 CHAPTER 1 Joseph's Kindness and Generosity Jacob and his family now settled in the land of Goshen, and Joseph provided them with all things needful, not only with food and drink, but also with clothing, and in his love and kindness he entertained his father and his brethren daily at his own table. He banished the wrong done to him by his brethren from his mind, and he besought his father to pray to God for them that he should forgive their great transgression. Touched by this noble sign of love, Jacob cried out, O Joseph, my child, thou hast conquered the heart of thy father, Jacob. Joseph had other virtues besides. The title, the God-fearing one, born only by him, Abraham, Job, and Obadiah, he gained by reason of his kindness of heart and his generosity. Whatever he gave his brethren he gave with a good eye, a liberal spirit. If it was bread for food it was sure to be abundant enough, not only to satisfy the hunger of all, but also for the children to crumble, as is their habit. But Joseph was more than a helper to his family, as a shepherd pastures his flock, so he provided for the whole world during the years of famine. The people cursed Pharaoh, who kept the stores of corn in his treasure chambers for his own use, and they blessed Joseph, who took thought for the famishing, and sold grain to all that came. The wealth which he acquired by these sales was lawful gain, for the prices were raised not by him, but by the Egyptians themselves. One part of his possessions, consisting of gold and silver and precious stones, Joseph buried in four different places, in the desert near the Red Sea, on the banks of the Euphrates, and in two spots in the desert in the vicinity of Persia and Medea. Cora discovered one of the hiding places, and the Roman emperor Atonius, the son of Severus, another. The other two will never be found, because God has reserved the riches they hold for the pious, to be enjoyed by them in the latter days, the days of the Messiah. The remainder of Joseph's possessions he gave away, partly to his brethren and their families, and partly to Pharaoh, who put them into his treasury. The wealth of the whole world flowed into Egypt at that time, and it remained there until the exodus of the Israelites. They took it along, leaving Egypt like a net without fish. The Israelites kept the treasure until the time of Rehoboam, who was deprived of it by the Egyptian king Shishak, and he in turn had to yield it to Zara, the king of Ethiopia. Once more it came into possession of the Jews when King Asa conquered Zara, but this time they held it for only a short while, for Asa surrendered it to the Armenian king Ben Haddad, to induce him to break his leg with Basha, the king of the ten tribes. The Ammonites in turn captured it from Ben Haddad, only to lose it in their war with the Jews under Jehoshaphat. Then it remained with the Jews until the time of King Ahaz, who sent it to center Akhib as tribute money. Hezekiah won it back, but Zedekiah, the last king of the Jews, lost it to the Chaldeans, from whom it came to Persia, thence to the Greeks, and finally to the Romans, and with the last it remained for all time. The people were soon left without means to purchase the corn they needed. In a short time they had to part with their cattle, and when the money, less secured, was spent, they sold their land to Joseph, and even their persons. Many of them would cover themselves with clay and appear before Joseph and say to him, O Lord King, see me and see my possessions, and so Joseph bought all the land of Egypt, and the inhabitants became his tenants, and they gave a fifth of their in-gatherings unto Joseph. The only class of the people permitted to remain in possession of their land were the priests. Joseph owed them gratitude, for they had made it possible for him to become the ruler over Egypt. The Egyptians had hesitated to make him their viceroy, because they shrank from choosing a man accused of adultery for so high an office. It was the priests that made the suggestion to examine Joseph's torn garment, which his mistress had submitted as evidence of his guilt, and see whether the rent was in front or in back. If it was in back he would show his innocence, he had turned to flee, and his temptress had clutched him so that the garment tore. But if the tear was in front, then it would be a proof of his guilt. He had used violence with the woman, and she had torn the mantle in her efforts to defend her honor. The angel Gabriel came and transferred the rent from the forepart to the back, and the Egyptians were convinced of Joseph's innocence, and their scruples about raising him to the kingship were removed. As soon as the Egyptians learned of the advantageous position of the priests, they all tried to prove themselves members of the case. But Joseph investigated the lists in every archive and determined the estate of every citizen. The priests were favored in another way. Besides remaining in possession of their land they received daily portions from Pharaoh, wherefore God said, the priests that serve idols receive all they need every day. How much more do the sons of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob deserve that I should give them what they need every day? The rest of the inhabitants of Egypt, who had to part with their land, were not permitted to remain in their native provinces. Joseph removed them from their own cities and settled them in others. His purpose herein was to prevent the Egyptians from speaking of his brethren derogatorily as exiles, the son of exiles. He made them all equally aliens. For the same reason, God later, at the time of going forth of the Israelites from Egypt, caused all nations to change their dwelling places about, so that the Israelites could not be reproached with having had to leave their home. And finally, when Simer Karab carried the Jews away from their land into exile, it also happened that this king first mixed up all the inhabitants of all the countries of the world. Legends of the Jews, Volume 2 by Rabbi Louis Ginsburg Jacob's Last Wish In return for the seventeen years that Jacob had devoted to the bringing up of Joseph, he was granted seventeen years of sojourn with his favorite son in peace and happiness. The wicked experience, sorrow after joy, the pious must suffer first, and then they are happy, for all's well that ends well, and God permits the pious to spend the last years of their lives in felicity. When Jacob felt his end approach, he summoned Joseph to his bedside, and he told him all there was in his heart. He called for Joseph rather than one of his other sons, because he was the only one in a position to execute his wishes. Jacob said to Joseph, If I have found grace in thy sight, bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt. Only for thy sake did I come down into Egypt, and for thy sake I spoke. Now I can die. Do this for me as a true service of love, and not because thou art afraid, or because decency demands it. And when I sleep with my fathers, thou shalt bury me in their burying place. Bury me out of the land of idolatry, and bury me in the land where God hath caused his name to dwell, and put me to rest in the place in which four husbands and wives are to be buried, I, the last of them. Jacob desired not to be buried in Egypt for several reasons. He knew that the soil of Egypt would once swarm with vermin, and it revolted him to think of his corpse exposed to such uncleanliness. He feared, moreover, that his descendants might say, Were Egypt not a holy land, our father Jacob had never permitted himself to be buried there. And they might encourage themselves with this argument to make choice of Egypt as a permanent dwelling place. Also, if his grave were there, the Egyptians might resort to it when the ten plagues came upon them, and if he were induced to pray for them to God, he would be advocating the cause of the Lord's enemies. If, on the other hand, he did not intercede for them, the name of God would be profaned among the heathen, who would say, Jacob is a useless saint. Besides, it was possible that God might consider him the scattered sheep of Israel as a sacrifice for the Egyptians and remit their punishment. From his knowledge of the people another fear was justified, that his grave would become an object of idolorous veneration, and the same punishment is appointed by God for the idols worshiped as for the idolaters that worshiped them. If Jacob had good reasons for not wanting his body to rest in the soil of Egypt, he had equally good reasons for wanting it to rest in the Holy Land. In the Messianic time, when the dead will rise, those buried in Palestine will awaken to new life without delay, while those buried elsewhere will have first to roll from land to land through the earth, hollowed out for the purpose until they reach the Holy Land, and only then will their resurrection take place. But over and beyond this Jacob had a special reason for desiring to have his body interred in Palestine. God had said to him at Bethel, The land whereon thou liest, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed, and hence he made every endeavor to lie in the Holy Land, and to make sure it would belong to him and his descendants. Nevertheless, he bade Joseph's streusome Egyptian earth over his dead body. Jacob expressed these last wishes three times, such as the requirement of good breeding in preferring a request. In the last period of Jacob's life one can see how true it is that even a king depends upon favors in a strange land. Jacob, the man for the sake of whose merits the whole world was created, for the sake of whom Abraham was delivered from the fiery furnace, had to ask services of others while he was among strangers, and when Joseph promised to do his bidding, he bowed himself before his own son, for it is a true saying, bow before the fox in his day, the day of his power. He was not satisfied with his simple promise from Joseph that he would do his wish. He insisted upon his taking an oath by the sign of the Covenant of Abraham, putting a hand under his thigh in accordance with the ceremonial custom among the patriarchs. But Joseph said, Thou treatest me like a slave. With me thou has no need to require an oath. Thy command sufficeseth. Jacob, however, urged him, saying, I fear Pharaoh may command thee to bury me in the sepulchre with the kings of Egypt. I insist that thou takeest an oath, and then I will be at peace. Joseph gave in, though he would not submit to the ceremony that Eliezer had used to confirm the oath that he took of the request of his master Abraham. The slave acted in accordance with the rules of slavery, the free men acted in accordance with the dictates of freedom. And in a son that thing would have been unseemly which was becoming in a slave. When Joseph swore to bury his father in Palestine he added the words, As thou commandest me to do, so also will I beg my brethren on my deathbed to fulfill my last wish and carry my body from Egypt to Palestine. Jacob noticing the shekenna over the bed's head, where she always rest in a sick room, bowed himself upon the bed's head, saying, I thank thee, O Lord my God, that none who is unfit come forth from my bed, but my bed was perfect. He was particularly grateful for the revelation. God had vouchsafed him concerning his first-born son Rubin, that he had repented of his trespass against his father and atoned for it by penance. He was thus assured that all his sons were men worthy of being the progenitors of the Trove tribes, and he was blessed with happiness such as neither Abraham nor Isaac had known, for both of them had had unworthy as well as worthy sons. Until the time of Jacob death had always come upon men suddenly, he snatched them away before they were warned of the imminent end by sickness. Once Jacob spoke to God, saying, O Lord of the world, a man dies suddenly, and he is not laid low first by sickness, and he cannot acquaint his children with his wishes regarding all he leaves behind. But if a man first fell sick, and felt that his end were drying nigh, he would have time to set his house in order. And God said, Verily, thy request is sensible, and thou shalt be the first to profit by the new dispensation. And so it happened that Jacob fell sick a little while before his death. His sickness troubled him grievously, for he had undergone much during his life. He had worked day and night while he was with Laban, and his conflicts with the angel and with