After Jacob had blessed each of his sons separately, he addressed
himself to all of them together, saying: "According to my power did I
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 redound
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 goodly barley of Judah. The tribes should be mutually
helpful, one to another.[403]
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 bier,[404] thus: "Joseph, being
king, shall not help to bear it, nor shall Levi, who is destined to
carry the Ark of the Shekinah. Judah, Issachar, and Zebulon 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 Shekinah
dwelling in the midst of them.[405]
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 thy days against the Egyptians."
Also he admonished his sons, 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."[406]
In resignation to the will of God,[407] Jacob awaited his end, and
death enveloped him gently. Not the Angel of Death ended his life, but
the Shekinah 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 Shekinah. 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 two
Patriarchs, and none beside among 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.[408]
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 byssus
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 of Ishmael, and the lion Judah, the bravest of his sons,
surrounded the sumptuous bier 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 down 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."[409]
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 Asenath, 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' mourning made for him.[410]
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.[411]
Joseph ordered the physicians to embalm the corpse. 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.[412] 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 and 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 for even 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 fulfil his wish.
He acted according to the maxim, "Seek to win over the accuser, that he
cause thee no annoyance."[413]
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.[414] At first Pharaoh refused the permission craved by
Joseph, who, however, urged him to consider the solemn oath he had
given his dying father, to bury him in Canaan. Pharaoh desired him to
seek absolution from the oath. But Joseph rejoined, "Then will I 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 counsel 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 to his own place, for he knew Hebrew beside 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.[415]
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 bier of Jacob was made up of the
princes and nobles of Egypt as well as the common people.[416] The bier
was borne by the sons of Jacob. In obedience to his wish not even their
children were allowed to touch it.[417] It was fashioned of pure gold,
the border thereof inlaid with onyx stones and bdellium, and the cover
was gold woven work joined to the bier with threads that were held
together with hooks of onyx stones and bdellium. Joseph placed a large
golden crown upon the head of his father, and a golden sceptre he put
in his hand, arraying him like a living king.
The funeral cortege was arranged in this order: 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 bier, 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 accoutrements and weapons
of war. Fifty of Jacob's servants preceded the bier, 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.[418] But the greatest honor conferred upon Jacob was
the presence of the Shekinah, who accompanied the cortege.[419]
The Canaanites had no intention at first to take part in the mourning
made for Jacob, but when they saw the honors shown him, they joined the
procession of the Egyptians,[420] loosing the girdles of their garments
as a sign of grief.[421] Also 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 bier, 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
Machpelah, 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. For, continued Esau, "though I sold my
birthright unto Jacob, I yet 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 Naphtali, the fleet runner, back
to Egypt to fetch the bill. Meantime, while this altercation was going
on between Esau and the others, Hushim 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 Naphtali should return from Egypt
with the bill of sale, he exclaimed, with indignation, "My grandfather
shall lie here unburied until Naphtali 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. Esau being dead, his brother's burial could
proceed without hindrance, and Joseph interred him in the Cave of
Machpelah in accordance with 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.[422]
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 in vain. God
spoke, saying, "As I live, he shall not behold the majesty of the
Lord."[423]