holding them in their hands, and worshipped him falling down to the
ground. And he debonairly saluted them and demanded them, saying: Is
your father in good health of whom ye told me, liveth he yet? They
answered: Thy servant our father is in good health and liveth yet, and
kneeled down and worshipped him. Then, said he, casting his eyes on his
brother Benjamin that was of one mother, and said: Is this your young
brother of whom ye told me? And also said, God be merciful to thee, my
son; he hied him from themward, for he was moved in all his spirits and
wept on his brother, and went into his bedchamber. After this he washed
his visage and came out making good countenance and commanded to set
bread on the board, and after that he set his brethren in order, each
after their age, and ate together, and Joseph sat and ate with the
Egyptians. For it was not lawful to the Egyptians to eat with the
Hebrews. And each of them were well served, but Benjamin had the best
part, and they ate and drank so much that they were drunken.
Then Joseph commanded the steward of his house to fill their sacks with
wheat as much as they might receive, and the money of the wheat put it
into every man's sack, and take my cup of silver, and the money of the
youngest, and put that in his sack. And all this was done. And on the
morn betimes they were suffered to depart with their asses. And when
they were gone out of the town and a little on their way, then Joseph
said to his steward: Make thee ready and ride after, and say to them:
Why have ye done evil for good? The cup that my lord is accustomed to
drink in, ye have stolen, ye might not do a worse thing. He did as
Joseph had commanded and overtook them, and said to them all by order
like as he had charge, which answered: Why saith your lord so, and doth
to us his servants such letting? The money that we found in our sacks we
brought again to thee from the land of Canaan, and how may it follow
that we should steal any gold or silver from the house of thy lord?
Look! at whom it be found of us all thy servants, let him die. Which
said to them: Be it after your sentence, at whom that it ever be found
he shall be my servant and the others shall go free and be not guilty.
Then he hied and set down all their sacks, beginning at the oldest unto
the youngest, and at last found the cup in the mouth of the sack of
Benjamin. Then they all for sorrow cut and rent their clothes, and laded
their asses again, and returned all into the town again. Then Judah
entered first with his brethren unto Joseph and all they together fell
down platte to the ground. To whom Joseph said: Why have ye done thus?
Know not ye that there is no man like to me in the science of knowledge?
To whom Judah answered: What shall we answer to thee, my lord; or what
shall we speak or rightfully desire? God hath found and remembered the
iniquity of us thy servants, for we be all thy servants, yea, we and he
at whom the cup was found. Joseph answered: God forbid that I should so
do, whosoever stole the cup shall be my servant, and go ye your way, for
ye shall be free and go to your father. Then Judah approached near him
and spake with a hardy cheer to him and said: I beseech thee my lord to
hear me thy servant that I may say to thine audience a word, and that
thou wilt not be wroth to thy servant. Thou art next to Pharaoh; my
lord, thou demandedst first of us thy servants: Have ye a father or
brother? And we answered to thee, my lord: Our father is an old man and
we have a brother a young child which was born to him in his old age,
whose brother of the same mother is dead, and he is an only son whom the
father loveth tenderly. Thou saidst to us thy servants: Bring him hither
to me that I may see. We told to thee my lord for truth: our father may
not forego the child, if he forego him certainly he shall die. And thou
saidst to us, thy servants: But if ye bring him not with you, ye shall
no more see my visage. Then when we came to our father and told him all
these things, and our father bade us to return and buy more corn. To
whom we said: We may not go thither but if our youngest brother go with
us, for if he be absent we dare not approach, ne come to the presence of
the man; and he answered to us: Ye know well that my wife brought to me
forth but two sons, that one went out, and ye said that wild beasts had
devoured him, and yet I heard never of him ne he appeared not. If now
ye should take this my son and anything happened to him in the way ye
should bring my hoar hair with sorrow to hell. Therefore if I should
come home to my father and bring not the child with me, sith the soul
and health of my father dependeth of this child, and see that he is not
come with us, he shall die and we thy servants should lead his old age
with wailing and sorrow to hell. I myself shall be thy proper servant
which have received him upon my faith and have promised for him, saying
to my father: If I bring him not again I shall be guilty of the sin to
my father ever after. I shall abide and continue thy servant for the
child in the ministry and service of thee my lord. I may not depart, the
child being absent, lest I be witness of the sorrow that my father shall
take. Wherefore I beseech thee to suffer this child to go to his father
and receive me into thy service. Thus said Judah, with much more; as
Josephus, Antiquitatum, rehearseth more piteously, and saith moreover
that the cause why he did do hide the cup in Benjamin's sack, was to
know whether they loved Benjamin or hated him as they did him, what time
they sold him to the Ishmaelites.