Esau, though he came off victor from both, had weakened him, and he was not in a condition to endure the hardships of disease. End of Chapter 1, Part 15 Chapter 1, Joseph, Part 16 of the Legends of the Jews, Volume 2. The Legends of the Jews, Volume 2 by Rabbi Lewis Ginsburg The Blessing of Ephraim and Manasseh All the years of Jacob's sojourn in Egypt, as Senneth, the wife of Joseph, was his constant nurse. When she saw his end drying nigh, she spoke to Joseph. I have heard that one who is blessed by a righteous man is as though he had been blessed by the shekenna. Therefore bring thy sons hither, that Jacob give them his blessing. Though Joseph was a devoted and loving son to his father, he was not in constant attendance upon him, because he wanted to avoid giving him the opportunity of inquiring into the circumstances of his coming to Egypt. He was apprehensive that Jacob might curse his sons and bring death upon them if he discovered the facts connected with their treacherous dealings with Joseph. He took good care, therefore, never to be alone with his father. But as he desired to be kept informed of his welfare, he arranged a courier service between himself and Jacob. Now when Joseph received the news of his father's having fallen sick through his messenger as well as through Ephraim, whom Jacob was instructing in the Torah, he hastened to the land of Goshen, taking his two sons with him. He desired to have certainty upon five points. Would his father bless his two sons, who were born in Egypt? And if so, would he appoint them to be heads of tribes? Would he assign the rites of the first born unto himself? And if so, would he divest Rubin of such rites altogether? And why had his father buried his mother Rachel by the wayside and not carried her body to the family tomb at Macpela? Jacob had also entertained doubts on five points when he was about to emigrate from Canaan to Egypt. He did not know whether his descendants would lose themselves among the people of Egypt, whether he would die there and be buried there, and whether he would be permitted to see Joseph and see the sons of Joseph. God gave him the assurance, saying, I will go down with thee into Egypt, and I will surely bring thee up again after thy death, and thy descendants also, and Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes. When the time approached for the fulfillment of the divine promise, God appeared unto Jacob, and he said, I have promised to fulfill thy wish, and the time of fulfillment hath come. The Holy Spirit made known to Jacob that Joseph was coming to him, and he strengthened himself and sat upon the bed in order to pay due respect to the representative of the government. Though Joseph was his son, he was also viceroy, and entitled to special marks of honor. Besides, Jacob desired to make the impression of being a man in good health. He wanted to avoid the possibility of having his blessing of Joseph and Joseph's sons questioned as the act of an irresponsible person. He strengthened himself spiritually as well as physically, by prayer to God, in which he besought him to let the Holy Spirit descend upon him at the time of his giving the blessing to the sons of Joseph. When Joseph appeared in the company of his two sons, his father said to him, In all the seventeen years thou hast been visiting me, thou dits never bring thy sons with thee, but now they have come, and I know the reason. If I bless them, I shall act in opposition to the word of God, who promised to make me the progenitor of twelve tribes. For if I adopt them as my sons, there will be fourteen tribes. But if I do not bless them, it will plunge thee in sorrow. So be it, I will bless them. But think not, I do it, because thou didst support me all these years. There is quite another reason. When I left my father's house to go to Haran, I offered up a prayer at Bethel, and I promised to give God unto the tenth of all I owned. So far as my material possessions are concerned I kept my vow, but I could not give the tithe of my sons, because according to the law I had to withdraw from the reckoning the four sons, Reuben, Joseph, Dan, and Gad, that are the first-born children of their mothers. When I returned, God again appeared to me in Bethel, and he said, Be fruitful and multiply. But after this blessing no son was born unto me except Benjamin alone, that it cannot be but that God meant Manasseh and Ephraim when he spoke of a nation and a company of nations. If now I have found favor in thy sight, thy two sons Ephraim and Manasseh, even as Reuben and Simon, shall be mine, and then I shall be able to give a tenth part of my ten sons unto the Lord, and I shall leave this world free from the sin of not keeping my vow to the Lord concerning the tithe-giving. Joseph consented to do his father's will, and Jacob tithed his sons, consecrating Levi to the holy one, and appointing him to be the chief of his brethren. He enjoined his sons to have a care that there should never fail them a son of Levi in the priestly succession. And it happened that, of all the tribes, Levi was the only one that never proved faithless to the covenant of the fathers. Thus Jacob adopted Manasseh and Ephraim to be his own sons, even as Reuben and Simon were his sons. They were entitled, like the others, to a portion in the Holy Land, and like the others they were to bear standards on their journey through the desert. Satisfied as to Jacob's intentions concerning his sons, Joseph asked his father about his mother's burial place, and Jacob spoke, saying, As thou livest, thy wish to see thy mother lying by my side in the grave, doth not exceed mine own. I had joy in life only as long as she was alive, and her death was the heaviest blow that ever fell upon me. Joseph questioned him, Perhaps thou didst have to bury her in the way, because she died during the rainy season, and thou couldst not carry her body through the rain to our family sepulcher. No, replied Jacob, she died in the springtime, when the highways are clean and firm. Joseph, grant me permission to take up her body now and place it in our family burial place. Jacob, no, my son, that thou mayest not do. I was unwilling to bury her in the way, but the Lord commanded it. The reason of the command was that God knew that the temple would be destroyed, and Israel would be carried away into banishment, and the exiles would ask the patriarchs to intercede for them with God, but God would not hearken unto them. On their way to the land of the stranger they would pass the grave of Rachel, and they would throw themselves upon it and beseech their mother to make intercession for them with God. And Rachel would pray to God in their behalf, O Lord of the world, look upon my tears, and have compassion upon my children. But if thou wilt not take pity on them, then indemnify me for the wrong done unto me. Unto her prayer God will hearken, and he will have mercy upon Israel. Therefore Rachel was buried in the way. Now Jacob desired to bless the sons of Joseph, but the Holy Spirit made him to see Jeroboam, the descendant of Ephraim, and Jehu, the descendant of Manasseh, how they would seduce Israel to idolatry, and the shekenna forsook him, as he was about to lay his hands upon the heads of his grandsons. He said to Joseph, Is it possible that thou didst not marry the mother of thy children according to the law? Joseph thereupon brought his wife, Aseneth, to his father, and, pointing to her marriage contract, he said, This one is my wife, whom I married as is proper, with a marriage contract and due ceremony. I pray thee, my father, bless my sons, if only for the sake of this pious woman. Jacob bade his grandsons to approach close to him, and he kissed and embraced them in the hope that his joy in them would lure back the Holy Spirit, but his hope was in vain. Joseph concluded that the time was not favourable for blessing, and he decided to go away until a more propitious opportunity presented itself, first, however, proving to his father that his sons had been initiated in the covenant of Abraham. Outside of his father's chamber, alone with his sons, he threw himself down before God, and besought him to show him mercy, and he bade his sons to do likewise, saying, Be not content with your high station, for worldly honors are but for time. Intreat God to be merciful, and let the shekenna descend upon my father, that he bless you both. Then spake God to the Holy Spirit. How long yet shall Joseph suffer? Reveal thyself quickly, and enter into Jacob, that he may be able to bestow blessings. In the words of Jacob, Ephraim and Manasseh, even as Ruben and Simon shall be mine, Joseph had noticed his father's preference for his younger son Ephraim. It made him very anxious about his older son's birthright, and he was careful to put the two lads before his father in such wise that Manasseh should stand opposite Jacob's right hand and Ephraim opposite his left hand. But Ephraim, on account of his modesty, was destined for greater things than his older brother Manasseh, and God bade the Holy Spirit, prompt Jacob to give the birthright to Ephraim. Now when Joseph observed his father put his right hand upon Ephraim's head, he made an attempt to remove it unto Manasseh's head. But Jacob warded him off, saying, What, thou wouldst displace my hand against my will, the hand that overcame the prince of the angel hosts, who is as large as one-third of the world? I know things not known to thee, I know what Ruben did to Bilhah, and what Judah did to Tamar. How much more do I know things known to thee? Thinkest thou, I know not what thy brethren did to thee, because thou wouldst betray nothing whenever I ask thee? I know it, Manasseh also shall become great, the Judge Gideon shall descend from him, but his younger brother will be the ancestor of Joshua, who will bring the sun and the moon to a sand-steel, though they have dominion over the whole earth from end to end. Thus did Jacob set Ephraim the younger above Manasseh the older, and thus did it remain unto all times. In the list of the generations Manasseh comes after Ephraim, and so it was in the allotment of the portions in the Holy Land, and so it was in the placing of the camps and the standards of the tribes, and in the dedication of the tabernacle everywhere Ephraim preceded Manasseh. The blessing bestowed upon his grandchildren by Jacob was as follows, O that it will be the will of God that she walk in the ways of the Lord like unto my fathers Abraham and Isaac, and may the angel that hath redeemed me from all evil give his aid unto Joshua and Gideon, and reveal himself unto them. May your names be named on Israel, and like unto fishes may you grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth, and as fishes are protected by the water, so may you be protected by the merits of Joseph. The words like unto fishes were used by Jacob for the purpose of intimating the manner of death awaiting the Ephraimites, the descendants of Joseph. As fish are caught by their mouth, so the Ephraimites were in later days to invite their doom by their peculiar lisp. At the same time Jacob's words contained the prophecy that Joshua, the son of the man Nun, the fish, would lead Israel into the holy land, and in his words lay still another prophecy, with reference to the sixty thousand men children begot in the same night as Moses, all cast into the river with him, and saved for the sake of his merits. The number of boys thrown to the fishes in the river that night was equal to the number of men in Israel upon the earth. Ephraim received a special and separate blessing from his grandfather. Jacob said to him, Ephraim, my son, thou art the head of the academy, and in the days to come my most excellent and celebrated descendants will be called Ephrati after thee. Joseph received two gifts from his father. The first was Shechem, the city that Jacob had defended, with sword and bow, against the depredations of the Amorite kings when they tried to take revenge upon his sons for the outrage committed there, and the second gift was the garments made by God for Adam and passed from hand to hand until they came into the possession of Jacob. Shechem was his reward, because with his chastity he stemmed the tide of immorality that burst loose in Shechem first of all. Besides he had a prior claim upon the city. Shechem, the son of Hamor, the master of the city, had given it to Dinah as a present, and the wife of Joseph, Asanath, being the daughter of Dinah, the city belonged