph peradventure will hate us, and he will certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him. And they did plead with Joseph, saying: Thy father did command before he died, saying: Thus shall ye say unto Joseph: Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren and their sin; for they did unto thee evil. And now, we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake unto him. And his brethren also went and fell down before him and they said: Behold, we are thy servants. And Joseph said unto them: Fear ye not! for am I in the place of God? Ye indeed devised evil against me, but God meant it for good, in order that he might do as at this day,-save much people alive. And now, fear ye not; I will nourish you and your little ones. Thus he comforted them and spake kindly unto them. And Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he and his father's house. And Joseph lived a hundred and ten years. And Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third generation; the children also of Machir, the son of Manasseh, were brought up upon Joseph's knees. And Joseph said unto his brethren: I am dying; but God will surely visit you and bring you up from this land unto the land which he confirmed by oath to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. Then Joseph took an oath of the Children of Israel, saying: God will surely visit you, and ye will carry up my bones from here. So Joseph died, being a hundred and ten years old; and they embalmed him, and he was put in a sarcophagus in Egypt. And Jacob called unto his sons and said: Gather yourselves together that I may tell you what shall befall you in the last days. Come together and hear, ye sons of Jacob, Reuben, my first-born art thou, My might and the beginning of my strength. For thou didst go up to thy father's bed. Thus didst thou defile it; he went up to my couch! Simeon and Levi are brthren; Be not joined with their assembly, my soul!! Cursed be their wrath, for it was fierce, And their anger, for it was cruel. I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel. Judah, thee shall thy brethren praise, Thy hand is in the neck of thine enemies. From the prey, my son, thou hast risen. He stooped, he lay in wait like a lion, and like a lioness; The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, And the obedience of the people is his. Binding his foal to the vine, the she-ass's colt to the choice vine. Zebulon on the sea-coast shall dwell, he shall be a haven for ships. Issachar is a well-grown ass settling down between burdens; And he bowed his shoulder to bear And became a servant to tribute. Dan shall judge his people like one of the tribes of Israel; So that the rider falleth backwards. I have waited for thy salvation, Yahweh! Gad! a troop shall press upon him; he shall press upon their heel. He shall yield dainties for kings. Naphtali is a hind let loose; he giveth goodly words. 1 A late poem in the form of a prophecy, which gives the conditions of the tribes in E's day, and which is generally attributed to him. Dr. Driver gives it to J. Joseph is a fruitful bough, A fruitful bough by a fountain, the branches run over the wall. And active was the power of his hands. Through the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob, With blessings of the heaven above, Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf In the morning he shall devour the prey, All these are the twelve tribes of Israel; and this is it which their father spake unto them and blessed them. Then he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost; and he was gathered unto his people. IV OF MOSES, THE LIBERATOR OF HIS PEOPLE A. His birth and training. His commission to liberate his people. The crossing of the Red Sea. The battle with the Amalekites. (Exodus, i, 15-23; ii, 1-14; iii, 1, 4b, 6, 9-15, 19-22; iv, 14, 18, 20b-21, 27-28; v, 4; vi, 1; vii, 15, 17b, 20b, 25; ix, 22-23a, 25a, 35a; x, 12-13a, 14a, 15b, 20-23, 27; xi, 1-3; xii, 31-36, 38-39, 42a; xiii, 17-19; xiv, 8-9, 10b, 19a, 26-29; xv, 1, 20-21; xvii, 1-6, 8-10.) Now the king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of the one was Shiphrah and the name of the other Puah, and said: When ye shall deliver the Hebrew women and see them on the birth-stool, if it be a son then ye shall kill him; but if it be a daughter, then she shall live. But the midwives feared God and did not as the King of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men-children alive. And the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said unto them: Why have ye done this thing and saved the men-children alive? And the midwives said unto Pharaoh: Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and are delivered before the midwives come in to them. Therefore God dealt well by the midwives; and because the midwives feared God, he made them houses. And Pharaoh charged all the people, saying: Every son that is born, ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive. Now a man of the house of Levi went and took to wife a daughter of Levi. And the woman conceived and bare a son; and when she saw that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months. And when she could no longer hide him, she took for him an ark of papyrus reed and covered it with bitumen and with pitch, and she put the child in it and set it among the reeds by the river's brink; and his sister took her stand at a distance to see what would happen to him. And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to the river to bathe, and her maidens walked along by the riverside, and she saw the ark among the reeds and sent her maid to get it; and she opened it and saw the child, and behold, the babe was weeping. And she had compassion on him and said: This is one of the Hebrews' children. Then said his sister to Pharaoh's daughter: Shall I go and call thee a nurse from the Hebrew women that she may nurse the child for thee? And Pharaoh's daughter said to her: Go. And the maiden went and called the babe's mother. And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her: Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman took the child and nursed him. And the child grew, and she brought him to the daughter of Pharaoh and he became her son. And she called his name Moses; and she said: Because I drew him out of the water. And it came to pass in those days when Moses was grown, that he went forth among his brethren, and saw their heavy tasks; and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren. And he looked this way and that way; and, when he saw there was no one, he killed the Egyptian and buried him in the sand. And he went forth a second day, and behold, two Hebrew men fighting. And he said to the aggressor: Why are you beating your neighbor? And he said: Who has made you a prince and a judge over us? Art thou thinking to kill me, as thou didst the Egyptian? And Moses feared and said: known. Surely this thing is Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian; and he led the flock to the back of the wilderness, and came to the mountain of God, to Horeb. And God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said: Moses, Moses! And he said: Here am I. And He said: I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. (And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God.) Now, therefore, behold, the cry of the Children of Israel is come unto Me, and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them. Come now, therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth My people, the Children of Israel, out of Egypt. And Moses said unto God: Who am I that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the Children of Israel out of Egypt? And He said: Surely I will be with thee; and this shall be a token unto thee that I have sent thee. When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, thou shalt serve God upon this mountain. And Moses said unto God: Behold, when I come to the Children of Israel and say unto them: The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say unto me: What is His name? what shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses: I AM THAT I AM. And He said: Thus shalt thou say unto the Children of Israel; I AM hath sent me unto you. And God said further unto Moses: Thus shalt thou say unto the Children of Israel: YAHWEH, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you. And I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, save by a strong hand. hand and smite Egypt with all My wonders thereof; and after that, he will let you go. favor in the sight of the Egyptians. And And I will stretch out My which I will do in the midst And I will give this people it shall come to pass that, |