Stories From The Hebrew Bible
FROM THE LAND OF FAMINE TO THE LAND OF PLENTY
Stories From The Hebrew Bible
FROM THE LAND OF FAMINE TO THE LAND OF PLENTY
So Joseph’s eleven brothers went home to their old father with the glad news that Joseph was alive and was ruler over the land. It was such a joyful surprise to Jacob that he did not believe it. But after a time he revived. When they showed Jacob the wagons that Joseph had sent to bring him and all his family to Egypt, old Jacob said, “It is enough; Joseph my son is yet alive; I will go and see him before I die.”
Then they went on their journey, with their wives and children and all their possessions. They stopped to rest at Beersheba, which had been the home of Isaac and Abraham. There they made offerings to the Lord and worshiped. That night the Lord appeared to Jacob and said:
Jacob, I am the Lord, the God of your father, fear not to go down to Egypt; for I will go down with you; and there you shall see your son Joseph; and in Egypt I will make of your descendants, those that come from you, a great people; and I will surely bring them back again to this land.
They came down to Egypt, seventy of Jacob’s children and grandchildren. Joseph rode in his chariot to meet his father, and fell on his neck and wept. And Jacob said, “Now I am ready to die, since I know that you are still alive; and that I have seen your face.” And Joseph brought his father in to see King Pharaoh; and Jacob, as an old man, gave his blessing to the king.
The part of the land of Egypt that Joseph gave his brothers was called Goshem. It was located on the east, divided by the river Nile. It was a very rich land. But at that time, and for five more years, there were no crops, because of the famine in the land. During those years, the people of Israel in the land of Goshen were fed with grain from the storehouses of Joseph, as were all the people of Egypt.
Jacob lived to be one hundred and forty-seven years old. Before he died, he blessed Joseph and all his sons and said to them: “When I die, do not bury me in the land of Egypt, but take my body to the land of Canaan, and bury me in the cave at Hebron, with Abraham and my father Isaac.”
And Joseph brought his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, to his father’s bed. Jacob’s eyes were dim with age, as his father Isaac’s had been, and he could not see the two young men. And he said, “Who are these?”
And Joseph said, “They are my two sons, whom God has given me in this land.”
“Bring them to me,” said Jacob, “that I may bless them before I die.”
And Jacob put his arms around them. Then he kissed them, and said: “I had thought that I would never see your face, my son, but God has let me see both you and your children.”
Ephraim was the youngest son of Joseph. And on Ephraim’s head Jacob placed his right hand. Then he put his left hand on the older Manasseh. Joseph tried to change his father’s hands, so that his right hand should be on the older son’s head. But Jacob would not allow him, and he said: “I know what I am doing, God will bless the older son; but the greater blessing shall be with the younger, for his descendants, those who spring from him, shall be greater and stronger than the descendants of his brother.”
And so it came to pass many years after this; for the tribe of Ephraim, the younger son became greater and more powerful than the tribe of Manasseh, the older son.
When Jacob died, a great funeral was held. They carried his body up out of Egypt to the land of Canaan, and buried it, as he had said to them, in the cave of Machpelah, where Abraham and Isaac had been buried.
When the sons of Jacob came to Egypt after the burial of their father, they said one to another: “Now that his father is dead, Joseph may punish us for the wrong that we did to him many years ago.”
So they sent a message, asking Joseph to forgive them, for the sake of his father, Jacob. And again they came and bowed down before him, with their faces to the ground. They said, “We are your servants; be merciful to us.” Joseph wept when his brothers spoke to him, and he said: “Fear not. Am I God to punish or reward? It is true that you meant evil to me, but God turned it to good, so that all your families might be kept alive. Do not be afraid; I will care for you and your children.”
After this Joseph lived to the good old age of a hundred and ten. Before dying, Joseph said to his children and all the children of Israel, who had now increased to lots of people:
I am going to die; but God will come to you and will bring you up out of this land, into your own land, which he promised to your fathers, to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. When I die, do not bury me in Egypt, but keep my body until you go out of this land, and take it with you.
So when Joseph died, they embalmed his body as the Egyptians embalmed the bodies of their kings and great men. Then after they embalmed him, he was placed in a coffin in Egypt. Thus Joseph not only showed his faith in God’s promise that He would bring His people back to the land of Canaan; but he also encouraged the faith of those who came after him.
Many years later, the writer of the New Testament book of Hebrews (11:22) wrote: “By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions about his bones.”