to him by right. Adam's clothes Jacob received from Esau. He had not taken them from his brother by force, but God had caused them to be given to him as a reward for his good deeds. They had belonged to Nimrod. Once when the mighty hunter caught Esau in his preserves, and forbade him to go on the chase, they agreed to determine by combat what their privileges were. Esau had taken counsel with Jacob, and he had advised him never to fight with Nimrod while he was clothed in Adam's garments. The two now wrestled with each other, and at the time Nimrod was not dressed in Adam's clothes. The end was that he was slain by Esau. Thus the garments worn by Adam fell into the hands of Esau. From him they passed into Jacob's, and he bequeathed them to Joseph. Jacob also taught Joseph three signs, whereby to distinguish the true Redeemer, who should deliver Israel from the bondage of Egypt. He would proclaim the ineffable name, appoint elders, and use the word Pachad in addressing the people. End of Chapter 1 Part 16. THE BLESSING OF THE TWELVE TRIBES When Joseph and his two sons left Jacob, his brethren envious of the bountiful blessings bestowed upon the three, said, The whole world loveth a favour to fortune, and our Father hath blessed Joseph thus because he is a ruler of men. Then spoke Jacob, They that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing. I have blessings enough for all. Jacob summoned his sons from the land of Egypt, and bade them come to him at Romses, first, however, commanding them to make themselves clean, that the blessing he was about to bestow might attach itself to them. Another one of his commands was that they were to establish an academy by the members of which they were to be governed. When his sons were brought into his presence by the angels, Jacob spoke, saying, Take heed that no dissensions spring up among you, for union is the first condition of Israel's redemption, and he was on the point of revealing the great secret to them concerning the end of time, but while they were standing around the golden bed whereon their Father lay, the shekenna visited him for a moment and departed as quickly, and with her departed also all trace of the knowledge of the great mystery from the mind of Jacob. He had the same experience as his own Father Isaac, who also had loss of memory inflicted upon him by God, to prevent him from revealing the secret at the end of time to Esau when he summoned him to receive his blessing. The accident made Jacob apprehensive that his sons were not pious enough to be considered worthy of the revelation concerning the messianic era, and he said to them, Ishmael and the sons of Keturah were the blemished among the issue of my grandfather Abraham. My Father Isaac begot a blemished issue in Esau, and I fear now that among you, too, there is one that harbors the intention to serve idols. The twelve men spake and said, Here, O Israel, our Father, the eternal, our God is the one only God. As thy heart is one and united in avouching the holy one, blessed be he to be thy God. So also are our hearts one and united in avouching him. Where too Jacob responded, Praise be the name of the glory of his majesty for ever and ever. And although the whole mystery of the messianic time was not communicated to the sons of Jacob, yet the blessing of each contained some reference to the events of the future. These were the words addressed by Jacob to his oldest son, Ruben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength. Thy portion should have been three crowns. Thou shouldst have had the double heritage of thy promogeniture, and the priestly dignity, and the royal power. But by reason of thy sin the birthright is conferred upon Joseph, kingship upon Judah, and the priesthood upon Levi. My son, I know no healing remedy for thee, but the man Moses, who will ascend to God, he will make thee whole, and God will forgive thy sin. I bless thee, may thy descendants be heroes in the Torah and heroes in war. Though thou must lose thy birthright, yet wilt thou be the first to enter into possession of thy allotment in the Holy Land, and in thy territory shall be the first of the cities of refuge, and always shall thy name stand first in the list of the families of the tribes. Yea, thou shalt also be the first whose heritage will be seized by the enemy, and the first to be carried away into the lands of exile. After Rubin had had his ears pulled, thus he retired, and Jacob called his son Simon and Levi to his side, and he addressed them in these words, Brethren ye were of Dinah but not of Joseph whom ye sold into slavery. The weapons of violence wherewith ye smoke shechem were stolen weapons, for it was not seemly for ye to draw the sword. That was Esau's portion. To him it was said, By thy sword shalt thou live. Into the council of the tribe of Simon my soul will not come when they foregather at Shittim to do vicious deeds, and my glory will not be united unto the assembly of Korah, the descendants of Levi. In their anger Simon and Levi slew the Prince of Shechem, and in their self-will they sold Joseph the bull into slavery. A cursed was the city of Shechem when they entered to destroy it. If they remain united no ruler will be able to stand up before them. No war will prosper against them. Therefore will I divide and scatter their possessions among the possessions of the other tribes. The descendants of Simon will many of them be poor men who will wander from tribe to tribe and beg for bread, and also Levi's tribe will gather its tithes and gifts from all the others. The words of Jacob, I will divide them in Jacob, spoken of Simon and Levi, were fulfilled on Simon in particular. When twenty-four thousand of Simon fell at Shittim, the widows they left behind married husbands of all the other tribes. Nevertheless Jacob did not dismiss Simon and Levi without blessing them. The tribe of Simon was to bring forth the teachers and the Beatles needed by all Israel, and Levi the scholars that would expound the Torah and render decisions according to its teachings. When the remaining sons of Jacob heard the rebukes dealt out by their father to these three, they feared to hear like reproaches and they tried to slip away from his presence. Especially Judah was alarmed that his father might taunt him with his trespass touching Tamar. But Jacob spoke thus to him, Judah, thou dost deserve thy name, thy mother Calde Jehuda, because she gave praise to God at thy birth, and so shall thy brethren praise thee, and they will all call themselves by thy name. And as thou didst confess thy sin openly, so also thy descendants, Akin, David, and Manasseh, will make public a vowel of their sins, and the Lord will hear their prayer. Thy hands will send darts after the fleeing foe, and thy father's son shall pay thee respect. Thou hast the impudence of a dog and the bravery of a lion. Thou didst save Joseph from death, and Tamar and her two sons from the flames. No people and no kingdom will be able to stand up against thee. Rulers shall not cease from the house of Judah, nor teachers of the law from his posterity, until his descendant Messiah come, and the obedience of all peoples be unto him. How glorious is Messiah of the house of Judah! His loins girded, he will go out to do battle with his enemies. No king and no ruler will prevail against him. The mountains will be dyed red with their blood, and the garments of Messiah will be like the garments of him that pressest wine. The eyes of Messiah will be clearer than pure wine, for they will never behold unchastity in bloodshed, and his teeth will be wider than milk, for never will they bite ought that is taken by violence. Though Issachar was the older, Zebulun came next to be blessed, as a reward for the sacrifice he had made for his brother's sake. For when Issachar chose the study of the Torah as his vocation, Zebulun decided to devote himself to business and support his brother with the profits of his trade, that he might give himself up to the law undisturbed. His blessing was that he would conquer the sea-coast as far as Sidon. Issachar, said Jacob, will take upon himself of the burden of the study of the Torah, and all the other tribes will come to him and ask him to decide their doubts on legal questions, and his descendants will be the members of the Sanhedrin, and the scholars that will occupy themselves with fixing the calendar. Jacob blessed Issachar also with the blessing that the fruits of his land should be exceedingly large, and this brought a heavenly as well as an earthly profit in its train. For when the heathen to whom the fruits were sold marveled there at, the Jewish merchants explained that their extraordinary size was due to the merits of the tribe of Issachar, whom God rewarded for their devotion to the Torah, and thus many of the heathen were induced to convert to Judaism. In blessing Dan Jacob's thoughts were occupied chiefly with his descendant, Samson, who, like unto God, without any manner of assistance conferred victory upon his people. Jacob even believed the strong, heroic man to be the Messiah, but when Samson's death was revealed to him he explained, I wait for thy salvation, O Lord, for thy help is unto all eternity, while Samson's help is only for a time. The redemption, continued Jacob, will not be accomplished by Samson the day-night, but by Elijah the gadite, who will appear at the end of time. Asher's blessing was the beauty of his women, who would be sought in marriage by kings and high priests. In Naftali's land all fruits would ripen quickly, and they would be brought as presents to kings and gain royal favor for the givers. This blessing was fulfilled in the plain of Genesaret. At the same time Naftali's blessing was a prophecy concerning his descendant Debra, who was like a hind let loose against Cicera to conquer him, and she gave goodly words in her song of Israel's victory. Naftali himself deserved the description applied to Debra, for he was swift as a hare to do the will of God, and he was a fleet messenger unto his father and the tribes. They sent him whither so ever they would, and he executed their errands with dispatch. He served the brethren of Joseph as herald to announce unto Jacob the glad tidings, Joseph is yet alive, and when the stricken father saw him approach he said, Lo, here comes Naftali the lovable, who proclaimeth peace. Joseph's blessing exceeded the blessing of all his brethren. Jacob spoke, O son whom I bred up, Joseph whom I raised, and who was strong to resist the enticements of sin, thou didst conquer all the magicians and the wise men of Egypt by thy wisdom and thy pious deeds. The daughters of princes cast their jewels before thee to draw thine eyes upon them when thou didst pass through the land of Egypt, but thou didst not look their way, and therefore wasst thou made the father of two tribes. The magicians and the wise men of Egypt sought to defame thee before Pharaoh and slander thee, but thou didst set thy hope in the Almighty. Therefore may he who appeared unto me as El Shaddai bless thee and grant thee fertile soil and much cattle. May the blessing thy father giveth thee now, and the blessing that his fathers Abraham and Isaac gave him, that called forth the envy of the great of the world, Ishmael, Esau, and the sons of Ketura, may all these blessings be a crown upon the head of Joseph, and a chain upon the neck of him that was ruler of Egypt, and yet diminished not the honor due his brethren. The slander of which Jacob spoke referred to what Potiphar had said of Joseph before Pharaoh. He had complained, saying, Why didst thou appoint my slave whom I did buy for twenty pieces of silver to be ruler over the Egyptians? Joseph had then taken up his own defense, saying, When thou didst buy me as a slave, thou didst commit a capital crime. Only a descendant of Canaan may be sold as a slave, and I am a descendant of Shem, and a prince besides. If thou wilt convince thyself of the truth of my words, do but compare me with the likeness of my mother Sarah that Pharaoh had made of her. They brought Sarah's likeness, and verily it appeared that Joseph resembled his ancestors, and all were convinced of his noble lineage. The blessing that Jacob bestowed upon Benjamin contains the prophecy that his tribe would provide Israel with its first ruler and its last ruler, and so it was, for Saul and Esther both belonged to the tribe of Benjamin. Likewise Benjamin's heritage in the Holy Land harbors two extremes. Jericho ripens its fruits earlier than any other region in Palestine, while Bethel ripens them latest. In Benjamin's blessing Jacob referred also to the service in the temple, because the holy place was situated in the territory of Benjamin, and when Jacob called his youngest son a wolf that raveneth, he was thinking of the judge Yehud, the great scholar, a Benjaminite, who conquered Eglin, king of Moab, and also he had in mind the Benjaminites that captured their wives by cunning in force. Again if he called Benjamin a wolf, Judah a lion, and Joseph a bull, he wanted to point to the three kingdoms known as wolf, lion, and bull, the doom of which was and will be sealed by the descendants of his three sons. Babylon, the kingdom of the lion, fell through the heads of Daniel of the tribe of Judah. Medea, the wolf, found its master in the Benjaminite, Mordecai, and the bull Joseph will subdue the horned beasts, the kingdom of wickedness before the messianic time. End of Chapter 1 Part 17 After Jacob had blessed each of his sons separately, he addressed himself to all of them together, saying, According to my power I did bless you, but in future days a prophet will arise, and this man Moses will bless you too, and he will continue my blessings where I left off. He added besides that the blessing of each tribe should brough down to the good of all the other tribes. The tribe of Judah should have a share in the fine wheat of the tribe of Benjamin, and Benjamin should enjoy the good barley of Judah. The tribe should be mutually helpful one to another. Moreover he charged them not to be guilty of idolatry in any form or shape, and not to let blasphemous speech pass their lips, and he taught them the order of transporting his beer, thus, Joseph being king shall not help to bear it, nor shall Levi, who is destined to carry the ark of the shekenna. Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun shall grasp its front end, Reuben, Simon, and Gad its right side, Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin the hindmost end, and Dan, Asher, and Naphtali its left side. And this was the order in which the tribes, bearing each its standard, were to march through the desert, the shekenna dwelling in the midst of them. Jacob then spake to Joseph, saying, And thou, my son Joseph, forgive thy brethren for their trespass against thee, forsake them not, and grieve them not, for the Lord hath put them into thine hands that thou shouldst protect them all the days against the Egyptians. Also he admonished his son, saying that the Lord would be with them if they walked in his ways, and he would redeem them from the hands of the Egyptians. I know, he continued, great suffering will befall your sons and your grandsons in this land, but if you will obey God and teach your sons to know him, then he will send you a redeemer who will bring you forth out of Egypt and lead you into the land of your fathers. In resignation to the will of God, Jacob awaited his end, and death enveloped him gently. Not the angel of death ended his life, but the shekenna took his soul with a kiss. Beside the three patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, only Moses, Aaron, and Miriam breathed their last in this manner through the kiss of the shekenna. And these six, together with Benjamin, are the only ones whose corpses are not exposed to the ravages of the worms, and they neither corrupt nor decay. Thus Jacob departed this world, and entered the world to come, a foretaste of which he had enjoyed here below, like the other patriarchs, and none beside other men. In another respect their life in this world resembled their life in the world to come. The evil inclination had no power over them, either here or there wherein David resembled them. Joseph ordered his father's body to be placed upon a couch of ivory covered with gold, studded with gems, and hung with drapery of bisis and purple. Fragrant wine was poured out at its side, and aromatic spices burnt next to it. Heroes of the house of Esau, princes of the family Vishmale, and the lion Judah, the bravest of his sons, surrounded the sumptuous spear of Jacob. Come, said Judah to his brethren, let us plant a high cedar tree at the head of our father's grave. Its top shall reach up to the skies, its branches shall shade all the inhabitants of the earth, and its roots shall grow deep into the earth unto the abyss. For from him are sprung twelve tribes, and from him will arise kings and rulers, chapters of priests prepared to perform the service of the sacrifices, and companies of Levites ready to sing psalms and play upon sweet instruments. The sons of Jacob tore their garments and girded their loins with sackcloth, threw themselves upon the ground, and strewed earth upon their heads until the dust rose in a high cloud. And when Aseneth, the wife of Joseph, heard the tidings of Jacob's death, she came, and with her came the women of Egypt, to weep and mourn over him. And the men of Egypt that had known Jacob repaired thither, and they mourned day after day, and also many journeyed down into Egypt from Canaan to take part in the seventy days morning made for him. The Egyptians spake to one another, saying, Let us lament for the pious man Jacob, because the affliction of the famine was averted from our land on account of his merits. For instead of ravaging the land for forty-two years according to the decree of God, the famine had lasted but two years, and that was due to the virtues of Jacob. Joseph ordered the physicians to embalm the courts. This he should have refrained from doing, for it was displeasing to God, who spoke, saying, Have I not the power to preserve the corpse of this pious man from corruption? Was it not I that spoke the reassuring words, Fear not the worm, O Jacob, thou dead Israel? Joseph's punishment for this useless precaution was that he was the first of the sons of Jacob to suffer death. The Egyptians, on the other hand, who devoted forty days to embalming the corpse and preparing it for burial, were rewarded for the veneration they showed. Before he destroyed their city, God gave the Ninevites a forty- days respite on account of their king, who was the Pharaoh of Egypt, and for the three score in ten days of mourning that the heathen made for Jacob, they were recompensed at the time of Ahasuerus. During seventy days, from the thirteenth of Nisan, the date of Haman's edict ordering the extermination of the Jews, until the twenty-third of Siwan, when Mordecai recalled it, they were permitted to enjoy absolute power over the Jews. When all preparations for the burial of Jacob had been completed, Joseph asked permission of Pharaoh to carry the body up into Canaan. But he did not himself go to put his petition before Pharaoh, for he could not well appear before the king in the garb of a mourner, nor was he willing to interrupt his lamentation over his father, even for a brief space and stand before Pharaoh and prefer his petition. He requested the family of Pharaoh to intercede for him with the king for the additional reason that he was desirous of enlisting the favor of the king's relations, lest they advise Pharaoh not to fulfill his wish. He acted according to the maxim, seek to win over the accuser, that he caused thee no annoyance. Joseph applied first to the queen's hairdresser, and she influenced the queen to favor him, and then the queen put in a good word for him with the king. At first Pharaoh refused the permission craved by Joseph, who, however, urged him to consider the solemn oath that he had given his dying father to bury him in Canaan. Pharaoh desired him to seek absolution from the oath. But Joseph rejoined, then I will apply also for absolution from the oath I gave thee, referring to an incident in his earlier history. The grandees of Egypt had advised Pharaoh against appointing Joseph as viceroy, and they did not recede from this council until Joseph, in his conversation with the Egyptian king, proved himself to be master of the seventy languages of the world, the necessary condition to be fulfilled before one could become ruler over Egypt. But the conversation proved something else, that Pharaoh himself was not entitled to Egyptian kingship, because he lacked knowledge of Hebrew. He feared, if the truth became known, Joseph would be raised in his own place, for he knew Hebrew besides all the other tongues. In his anxiety and distress, Pharaoh made Joseph swear an oath never to betray the king's ignorance of Hebrew. Now when Joseph threatened to have himself absolved from this oath as well as the one to his dying father, great terror overwhelmed him, and he speedily granted Joseph permission to go up to Canaan and bury his father there. Moreover, Pharaoh issued a decree in all parts of the land menacing those with death who would not accompany Joseph and his brethren upon their journey to Canaan with their father's remains, and accordingly the procession that followed the beer of Jacob was made up of the princes and nobles of Egypt, as well as the common people. The beer was borne by the sons of Jacob. In obedience to his wish, not even their children were allowed to touch it. It was fashioned of pure gold, the border thereof inlaid with onyx stones and bedellum, and the cover was gold woven work joined to the beer with threads that were held together with hooks of onyx stones and bedellum. Joseph placed a large golden crown upon the head of his father and a golden scepter he put in his hand, arraying him like a living king. The funeral cortege was arranged in the sorter. First came the valiant men of Pharaoh and the valiant men of Joseph, and then the rest of the inhabitants of Egypt. All were girt with swords and clothed in coats of mail, and the trappings of war were upon them. The weepers and mourners walked, crying and lamenting at some distance from the beer, and the rest of the people went behind it, while Joseph and his household followed together after it, with bare feet and in tears, and Joseph's servants were close to him, each man with his accoutrement and weapon of war. Fifty of Jacob's servants proceeded the beer, strewing myrrh upon the road in passing, and all manner of perfumes, so that the sons of Jacob trod upon the aromatic spices as they carried the body forward. Thus the procession moved on until it reached Canaan. It halted at the threshing floor of Atad, and there they lamented with a very great and sore lamentation. But the greatest honour conferred upon Jacob was the presence of the shekenna who accompanied the cortege. The Canaanites had no intention at first to take part in the mourning made for Jacob, but when they saw the honour shown him, they joined the procession of the Egyptians, loosing the girdles of their garments as a sign of grief. Although the sons of Esau, Ishmael, and Keturah appeared, though their design in coming was to seize the opportunity and make war upon the sons of Jacob, but when they saw Joseph's crown suspended from the beer, the Edomite and Ishmaelite kings and princes followed his example, and attached theirs to it too, and it was ornamented with thirty-six crowns. Nevertheless the conflict was not averted, it broke out in the end between the sons of Jacob and Esau and his followers. When the former were about to lower the body of their father into the cave of Mechpela, Esau attempted to prevent it, saying that Jacob had used his allotted portion of the tomb for Leah, and the only space left for a grave belonged to himself. Four continued Esau, though I sold my birthright unto Jacob, yet I have a portion in the tomb as a son of Isaac. The sons of Jacob, however, were well aware of the fact that their father had acquired Esau's share in the cave, and they even knew that a bill of sale existed, but Esau, assuming properly that the document was left behind in Egypt, denied that any such had ever been made out, and the sons of Jacob sent Naftali, the fleet runner, back to Egypt to fetch the bill. Meantime, while this altercation was going on between Esau and the others, Husham, the son of Dan, arose and inquired in astonishment why they did not proceed with the burial of Jacob, for he was deaf and had not understood the words that had passed between the disputants. When he heard what it was all about, and that the ceremonies were interrupted until Naftali should return from Egypt with the bill of sale, he exclaimed with indignation, My grandfather shall lie here unburied until Naftali comes back, and he seized a club and dealt Esau a