Vayechi

Jacob lives seventeen years in Egypt, to a hundred and forty-seven. Nearing death, he makes Joseph swear to bury him not in Egypt but with his fathers. He adopts Joseph's two sons as his own — "Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine, as Reuben and Simeon" — and, crossing his hands over Joseph's objection, sets the younger Ephraim before the firstborn Manasseh: "his younger brother shall be greater than he."

Jacob gathers his twelve sons and speaks over each in turn: Reuben, unstable as water, forfeits preeminence; Simeon and Levi are scattered for their violence; Judah receives the ruler's staff — "the scepter shall not depart from Judah" — and his brothers' praise; Zebulun by the sea; Issachar bearing burdens; Dan judging his people; Gad, Asher, Naphtali each in a line; Joseph, a fruitful bough, blessed with blessings of heaven and deep; Benjamin, a ravening wolf. He charges them all to bury him in the cave of Machpelah, draws his feet into the bed, and is gathered to his people.

Joseph has his father embalmed; Egypt weeps seventy days, and a great procession — Pharaoh's officials, chariots and horsemen, all Jacob's house — carries him up to Canaan and buries him beside his fathers. Afterward the brothers, fearing revenge, send word begging forgiveness. Joseph weeps: "Am I in the place of God? You intended evil against me, but God intended it for good, to keep many people alive." He dies at a hundred and ten, having seen his great-grandchildren, and makes the sons of Israel swear to carry his bones up when God brings them out. His body is placed in a coffin in Egypt.