Then this request made, Joseph might no longer forbear, but commanded
them that stood by to withdraw them, and when all men were gone out sauf
he and his brethren, he began to say to them weeping: I am Joseph your
brother, liveth yet my father? The brethren were so afeard that they
could not speak ne answer to him. Then he debonairly said to them: Come
hither to me; and when they came near him he said: I am Joseph your
brother that ye sold into Egypt; be ye not afeard nor think not hard
unto you that ye sold me into these regions. God hath sent me tofore you
into Egypt for your health. It is two years since the famine began, and
yet been five years to come in which men may not ear, sow, ne reap. God
hath sent me tofore you that ye should be reserved on the earth, and
that ye may have meat to live by. It is not by your counsel that I was
sent hither, but by the will of God, which hath ordained me father of
Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and prince in all the land of Egypt.
Hie you, and go to my father, and say ye to him: This word sendeth thee
thy son Joseph: God hath made me lord of the universal land of Egypt,
come to me lest thou die, and thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen.
Thou shalt be next me, thou and thy sons and the sons of thy sons, and I
shall feed thy sheep, thy beasts and all that thou hast in possession.
Yet rest five year to come of famine, therefore come lest thou perish,
thy house, and all that thou owest. Lo! your eyes and the eyes of my
brother Benjamin see that my mouth speaketh these words to you. Show ye
to my father all my glory and all that ye have seen in Egypt. Hie ye and
bring him to me. This said, he embraced his brother Benjamin about his
neck and wept upon each of them. After this they durst better speak to
him. Anon it was told and known all about in the King's hall that
Joseph's brethren were come. And Pharaoh was joyful and glad thereof and
all his household. And Pharaoh said to Joseph that he should say to his
brethren: Lade ye your beasts and go into the land of Canaan, and bring
from thence your father and kindred, and come to me, and I shall give
you all the goods of Egypt, that ye may eat the marrow of the earth.
Command ye also that they take carriages of this land of Egypt, for the
carriage of their children and wives, and say to them: Take your father
and come as soon as ye may, and leave nothing behind you, for all the
best things shall be yours. The sons of Israel did as they were
commanded. To whom Joseph gave carriages after the commandment of
Pharaoh, and meat to eat by the way. He commanded to give to every each
two garments. To Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver, with
five garments of the best, and also he sent clothing to his father,
adding to them ten asses which were laden with all riches of Egypt, and
as many asses laden and bearing bread and victual to spend by the way.
And thus he let his brethren depart from him saying: Be ye not wroth in
the way. Then they thus departing came into the land of Canaan to their
father, and showed all this to their father, and said: Joseph thy son
liveth and he lordeth in all the land of Egypt.
When Jacob heard this he awoke as a man had been awaked suddenly out of
his sleep, yet nevertheless he believed them not, and they told to him
all the order of the matter. When he saw the carriage and all that he
had sent, his spirit revived and said: It sufficeth to me if Joseph my
son yet live, I shall go and see him ere I die. Then Israel went forth
with all that he had and came to the pit where tofore he had sworn to
God; and slew there beasts to make sacrifices to the God of Isaac his
father. He heard God by a vision that same night saying to him: Jacob,
Jacob, to whom he answered: I am here all ready. God said to him: I am
strongest God of thy father Isaac, dread thee not, but descend down into
Egypt. I shall make thee to grow there into great people. I shall
descend with thee thither, and I shall bring thee again when thou
returnest. Joseph soothly shall put his hands upon thine eyes. Jacob
then arose on the morn early, and his sons took him with their children
and wives and set them on the carriages that Pharaoh had sent to bring
him and all that he had into the land of Canaan. And so came into Egypt
with all his progeny, sons and children, etc.
These be the names of the sons of Israel that entered with him into
Egypt. The first begotten Reuben with his children four. Simeon with his
seven sons. Levi with his three sons. Judah and his sons three. Issachar
and his four sons. Zebulon and his sons three. These were sons of Leah
that Jacob gat in Mesopotamia, and Dinah his daughter. All these sons
and daughters were thirty-three. Gad also entered with his children
seven. Asher with his children five and of his children's children two.
These were sons of Zilpah, in number sixteen. The sons of Rachel were
Joseph and Benjamin. Joseph had two sons in the land of Egypt by his
wife Asenath, Manasseh and Ephraim. The sons of Benjamin were ten. All
these children that came of Rachel were in number fourteen. Dan entered
with one son, and Naphtali with four sons. These were the children of
Bilhah; they were in number seven. All the souls that were issued of his
seed that entered into Egypt with him, without the wives of his sons,
were sixty-six. The sons of Joseph that were born in Egypt twain. Summa
of all the souls of the house of Jacob that entered into Egypt were in
all seventy.