vigorous blow so that he died, and his eyes fell out of their sockets and dropped upon Jacob's knees, and Jacob opened his own eyes and smiled. While being dead, his brother's burial could proceed without hindrance, and Joseph interred him in the cave of Macpela according to his wish. His other children had left all arrangements connected with the burial of their father's body to their brother Joseph, for they reflected that it was a greater honor for Jacob if a king concerned himself about his remains rather than simple private individuals. The head of Esau, as he lay slain by the side of Jacob's grave, rolled down into the cave and fell into the lap of Isaac, who prayed to God to have mercy upon his son, but his supplications were conveyed. God spoke, saying, As I live, he shall not behold the majesty of the Lord. CHAPTER I. THE SONS OF Jacob having been interred with royal pomp and the seven days period of mourning over, the conflict between the sons of Jacob and the sons of Esau broke out anew. In the skirmish that had ensued when Esau advanced to claim upon a place in the cave of Macpela, while his brother's remains still lay unburied, he lost forty of his men, and after his death Fortune favored his sons as little. Eighty of their followers were slain, while of the sons of Jacob not one was lost. Joseph succeeded in capturing Zepho the son of Eliphaz and fifty of his men, and he clapped them in chains and carried them off to Egypt. Thereupon the rest of the attacking army, led by Eliphaz, fled to Mount Seir, taking with them the headless corpse of Esau to bury it in his own territory. The sons of Jacob pursued after them, but they slew none out of respect for the remains of Esau. On the third day a great army gathered together, consisting of the inhabitants of Seir and the children of the East, and they marched down into Egypt with the purpose of making war upon Joseph and his brethren. When the battle that came off, this army was almost totally destroyed. Not less than six hundred thousand men were mowed down by Joseph and his warriors, and the small remnant fled precipitately. Returned to their own country after this fatal campaign, the sons of Esau and the sons of Seir fell to quarrelling among themselves, and the sons of Seir demanded that their former allies leave the place, because it was they that had brought misfortune upon the country. The sons of Esau thereupon dispatched a messenger in secret to their friend Agneus, king of Africa, begging his aid against the sons of Seir. He granted their request and sent them troops consisting of foot soldiers and mounted men. The sons of Seir on their part also sought allies, and they secured the help of the children of the East and of the Midianites, who put warriors at their disposal. In the encounters that ensued between the hostile forces, the sons of Esau were defeated again and again, partly on account to treachery in their own ranks, for their men sometimes deserted to the enemy while the combat was on. At last, however, in the battle that took place in the desert of Paran, the sons of Esau gained a decisive victory. They massacred all the warriors of the sons of Seir, and the Midianites and the children of the East were put to flight. Thereafter the sons of Esau returned to Seir, and they slew all the inhabitants of the place, men, women and children, sparing only fifty lads and maidens. The former they used as slaves, and the latter they took to wife. They also enriched themselves with the spoils, seizing all the possessions of the sons of Seir, and the whole land was divided among the five sons of Esau. Now these descendants of Esau determined to put a king over themselves, but in consequence of the treachery committed during the war there prevailed such hatred and bitterness among them that they decided never to appoint a ruler from their own people. Their choice fell upon Bela, the son of Bohar, one of the warriors sent to them by King Agnius. His peer could not be found among the allied troops for bravery, wisdom, and handsome appearance. They set the royal crown upon his head, built a palace for him, and gave him gifts of silver, gold, and gems, until he lived in great opulence. He reigned happily for thirty years, and met his death then in a war against Joseph and his brethren. This war came about because the sons of Esau could not banish from their memory the disgrace of the defeat inflicted upon them by Joseph and his people. Having enlisted the aid of Agnius and of the Ishmaelites and other nations of the East, they set forth on a second campaign against Egypt, in the hope of delivering Zepho and its followers from the hands of Joseph. In spite of their enormous host, they had no less than eight hundred thousand men of infantry and cavalry. They were defeated at Romses by Joseph and his brethren and their little company of six hundred men. Beside their King Bela, they left one-fourth of their army upon the field. The loss of their king discouraged them grievously, and they took to flight, hard-pressed by Joseph, who cut down many of the fugitives. When he returned from the battle, Joseph ordered manacles and fetters to be put upon Zepho and his followers, and their captivity was made more bitter unto them than it had been before. The sons of Esau appointed Jobab of Bosra to succeed their dead king Bela. His reign lasted ten years, but they desisted from all further attempts at waging war with the sons of Jacob. Their last experience with them had been too painful, but the enmity they cherished against them was all the fiercer, and their hatred never abated. Their third king was Husham, and he ruled over them for twenty years. During his reign Zepho succeeded in making good his escape from Egypt. He was received kindly by Agneus, king of Africa, and appointed commander-in-chief of his troops. He used every means of persuasion to induce his sovereign lord to enter into a war with Egypt, but in vain, for Agneus was only too well acquainted with the strength and heroism of the sons of Jacob. For many years he resisted Zepho's arguments and blandishments. Indeed, as it was, Agneus had his hands full with other war-like enterprises. It had happened about this time that a man of the land of Kittum, Uzi by name, whom his countrymen venerated as a god, died in the city of Pozumana, and he left behind a fair and clever daughter. Agneus heard of Yanaia's beauty and wisdom, and he sued for her hand, and his request was granted by the people of Kittum. The messengers of Agneus were hastening away from Kittum, bearing to their master the promise of the inhabitants that Yanaia should become his wife, when Ternus, king of Benevento, arrived on the same errand. His suit was rejected, for the people of Kittum were afraid to break the promise given to Agneus. In his anger Ternus went to Sardinia to make war upon King Lucas, a brother of Agneus, intending to deal with the latter as soon as the other was rendered harmless. Hearing of the design hatched by Ternus, Agneus hastened to Sardinia to the assistance of his brother, and a battle took place in the valley of Campania. Against Ternus were arrayed Agneus, his brother Lucas, and the son of the latter, Niblas, whom his father had appointed commander and chief of the Sardinian troops. In the first encounter, Ternus was the victor, and the Sardinians lost their general Niblas. But in the second engagement the army of Ternus was routed completely, and he himself was left dead on the field. His army fled, pursued closely by Agneus as far as the cross-road between Rome and Albano. Niblas's body was put inside of a golden statue, and his father erected a high tower over his grave, and another over the grave of Ternus, and these two buildings, connected by a marble pavement, stand opposite to each other, on the cross-road at which Agneus left off from following after the fugitive army. The king of Africa went on to the city of Benevento, but he took no harsh measures against it and its inhabitants because it belonged to the land of Kittum at that time. Thusforth, however, bands of soldiers from Africa made incursions, now and then, into the land of Kittum, under the lead of Zepho, the captain of the African army. Agneus, meantime, went to Pozumana to solemnize his marriage with Yania, and he returned with her to his capital in Africa. The Legends of the Jews Volume II by Rabbi Louis Ginsburg Zepho, King of Kittum All this time Zepho did not leave off urging Agneus to invade Egypt, and he succeeded finally in persuading the king to consider his wish, and a great army was equipped against Egypt and the sons of Jacob. Among the shield-bearers was Balam, the fifteen-year-old son of Bior, a wise youth and an adept in magic, and the king bad him, acquaint him with the issue of the war upon which they were entering. Balam took wax and molded the figures of men to represent the army of Agneus and the army of the Egyptians, and he plunged them into magic water and let them swim, and it appeared that the African army was subdued by the Egyptians. Agneus accordingly gave up the campaign, and Zepho, seeing that his sovereign could not be persuaded into war with the sons of Jacob, fled the country and betook himself to Kittum. The people of Kittum received him with great honors, and they offered him much money to stay with them and conduct their wars. It happened once, while Zepho was in the mountains of Coptizia, where the inhabitants of Kittum had taken refuge before the troops of the African king, that he had to go on a search for an ox that had strayed away, and he discovered a cave the opening of which was barred by great stone. He shivered the stone in pieces, and entering the cave he saw an animal formed like a man above and a he-goat below, and he killed the strange beast, which was in the very act of devouring his lost ox. There was great rejoicing among the people of Kittum, for the monster had long been doing havoc among their cattle, and in gratitude they set aside one day of the year, which they called by Zepho's name, in honor of their liberator, and all the people brought in presence and offered sacrifices to him. At this time it came to pass that Yanaia, the wife of King Agneus, fell into a grievous sickness, and the physicians ascribed her illness to the climate and to the water of Africa, to which she, a native of the land of Kittum, could not get accustomed, because she had been in the habit of using the water of the river Forma, which her forefathers had drawn to her house through a conduit. Agneus sent the land of Kittum, and had some of the water of the Forna brought to Africa. Finding it much lighter than the water of his own country, he built a huge canal from the land of Kittum to Africa, and the queen henceforth had all the form of water she needed. Besides he took earth and stone from Kittum, and built a palace for Yanaia, and she recovered from her illness. Meantime Zepho had won a decisive victory over the African troops that had made an incursion into the land of Kittum, and the people chose him as king. His first undertaking was a campaign against the sons of Tubul and the islands of the sea, and again he was successful, he subdued them completely. On his return the people built a great palace for Zepho, and they renewed his kingship, and he continued until his death to reign as a king of Kittum and of Italy. During the first thirteen years of his reign the Africans made no attempt to disturb the peace of Kittum, but then they invaded the land only to be severely repulsed by Zepho, who pursued the troops up to the very borders of Africa, and Agneus the king was in such consternation that he did not venture to make reprisals for some time. When he finally made a second attempt his troops were annihilated by Zepho down to the very last man. Now Agneus in despair assembled all the inhabitants of Africa, as numerous as the sand on the seashore, and he united his great host with the army of his brother Lucas, and thus he made his third attempt upon Zepho and the people of the land of Kittum. Alarmed, Zepho wrote to his brother and Sear, and entreated their king Haddad to send him aid. But the people of Sear had concluded an alliance with Agneus as far back as under their first king, Vela, and they refused Zepho's request, and the king of Kittum had to face the host of eight hundred thousand men mustered by Agneus with his little band of three thousand. Then the people of Kittum spake unto their king Zepho, saying, Pray for us