All the years of Jacob's sojourn in Egypt, Asenath, the wife of Joseph,
was his constant nurse. When she saw his end drawing 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 Shekinah. Therefore, bring thy sons
hither, that Jacob give them his blessing."[359]
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 rights
of the first-born unto himself, and, if so, would he divest Reuben of
such rights altogether? And why had his father buried his mother Rachel
by the wayside, and not carried her body to the family tomb at
Machpelah?[360]
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 fulfilment
of the Divine promise, God appeared unto Jacob, and He said, "I
promised to fulfil thy wish, and the time of fulfilment hath come."
The holy spirit made known to Jacob that Joseph was coming to him,[361]
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.[362]
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 didst
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.[363] When I left my father's house to go to
Haran, I offered up a prayer at Beth-el, and I promised to give unto
God 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 unto me
in Beth-el, and He said, Be fruitful and multiply. But after this
blessing no son was born unto me except Benjamin alone, and 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.[364]
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.[365]
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 sepulchre?" "No," replied
Jacob, "she died in the spring time, 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
to me." Unto her prayer God will hearken, and He will have mercy upon
Israel. Therefore was Rachel 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 Shekinah 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 Asenath 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 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 vain. Joseph concluded that the time was
not favorable 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 do likewise, saying, "Be not content with your high station, for
worldly honors are but for a time. Entreat God to be merciful and let
the Shekinah 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 Reuben 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.[366] 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.[367] 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![368] I know
things not known to thee—I know what Reuben did to Bilhah, and what
Judah did to Tamar. How much more do I know things known to thee![369]
Thinkest thou I know not what thy brethren did to thee, because thou
wouldst betray nothing whenever I asked thee?[370] 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 standstill, 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.[371]
The blessing bestowed upon his grandchildren by Jacob was as follows:
"O that it be the will of God that ye walk in the ways of the Lord like
unto my fathers Abraham and Isaac,[372] and may the angel that hath
redeemed me from all evil give his aid unto Joshua and Gideon,[373] 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."[374]
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.[375]
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."[376]
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.[377] Besides, he had a prior claim upon the
city. Shechem, son of Hamor, the master of the city, had given it to
Dinah as a present, and the wife of Joseph, Asenath, being the daughter
of Dinah, the city belonged to him by right.[378]
Adam's clothes Jacob had 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.[379]
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 Pakod in
addressing the people.[380]