Jacob sent them tofore him Judah unto Joseph, to show to him his coming.
And he came to Joseph in Goshen, and anon Joseph ascended his chariot
and went for to meet his father, and when he saw him, he embraced him
meekly and wept. And his father received him joyously and embraced also
him. Then said the father to Joseph: Now shall I die joyously because I
have seen thy visage. Then said Joseph to his brethren and to all the
house of his father: I shall go and ascend to Pharaoh and shall say to
him, that my brethren and the house of my father that were in the land
of Canaan be come to me, and be men keeping sheep, and can the manner
well for to keep the flocks of sheep, and that they have brought with
them their beasts, and all that ever they had. When he shall call you
and ask you of what occupation ye be, ye shall say: We be shepherds, thy
servants, from our childhood unto now, and our fathers also. This shall
ye say that ye may dwell in the land of Goshen, for the Egyptians have
spite unto herdmen of sheep. Then Joseph entered tofore Pharaoh and said
to him: My father, my brethren, their sheep and beasts be come from the
land of Canaan, and be in the land of Goshen. And he brought five of his
brethren tofore the king, whom he demanded of what occupation they were
of. They answered: We be keepers of sheep, thy servants, we and our
fathers, we be come to dwell in thy land, for there is no grass for the
flocks of sheep of us thy servants, the famine is so great in the land
of Canaan. We beseech thee that thou command us thy servants to dwell in
the land of Goshen. Then said the king to Joseph: Thy father and thy
brethren be come to thee, the land of Egypt is at thy commandment, make
thou them to dwell in the best place, and deliver to them the land of
Goshen. And if thou know them for conning, ordain they to be masters of
my beasts. After this Joseph brought his father in, and made him stand
tofore the king which blessed him, and was demanded of the king how old
he was. He answered: The days of the pilgrimage of my life be an hundred
and thirty years, small and evil, and yet I am not come unto the days of
my fathers that they have lived. And he blessed the king and went out.
Then Joseph gave to his father and brethren possession in Egypt in the
best soil of Rameses like as Pharaoh had commanded, and there fed them,
giving to each of them victual.
In all the world was scarcity of bread, and hunger and famine oppressed
specially and most, the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan. Of which
lands Joseph gat all the money for selling of wheat, and brought it into
the king's treasury. When all people lacked money, all Egypt came to
Joseph saying: Give us bread, why die we to the lacking money. To whom
he answered: Bring to me your beasts and I shall give you for them
victuals, if ye have no money: which when they brought, he gave to them
victuals and food for horses, sheep, oxen and asses, and sustained them
one year for changing of their beasts. Then came they again the second
year and said: We hide not from thee our lord that our money is failed
and also our beasts be gone, and there is nothing left but our bodies
and our land. Why then shall we die in thy sight? And we ourselves and
also our land shall be thine, buy us into bondship and servitude of the
king, and give us seed to sow lest the earth turn into wilderness. Then
Joseph bought all the land of Egypt, every man selling his possessions
for the vehement hunger that they had. He subdued all unto Pharaoh, and
all his people from the last terms of Egypt unto the utterest ends of
the same, except the land longing to the priests, which was given to
them by the king, to whom were given victuals openly out of all the
barns and garners, and therefore they were not compelled to sell their
possessions. Then said Joseph to all the peoples: Lo, now ye see and
know that Pharaoh oweth and is in possession of you and of your land.
Take to you seed and sow ye the fields that ye may have fruit. The fifth
part thereof ye shall give to the king and four parts I promise to you
to sow, and for meat to your servants and to your children. Which
answered: Our health is in thine hand, let our lord only behold us and
we shall gladly serve the king. From that time unto this present day, in
all the land of Egypt the fifth part is paid to the king; and it is
holden for a law, except the land longing to the priests which is free
from this condition.
Then Israel dwelled in Egypt in the land of Goshen, and was in
possession thereof. He increased and multiplied greatly, and lived
therein seventeen years. And all the years of his life were an hundred
and seven and forty years. When he understood that the day of his death
approached, he called to him his son Joseph and said to him: If I may
find so much grace in thy sight, do to me so much mercy as thou promise
and swear that thou bury me not in Egypt, but that I may rest with my
fathers, and take and carry me from this land, and lay me in the
sepulchre of my forefathers. To whom Joseph answered: I shall do that
thou hast commanded. Then said he: Swear to me, and so he swore. And
then Israel adored and worshipped our Lord, and turned him toward his
bed's head. Then this done, anon after it was told to Joseph that his
father was sick and feeble; who anon took his sons Manasseh and Ephraim
and came to his father. Anon it was told to the father: Lo thy son
Joseph cometh to thee, which then was comforted, and sat up in his bed.