under the God of thy ancestors. Peradventure he may deliver us from the hand of Agneus and his army, for we have heard that he is a great God, and he delivers all that trust in him. Zepho prayed unto the Lord, saying, O Lord, God of Abraham and Isaac, my fathers, this day may it be known that thou art a true God, and all the gods of the nations are vain and useless. Remember now this day unto me, thy covenant with Abraham our father, which our ancestors related unto us, and do graciously with me this day for the sake of Abraham and Isaac our fathers, and save me in the sons of Kittum from the hand of the king of Africa, who hath come against us for battle. God gave ear unto Zepho's prayer, and in the first day's battle one half of the African army fell. Agneus, forthwith, dispatched to creed to his country, ordering, on penalty of death and confiscation of property, that all the males of the land, including the boys that passed their tenth year, were to join the army and fight against the people of Kittum. In spite of these new assessions, three hundred thousand strong, Agneus was beaten by Zepho in the second battle. The African general, Sausipetter, having fallen slain, the troops broke into flight, at their head Agneus with Lucas, the brother, and Astrubol the son of Agneus. After this dire defeat the Africans made no further attempt to disturb the peace of Kittum, and their incursions ceased forever. In spite of the great victory that Zepho had won with the help of God, the king of Kittum walked in the idolorous ways of the people whom he ruled, and in the ways of the sons of Esau, for, as saith the proverb of the ancients, out of the wicked comes forth wickedness, and Zepho was not other than the rest of the sons of Esau. The severe defeat inflicted upon Agneus drove Balaam from Africa to Kittum, and he was received with great honors by Zepho, who welcomed him on account of his deep wisdom. Now Zepho thought the time had arrived for him to carry out his plan of vengeance against the posterity of Jacob, all the more as in the meantime Joseph had died, and also his brethren and the valiant men of Pharaoh had passed away. He was joined in the enterprise by Hadad, the king of Edom, and by the nations of the East and the Ishmaelites. The allied army was so vast that the space it covered as it stood in rank and file was equal to a three-day journey. It formed in battle array in the valley of Pathros, and it was met by three hundred thousand Egyptians and one hundred and fifty Israelites from Goshen. But the Egyptians did not trust the Israelites. They feared their defection to the sons of Esau and Ishmael. They therefore made an agreement with them that the Israelites were not to come to the help of the Egyptians until it appeared that the enemy were getting the upper hand. Zepho, who had a high opinion of Balaam's ability, desired him to use his magic arts and find out what would be the outcome of the war. But Balaam's knowledge failed him. He could not satisfy the king's wish. The Egyptians got the worst of the first encounter between the two hostile armies, but the aspect of things changed as soon as they summoned the Israelites to aid them. The Israelites prayed to God to support them with his help, and the Lord heard their prayer. Then they threw themselves upon Zepho and his allies, and after they had cut down several thousand men, such dismay and confusion took hold of the enemy that they fled hastily, pursued by the Israelites as far as the boundary of the country. The Egyptians, instead of coming to the assistance of the Israelites, had taken to flight, leaving the small band of their allies to dispose of the huge host of their adversaries. Embittered by such treatment, the Israelites lew as many as two hundred Egyptians under the pretext that they thought they belonged to the enemy. CHAPTER I THE LEGENDS OF THE JUSE VOLUME 2 by Rabbi Lewis Ginsburg THE NATIONS AT WAR Haddad, the king of Edom, who had failed to gain fame and honor in the Egyptian campaign, was favored by fortune in another war, a war against Moab. The Moabites shrank from meeting Haddad alone, and they made an alliance with the Midianites. In the thick of the fight the Moabites fled from the field of battle, leaving the Midianites to their fate, and these deserted allies of theirs were cut down to a man by Haddad and his Edomites. The Moabites saved their skins and suffered only the inconvenience of having to pay a tribute. To avenge the faithlessness practiced against them, the Midianites, supported by their kinsmen, the sons of Khatura, gathered a mighty army and attacked the Moabites the following year. But Haddad came to their assistance, and again he inflicted a severe defeat upon the Midianites, who had to give up their plan of revenge against Moab. This is the beginning of the invenerate enmity between the Moabites and the Midianites. If a single Moabite is caught in the land of Midian, he is killed without mercy, and a Midianite in Moab fares no better. After the death of Haddad, the Edomites installed Samla of Meskra as their king, and he reigned eighteen years. It was his desire to take up the cause of Agnius, the old ally of the Edomites, and chastise Zepho for having gone to war with him. But his people, the Edomites, would not permit him to undertake ought that was inimigable to their kinsmen, and Samla had to abandon the plan. In the fourteenth year of Samla's reign, Zepho died, having been king of Khitam for fifty years. His successor was Janus, one of the people of Khitam, who enjoyed an equally long reign. Balam had made his escape to Egypt after the death of Zepho, and he was received there with great demonstrations of honor by the king and all the nobles, and Pharaoh appointed him to be royal counselor, for he had heard much about his exceedingly great wisdom. In the Edomite kingdom, Samla was succeeded by Saul of Pethor, a youth of surpassing beauty, whose reign lasted forty years. His successor upon the throne was Balhaman, king for thirty-eight years, during which period the Moabites rose up against the Edomites, to whom they had been paying tribute since the time of Haddad, and they succeeded in throwing off the yoke of the stranger. The times were troubled everywhere. Agneus, the king of Africa, died, and also the death of Janus occurred, the king of Khitam. The successors to these two rulers, Astrubol, the son of Agneus, and Latinus, the king of Khitam, then entered upon a long, drawn-out war of many years. At first the fortune of war favored Latinus. He sailed to Africa and ships, and inflicted one defeat after another upon Astrubol, and finally this king of Africa lost his life upon the battlefield. After destroying the canal from Khitam to Africa, built many years before by Agneus, Latinus returned to his own country, taking with him as his wife, Ushpizina, the daughter of Astrubol, who was so wondrously beautiful that her countrymen wore her likeness upon their garments. Latinus did not enjoy the fruits of his victory long. Anibal, the younger brother of Astrubol and his successor in the royal power, went to Khitam and ships and carried on a series of wars lasting eighteen years, in the course of which he killed off eighty thousand of the people of Khitam, not sparing the princes and the nobles. At the end of this protracted period he went back to Africa, and reigned over his people in quiet and peace. The Edomites, during the forty-eight years of the reign of Haddad, the successor of Baal-Haman, fared no better than the people of Khitam. Haddad's first undertaking was to reduce the Moabites again under the sovereignty of Edom, but he had to assist because he could not offer successful resistance to a newly chosen king of theirs, one of their own people, who enlisted the aid of their kinsmen, the Ammonites. The allies commanded a great host, and Haddad was overwhelmed. These wars were followed by others between Haddad of Edom and Abominos of Khitam. The latter was the attacking party, and he invaded Seir with a mighty army. The sons of Seir were defeated abjectly, their king Haddad was taken captive, and then executed by Abominos, and Seir was made a province subject to Khitam and ruled by Governor. Thus ended the independence of the sons of Esau. Henceforth they had to pay tribute to Khitam, over which Abinamos ruled until his death in the thirty-eighth year of his reign. Legends of the Jews Volume II by Rabbi Louis Ginsburg. Joseph's Magnammity As Joseph was returning from the burial of his father in the Cave of Macpela, he passed the pit into which his brethren had once cast him, and he looked into it and said, Blessed be God, who permitted a miracle to come to pass for me here. The brethren inferred from these words of gratitude, which Joseph but uttered in compliance with the injunctions of the law, that he cherished the recollection of the evil they had done to him, and they feared, now that their father was dead, their brother would requite them in accordance with their deeds. They observed, moreover, that since their father was no more, Joseph had given up the habit of entertaining them at his table, and they interpreted this as a sign of his hatred of them. In reality it was due to Joseph's respect and esteem for his brethren. So long as my father was alive, Joseph said to himself, he bade me sit at the head of the table, though Judah is king, and Reuben is the firstborn. It was my father's wish and I complied with it. But now it is not seemly that I should have the first seat in their presence, and yet, being ruler of Egypt, I cannot yield my place to any other. He thought it best, therefore, not to have the company of his brethren at his meals. But they, not fathoming his motives, sent Bilhah to them, with the dying message of their father, that he was to forgive the transgression in the sin of his brethren. For the sake of the ways of peace they had invented the message, Jacob had said nothing like it. Joseph, on his part, realized that his brethren spoke thus only because they feared he might do harm unto them, and he wept that they should put so little trust in his affection. When they appeared and fell down before his face and said, Thou didst desire to make one of us a slave unto thyself. Behold, we are all ready to be thy servants. He spoke to them gently, and tried to convince them that he harbored no evil desire against them. He said, Be not afraid, I will do you no harm, for I fear God, and if you think I failed to have you sit at my table because of enmity toward you, God knows the intention of my heart. He knows that I acted thus out of consideration for the respect I owe you. Furthermore, he said, ye are like unto the dust of the earth, the sand on the seashore, and the stars in the heavens. Can I do ought to put these out of the world? Ten stars could affect nothing against one star. How much less can one star affect anything against ten? Do you believe that I have the power of acting contrary to the laws of nature? Twelve hours half the day, twelve hours the night, twelve months the year, twelve constellations are in the heavens, and also there are twelve tribes. You are the trunk and I am the head, of what use the head without the trunk? It is to my own good that I should treat you with fraternal affection. Before your advent I was looked upon as a slave in this country. You proved me a man of noble birth. Now, if I should kill you, my claims upon an aristocratic lineage would be shown to be a lie. The Egyptians would say, he was not their brother, they were strangers to him, but he called them his brethren to serve his purpose, and now he hath found a pretext to put them out of the way. Or they would hold me to be a man of no probity. Who plays false with his oath, kith, and kin? How can he keep faith with others? And in sooth, how can I venture to lay a hand upon those whom God and my Father both have blessed? As Joseph's dealings were kind and gentle with his brethren, so he was the helper and counselor of the Egyptians, and when Pharaoh departed this life, Joseph, being then a man of seventy-one years of age, the king's last wish was that he might be a father under his son and successor, Magron, and administer the affairs of state for him. Some of the Egyptians desired to make Joseph king after the death of Pharaoh, but this plan met with opposition on the part of others. They objected to an alien on the throne, and so the royal title was left to Magron, called Pharaoh, according to the established custom