When the Egyptian nobles observed their viceroy completing his
preparations to meet his father, they did the same.[313] Indeed, Joseph
had issued a proclamation throughout the land, threatening with death
all that did not go forth to meet Jacob. The procession that
accompanied him was composed of countless men, arrayed in byssus and
purple, and marching to the sound of all sorts of musical instruments.
Even the women of Egypt had a part in the reception ceremonies. They
ascended to the roofs of the houses and the walls of the cities, ready
to greet Jacob with the music of cymbals and timbrels.
Joseph wore the royal crown upon his head, Pharaoh had yielded it to
him for the occasion. He descended from his chariot when he was at a
distance of about fifty ells from his father, and walked the rest of
the way on foot, and his example was followed by the princes and nobles
of Egypt. When Jacob caught sight of the approaching procession, he was
rejoiced,[314] and even before he recognized Joseph, he bowed down
before him, but for permitting his father to show him this mark of
honor, punishment was visited upon Joseph. He died an untimely death,
before the years of life assigned to him had elapsed.[315]
That no harm befall Jacob from a too sudden meeting with him, Joseph
sent his oldest son ahead with five horses, the second son following
close after him in the same way. As each son approached, Jacob thought
he beheld Joseph, and so he was prepared gradually to see him face to
face.[316]
Meantime Jacob had espied, from where he was seated, a man in royal
robes among the Egyptians, a crown upon his head, and a purple mantle
over his shoulders, and he asked Judah who it might be. When he was
told that it was Joseph, his joy was great over the high dignity
attained by his son.
By this time Joseph had come close to his father, and he bowed himself
before him down to the earth, and all the people with him likewise
prostrated themselves.[317] Then Joseph fell upon his father's neck,
and he wept bitterly. He was particularly grieved that he had permitted
his father to bow down before him but a little while before without
hindering it.[318] At the very moment when Joseph embraced his father,
Jacob was reciting the Shema', and he did not allow himself to be
interrupted in his prayer,[319] but then he said, "When they brought me
the report of the death of Joseph, I thought I was doomed to double
death—that I should lose this world and the world to come as well. The
Lord had promised to make me the ancestor of twelve tribes, and as the
death of my son rendered it impossible that this promise should be
realized, I feared I had incurred the doom by my own sins, and as a
sinner I could not but expect to forfeit the future world, too. But now
that I have beheld thee alive, I know that my death will be only for
the world here below."[320]
Such was the manner of Jacob's arrival in Egypt. He came with his whole
family, sixty-nine persons they were in all, but the number was raised
to seventy by the birth of Jochebed, afterward the mother of Moses,
which took place when the cavalcade had advanced to the space between
the one and the other city wall.[321] All the males in his family were
married men; even Pallu and Hezron, the latter of whom was but one year
old at the time of their migration, and the former but two years, had
the wives with them that had been chosen for them by their
parents.[322] In general, all the sons and grandsons of Jacob had
married young, some of them had been fathers at the age of seven.[323]
Joseph took some from among his brethren, and presented them to
Pharaoh. He chose the weakest of them, that the king might not be
tempted to retain them in his service as warriors.[324] And as he did
not desire his family to live at close quarters with the Egyptians and
perhaps amalgamate with them, he introduced them as shepherds. The
Egyptians worshipped the constellation of the rain, and paid divine
honors to animals, and they kept aloof from shepherds. Pharaoh
therefore was inclined to grant Joseph's wish, to give them the pasture
land of Goshen for their sojourning place, the land that was theirs by
right, for the Pharaoh that took Sarah away from Abraham by force had
given it to her as her irrevocable possession.[325]
In their conversation with Pharaoh the brethren of Joseph made it plain
to the Egyptian king that it was not their intention to remain in Egypt
forever, it was to be only a temporary dwelling-place.[326]
Then Joseph set Jacob his father before Pharaoh, and when the king saw
him, he said to Og, who happened to be with him at that moment, "Seest
thou! Thou wast wont to call Abraham a sterile mule, and here is his
grandson with a family of seventy persons!" Og would not believe his
own eyes, he thought Abraham was standing before him, so close was the
resemblance between Jacob and his progenitor. Then Pharaoh asked about
Jacob's age, to find out whether he actually was Jacob, and not
Abraham. And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, "The days of the years of my
pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years," using the word pilgrimage
in reference to life on earth, which the pious regard as a temporary
sojourn in alien lands. "Few and evil," he continued, "have been the
days of the years of my life. In my youth I had to flee to a strange
land on account of my brother Esau, and now, in my old age, I must
again go to a strange land, and my days have not attained unto the days
of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their
pilgrimage." These words sufficed to convince Pharaoh and Og that the
man standing before them was not Abraham, but his grandson.[327]
When Jacob uttered the words, "The days of the years of my pilgrimage
have been few and evil," God said to him: "Jacob, I saved thee out of
the hands of Esau and Laban, I restored Joseph unto thee, and made him
to be a king and a ruler, and yet thou speakest of few and evil days.
Because of thy ingratitude, thou wilt not attain unto the days of the
years of the life of thy fathers," and Jacob died at an age
thirty-three years less than his father Isaac's.[328]
On going out from the presence of Pharaoh, Jacob blessed the king with
the words, "May the years still in store for me be given unto thee, and
may the Nile overflow its banks henceforth again and water the land."
His words were fulfilled. In order to show that the pious are a
blessing for the world, God caused the Nile to rise above its bed and
fructify the land of Egypt.[329]