the name given to all the Egyptian kings. But Joseph was made the actual ruler of the land, and though he was only viceroy in Egypt, he reigned as king over the lands outside Egypt as far as the Euphrates, parts of which Joseph had acquired by conquest. The inhabitants of these countries brought their yearly tribute to him and other presence besides, and thus did Joseph rule for forty years, beloved of all, and respected by the Egyptians and the other nations, and during all that time his brethren dwelt in Goshen, happy and blithe in the service of God. And in his own family circled Joseph was happy also. He lived to act as Godfather at the circumcision of the sons of his grandson, Makir. His end was premature as compared with that of his brethren. At his death he was younger than any of them at their death. It is true Dominion buries him that exercises it. He died ten years before his allotted time, because without taking Umbridge he had permitted his brethren to call his father his servant in his presence. The Legends of the Jews Volume 2 by Rabbi Louis Ginsburg Asenath. God gives every man the wife he deserves, and so Asenath was worthy of being the helpmeat of Joseph the pious. Her father was Potiphar, one of Pharaoh's magnates, ranking among the most distinguished of them by reason of wisdom, wealth, and station. His daughter was slender like unto Sarah, beautiful like Rebekah, and radiant in appearance like Rachel. Nobleman and princes sued for her hand when she was eighteen years of age. Even Pharaoh's appointed successor, his first-born son, demanded her in marriage, but his father refused to comply with his wish because he did not consider her a proper wife for the one destined to sit upon the throne. The daughter of the Moabite King, he insisted, was a more suitable match for him. But Asenath rejected every proposal of marriage and avoided all intercourse with men. With seven maidens born the same day as herself, she lived in retirement in a magnificent palace adjoining that of her parents. It happened in the first of the seven years of plenty that Joseph planned to visit the place in which Potiphar resided, and he sent word to him that he would put up with him at his house. Potiphar was enchanted with the honor and prospect for him, and also with the opportunity it would afford him of bringing about a marriage between Asenath and Joseph. But when he disclosed his plan to his daughter, she rejected it with indignation. Why shouldst thou desire to see me united with a vagabond, a slave? she cried out, one that does not even belong to our nation, but is the son of a Canaanites herdsman, a fellow that attempted to violate the honor of his mistress and in punishment for this misdemeanor was thrown into prison, to be liberated thence by Pharaoh for interpreting his dream. Nay, father, never will I become his wife. I am willing to marry the son of Pharaoh, the future ruler and king of Egypt. Potiphar promised his daughter not to speak of the plan again. At that moment Joseph's arrival was announced, and Asenath left the presence of her parents and withdrew to her own apartments. Standing by the window she saw Joseph pass, and she was so transported with his divine beauty and his indescribably noble carriage, that she burst into tears and said, poor, foolish me, what shall I do? I permitted myself to be misled by friends, who told me that Joseph was the son of a Canaanites shepherd. Now I behold the splendor that emanates from him, like unto the splendor of the sun, illuminating our house with his rays. In my audacity and folly I had looked down upon him, and had spoken absurd nonsense against him. I knew not that he was the son of God, as he must be, for among men such beauty as his does not exist. I pray thee, O God of Joseph, grant me pardon. It was my ignorance that made me speak like a fool. If my father will give me in marriage to Joseph, I will be his forever. Meantime Joseph had taken his seat at Potiphar's table, and he observed a maiden looking at him from one of the palace windows. He commanded that she be ordered away, for he never permitted women to gaze at him or come near to him. His supernatural beauty always fascinated the noble Egyptian ladies, and they were untiring in the efforts they made to approach him. But their attempts were in vain. He cherished the words of his father Jacob, who had admonished his son to keep aloof from the women of the Gentiles. Potiphar explained to Joseph that the maiden at the window was his virgin daughter, who never permitted men to abide near her. He was the first man she had ever looked upon. The father continued and made the request of Joseph to allow his daughter to pay him her respects. Joseph granted the favor he desired, and Asanath appeared and greeted him with the words, Peace be with thee, thou blessed of God most high, whereupon Joseph returned the salutation, Be thou blessed of the Lord, from whom flow all blessings. Asanath desired also to kiss Joseph, but he warded off the intimate greeting with the words, It is not meat that a God fearing man, who blesses the living God, and eats the blessed bread of life, who drinks of the blessed cup of immortality and incorruptibility, and anoints himself with the fragrant oil of holiness, should kiss a woman of a strange people, who blesses dead and unprofitable idols, and eats the protruded bread of idolatry, which chokes the soul of man, who drinks the libations of deceit, and anoints herself with the oil of destruction. These words uttered by Joseph touched Asanath unto tears. Out of compassion with her he bestowed his blessing upon her, calling upon God to pour out his spirit over her and make her to become a member of his people and his inheritance, and grant her a portion in the life eternal. The Legends of the Jews Volume 2 by Rabbi Lewis Ginsburg The Marriage of Joseph The appearance and the speech of Joseph made so deep an impression upon Asanath that no sooner had she reached her apartment than she divested herself of her robes of state, and took off her jewels, and put on sackcloth instead, strewed ashes upon her head, and supplicated God amid tears to grant her pardon for her sins. In this manner she spent seven days and seven nights in her chamber. Not even her seven attendants were permitted to enter her presence during the time of her penance. The morning of the eighth day an angel appeared unto her, and bad her put away her sackcloth and ashes, and array herself in state. For this day she had been born anew, he said, to eat the blessed bread of life, to drink the cup of life immortal, and anoint herself with the oil of life eternal. Asanath was about to set food and drink before her guest when she perceived a honeycomb of wondrous form and fragrance. The angel explained to her that it had been produced by the Bees of Paradise to serve as food for the angels and the elect of God. He took a small portion of it for himself, and the rest he put into Asanath's mouth, saying, From this day forth thy body shall bloom like the eternal flowers in Paradise, thy bones shall wax fat like the cedars thereof, strength inexhaustible shall be thine, thy youth shall never fade, and thy beauty never perish, and thou shalt be like unto a metropolis surrounded by a wall. At the request of Asanath the angel blessed also her seven attendants with the words, May the Lord bless you and make you to be seven pillars in the city of refuge. Thereupon the angel left her, and she saw him ascend heavenwards in a chariot of fire drawn by four steeds of fire. Now she knew that she had not been entertaining a human being but an angel. The celestial messenger had scarcely departed when a visit from Joseph was announced, and she hastened to array and adorn herself for his reception. When she washed her face she caught sight of it in the water, and saw it to be of such beauty as never before, so great had been the transformation wrought by the angel. When Joseph came he did not recognize her. He asked her who she was, Where to? she replied, I am thy maid servant, Asanath. I have cast away my idols, and this day a visitant came to me from heaven. He gave me to eat of the bread of life and to drink of the blessed cup, and he spake these words unto me. I give thee unto Joseph as his affianced wife, that he may be affianced husband, that he may be thy affianced husband for ever. And furthermore he said, Thy name shall not any more be called Asanath, but thy name shall be city of refuge, whither the nations shall flee for safety. And he added, I go to Joseph to tell him all these things that have reference to thee. Now, my Lord, thou knowest whether the man was with thee and spoke to thee in my behalf. Joseph confirmed all she had said, and they embraced and kissed each other in a token of their betrothal, which they celebrated by a banquet with Potiphar and his wife. The wedding took place later in the presence of Pharaoh, who set a golden crown on the head of the bridegroom and the bride, gave them his blessing, and made a seven-days feast in their honor, to which he invited the magnates and princes of Egypt and of other countries. And during the seven days of the wedding festivities the people were prohibited, under penalty of death, from doing any manner of work, they all were to join in the celebration of Joseph's marriage. End of Chapter 1, Part 20 on the twenty-first day of the second month, in the second of the seven years of famine, Jacob came down to Egypt, and his daughter-in-law Aseneth visited him. She marveled not a little at his beauty and strength, his shoulders and his arms were like an angel's, and his loins like a giant's. Jacob gave her his blessing, and with her husband she returned home, accompanied by the sons of Leah, while the sons of the handmaids remembering the evil they had once done unto Joseph kept aloof. Levi in particular had conceived a fondness for Aseneth. He was especially close to the living God, for he was a prophet and a sage. His eyes were open, and he knew how to read the celestial books written by the finger of God. He revealed to Aseneth that he had seen her future resting place in heaven, and it was built upon a rock and encompassed by a diamond wall. On their journey they met the son of Pharaoh, his successor to the throne, and he was so transported with Aseneth's beauty that he made the plan of murdering Joseph in order to secure possession of his wife. He summoned Simon and Levi, and by blandishments and promises sought to induce them to put Joseph out of the way. Simon was so enraged that he would have failed him at once had not his brother Levi, who was endowed with the gift of prophecy, devined his purpose, and frustrated it by stepping upon his foot. While whispering, Why art thou so angry and so wroth with the man? We that fear God may not repay evil with evil. Turning to the son of Pharaoh he told him that nothing would induce them to execute the wickedness he had proposed. Rather he advised him not to undertake ought against Joseph, else he would kill him with the sword that had served him in his slaughter of the inhabitants of Shechem. The culprit was seized with frantic alarm, and fell down before Simon and Levi to entreat their mercy. Levi raised him tip, saying, Fear not, but unbending thy wicked plan and harbour no evil design against Joseph. Nevertheless, the son of Pharaoh did not give up his criminal purpose. He approached the sons of Bilhah and Zilpa, and sought to accomplish through them what had failed with Simon and Levi. He called them into his presence and told them of a conversation between Joseph and Pharaoh that he had overheard. The former had said that he waited but to learn of the death of his father, Jacob, in order to do away with the sons of the handmaids, because they had been the ones to sell him into slavery. Their wrath excited against Joseph by these words, the sons of Bilhah and Zilpa assented to the proposition of the son of Pharaoh. It was arranged that the latter should kill Pharaoh, the friend of Joseph, while they would fall upon their brother and put him out of the way. They were furnished with six hundred able warriors and fifty spearmen for the purpose. The first part of the plan, the murder of Pharaoh, failed. The palace guard would not allow even the successor to the throne to enter his father's bedchamber, and he had to depart without having affected his object. Now Dan and Gad gave him the advice to take up his station with fifty archers in a secret place that a senath had to pass on her homeward journey. Thence he could make a successful attack upon her suite and gain possession of her. Naftali and Asher did not care to have anything to do with his hostile enterprise against Joseph. But Dan and Gad forced them into it, insisting that all the sons of the handmaids must stand together as men and repel the danger that threatened them. The Legends of the Jews, vol. 2 by Rabbi Louis Ginsburg, treachery punished. From their ambush the forces of the son of Pharaoh fell upon a senath and her six hundred attendants. They succeeded in hewing down the vanguard, and a senath had to take to flight. To her alarm she encountered the son of Pharaoh with fifty mounted men. Benjamin, seated in the same chariot with her, came to her rescue. For in spite of his youth he was exceedingly courageous. He descended from the chariot, gathered pebbles, and throwing them at the son of Pharaoh struck him on his forehead, and inflicted a severe wound. The chariot tear aided him by keeping him supplied with pebbles, which he cast at the fifty riders with such expert skill that he slew forty-eight of them with as many missiles. Meantime the sons of Leah arrived on the spot, and came to Asin Asaid for Levi. With his prophetic spirit has seen what was happening, and summoning his five brothers he had hastened thither. These six attacked the troops in ambush and cut them down. But the danger to Asinath was by no means removed. At this moment the sons of the handmaids threw themselves upon her and Benjamin, with drawn swords. It was their intention to kill them both, and flee to cover in the depths of the woods. But as soon as Asinath supplicated God for aid, the swords dropped from the hands of her assailants, and they saw that the lord was on the side of Asinath. They fell at her feet and entreated her grace. She allayed their anxiety with the words, Be courageous, and have no fear of your brethren, the sons of Leah. They are God-fearing men. Do but keep yourselves in hiding until their wrath is appeased. When the sons of Leah appeared, Asinath fell down before them, and amid tears she adjured them to spare the sons of the handmaids, and not repay with the evil they had meditated. Simon would not hear of making concessions. He insisted that the measure of their sins was full, and they must pay for them with their lives, for they had been the ones that had sold Joseph into slavery, and brought down untold misfortune upon Jacob and his sons. But Asinath did not leave off, and her urgent visions won the day. She succeeded in calming the anger of Simon, and in Levi she had a secret ally, but this prophet knew the hiding place of the sons of the handmaids, and he did not betray it to Simon, lest his wrath be increased at the sight of them. It was also Levi that restrained Benjamin from giving the death blow to the heavily wounded son of Pharaoh. So far from permitting harm to be done to him, he washed his wounds, put him into a chariot, and took him to Pharaoh, who thanked Levi from his heart for his services of loving kindness. Levi's efforts were vain. Three days later the son of Pharaoh died of the wounds inflicted by Benjamin, and from grief over the loss of his firstborn Pharaoh followed him soon after, departing this life at the age of one hundred and seventy-seven years. His crown he left to Joseph, who ruled over Egypt for forty-eight years thereafter. He in turn handed the crown on to the grandchild of Pharaoh, an infant in arms at the time of his grandfather's death, toward whom Joseph had acted in a father's stead all his life. The legends of the Jews, Volume 2 by Rabbi Louis Gensburg The Death and Burial of Joseph On his deathbed Joseph took an oath of his brethren, and he bade them on their deathbed likewise, take an oath of their sons, to carry his bones to Palestine, when God should visit them and bring them up out of the land of Egypt. He said, I that am a ruler could take my father's body up to the holy land while it was still intact. Of you I do but make the request that ye carry my bones from hence, and you may inter them in any spot in Palestine, for I know that the burial place of the father's was appointed to be the tomb only of the three patriarchs and their three wives. Joseph took the oath to carry his remains along with them when they left Egypt from his brethren, and not from his sons, to bury him at once in Palestine, for he feared the Egyptians would not give the latter permission to transport his bones, even if they recalled what Joseph had been allowed to do with his father's body. They would object that Joseph had been the viceroy, and a wish preferred by one of so high an estate could not be denied. Furthermore, he adjured his brethren not to leave Egypt until a redeemer should appear and announce his message with the words, for God I have surely visited you. A tradition which Joseph had received from his father, who bade it from Isaac, and Isaac in turn had buried it from Abraham, and he told them that God would redeem Israel through Moses as through the Messiah in this world as in the world to come, and the Egyptian redemption would begin in Tishri when Israel would be freed from slave labor and would be completed in the following Nissan when they would leave Egypt. Joseph also admonished his brethren to walk in the ways of the Lord so that they might become worthy of his grace and help, especially he impressed upon his brethren and his sons the virtue of chastity and a steadfast moral life. He told them all that had happened to him, the hatred of his brethren, the persecutions of the wife of Potiphar, the slander, envy, and malice of the Egyptians, to show how that those who fear the Lord are not forsaken by him in darkness or bondage or tribulation or distress. I was sold into slavery, he said, but the Lord delivered me. I was thrown into prison, but his strong hand helped me. I was tortured by hunger, but the Lord himself gave me sustenance. I was alone, and God comforted me. And as for you, if ye will walk in the ways of chastity and purity in patience and humility of heart, the Lord will dwell among you, for he loveth a chaste life, and if you, my children, will observe the commandments of the Lord, he will raise you up here in this world and bless you there in the world to come. If men seek to do evil unto you, pray for them, and you will be delivered from all evil by the Lord. On account of my forbearing patience, I received the daughter of my master's wife, and her dowry was a hundred talents of gold, and God gave me also beauty like the beauty of a flower, more than all the children of Jacob, and he preserved me unto mine old age in vigor and beauty, for in all things did I resemble Jacob. Joseph continued and told them the visions he had had, in which the future of Israel was revealed to him, and then he closed with the words, I know that the Egyptians will oppress you after my death, but God will execute vengeance for your sakes, and he will lead you to the land of promise of your fathers. But ye shall surely carry my bones with you from hence. For if my remains are taken to Canaan, the Lord will be with you in the light, and Bihar will be with the Egyptians in the darkness. Also take with you the bones of your mother, Zilpa, and bury them near the sepulcher of Bilhah and Rachel. These words ended. He stretched out his feet and slept his last eternal sleep, and the whole of Israel mourned him, and the whole of Egypt was in great grief, for he had been a compassionate friend to the Egyptians, too, and he had done good unto them, and given them wise counsel and assistance in all their undertakings. Joseph's wish that his bones would rest in the Holy Land was fulfilled when the Israelites went forth from Egypt, and no less a personage than Moses applied himself to its execution. Such was Joseph's reward for the devotion he had displayed in the internment of his father's body, for he had done all things needful himself, leaving not to others. Therefore so great a man as Moses busied himself with the realization of Joseph's wish. For three days and three nights preceding the Exodus, Moses hunted up and down through the land of Egypt for Joseph's coffin, because he knew that Israel could not leave Egypt without heeding the oath given to Joseph. But his troubles was in vain. The coffin was nowhere to be found. Sarah, the daughter of Asher, met Moses tired and exhausted, and in answer to her question about the cause of his weariness he told her of his fruitless search. Sarah took him to the Nile River and told him that the leaden coffin made for Joseph by the Egyptians had been sunk there after having been scaled up on all sides. The Egyptians had done this at the instigation and with the help of the magicians, who, knowing that Israel could not leave the country without the coffin, had used their arch to put it in a place whence it could not be removed. Moses now took Joseph's cup and he cut four flat pieces from it, and engraved a lion on one of them, an eagle on the second, a bull on the third, and a human figure on the fourth. He threw the first with the lion into the river, saying at the same time, Joseph, Joseph, the hour for the redemption of Israel hath arrived. The shekinah lingers here only for thy sake. The clouds of glory await thy coming. If that wilt show thyself well and good. If not, then we are clear from our oath, but the coffin did not appear. Then Moses threw the second plate into the water, that with the figure of the eagle, repeating the same words, but again the coffin did not rise from the bed of the Nile, and there it remained too. When he threw in the third plate bearing the figure of the bull and called upon Joseph a third time to come forth, but the fourth plate with the human figure and the fourth invocation to Joseph brought the coffin to the surface of the water. Moses seized it and enjoyed. He bore it off. While Israel had been busy gathering gold and silver from the Egyptians, Moses had been thinking of nothing but Joseph's coffin, and his happiness was great that he had been permitted to fulfill the wish of Joseph. During the 40 years of wandering through the desert, the coffin was in the midst of Israel as a reward for Joseph's promise to his brethren. I will nourish you and care of you, God had said. As thou livest, for forty years they will take care of thy bones. All this time in the desert Israel carried two shrines with them, the one the coffin containing the bones of the dead man Joseph, the other the ark containing the covenant of the living God. The wayfarers who saw the two receptacles wondered, and they would ask, how doth the ark of the dead come next to the ark of the ever living? The answer was, the dead man enshrined in the one fulfilled the commandments enshrined in the other. In the latter it is written, I am the Lord thy God, and he said, Am I in the place of God? Here it is written, Thou shalt have no other gods before my face, and he said, I fear God. Here it is written, Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, and therefore he did not swear by God but said by the life of Pharaoh. Here it is written, Remember the Sabbath day, and he said to the overseer of his palace on Friday, slay and make ready, meaning for the Sabbath. Here it is written, Honor thy father and thy mother, and he said, When his father desired to send him to his brethren, here I go, although he knew it was perilous for him to go. Here it is written, Thou shalt not kill, and he refrained from murdering Potiphar, when Potiphar's wife urged him to do it. Here it is written, Thou shalt not commit adultery, and he scorned the adulterous proposals of Potiphar's wife. Here it is written, Thou shalt not steal, and he stole nothing from Pharaoh, but gathered up all the money and brought it unto Pharaoh's house. Here it is written, Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor, and he toed his father nothing of what his brethren had done to him, though what he might have toed was the truth. Here it is written, Thou shalt not covet, and he did not covet Potiphar's wife. On their arrival in the Holy Land the Israelites buried the bones of Joseph and Shechem. For God spake to the tribe saying, From Shechem did ye steal him and unto Shechem shall ye return him. God who is so solicitous about the dead bodies of the pious is even more solicitous about their souls which stand before him like angels and do their service ministering unto him. End of chapter 1 part 21