And Joseph entered in, and Jacob said: Almighty God appeared to me in
Luz which is in the land of Canaan, and he blessed me and said: I shall
increase thee and multiply thee into tourbes of peoples, I shall give to
thee this land and to thy seed after thee in sempiternal possession,
therefore thy two sons that be born to thee in this land of Egypt tofore
I came hither to thee, shall be my sons Ephraim and Manasseh, they shall
be reputed to me as Simeon and Reuben. The other that thou shalt get
after them shall be thine, and shall be called in the name of their
brethren in their possessions. Then he, seeing Joseph's sons, said to
him: Who be these children? Joseph answered: They be my sons which God
hath given to me in this place. Bring them hither, said he, to me that I
may bless them. Israel's eyes were dimmed and might not see clearly for
great age. He took them to him and kissed them and said to Joseph: I am
not defrauded from the sight of thee, and furthermore God hath showed to
me thy seed. Then when Joseph took them from his father's lap, he
worshipped him kneeling low to the earth, and set Ephraim on his right
side, and on the left side of Israel, and Manasseh on the right side of
his father Israel, which took his right hand and laid it on the head of
Ephraim the younger brother, and his left hand on the head of Manasseh
which was first born. Then Jacob blessed the sons of Joseph and said:
God, in whose sight walked my fathers Abraham and Isaac, God that hath
fed me from my youth unto this present day, the angel that hath kept me
from all evil bless these children, and my name be called on them, and
the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, and grow they into multitude
upon earth. Then Joseph seeing that his father set his right hand upon
the head of Ephraim the younger brother took it heavily, and took his
father's hand and would have laid it on the head of Manasseh, and said
to his father; Nay father, it is not convenient, that ye do, this is the
first begotten son, set thy right hand on his head. Which renied that
and would not do so, but said: I wot, my son, I wot what I do, and this
son shall increase into peoples and multiply, but his younger brother
shall be greater than he, and his seed shall grow into gentiles, and
blessed them, saying that same time: In thee shall be blessed Israel,
and shall be said: God make thee like to Ephraim and Manasseh. And he
said to Joseph his son: Lo! now I die and God shall be with you, and
shall reduce and bring you again into the land of your fathers; and I
give to thee one part above thy brethren, which I gat and won from the
hand of the Amorite with my sword and my bow. Then Jacob called his sons
tofore him and said to them:
Gather ye altogether tofore me, that I may show to you things that be to
come, and hear your father Israel. And there he told to each of them his
condition singularly. And when he had blessed his twelve sons he
commanded them to bury him with his fathers in a double spelunke which
is in the field of Ephron the Hittite against Mamre in the land of
Canaan which Abraham bought. And this said he gathered to him his feet
and died. Which anon as Joseph saw, he fell on his visage and kissed
him. He commanded to his masters of physic and medicines, which were his
servants, that they should embalm the body of his father with sweet
spices aromatic; which was all done, and then went they sorrowing him
forty days. The Egyptians wailed him seventy days, and when the wailing
was past, Joseph did say to Pharaoh how he had sworn and promised to
bury him in the land of Canaan. To whom Pharaoh said: Go and bury thy
father like as thou hast sworn. Which then took his father's body and
went, and with him were accompanied all the aged men of Pharaoh's house,
and the noblest men of birth of all the land of Egypt, the house of
Joseph with his brethren, without the young children, flocks and beasts,
which they left in the land of Goshen. He had in his fellowship
chariots, carts and horsemen, and was a great tourbe and company, and
came over Jordan where as they hallowed the exequies by great wailing
seven days long. And when they of the country saw this plaint and
sorrowing they said: This is a great sorrow to the Egyptians. And that
same place is named yet the bewailing of Egypt. The children of Israel
did as they were commanded, and bare him into the land of Canaan, and
buried him in the double spelunke which Abraham had bought. Then when
Jacob the father was buried, Joseph with all his fellowship returned
into Egypt. Then his brethren after the death of their father spake
together privily, and dreading that Joseph would avenge the wrong and
evil that they had done to him, came to him and said: Thy father
commanded us ere he died that we should say thus to thee: We pray thee
that thou wilt forget, and not remember the sin and trespass of thy
brethren, ne the malice that they executed in thee. We beseech thee
that thou wilt forgive to thy father, servant of God, this wickedness.
Which when Joseph heard he wept bitterly, and his brethren came to him
kneeling low to the ground and worshipped him, and said, We be thy
servants. To whom he answered: Be ye nothing afeard ne dread you not,
ween ye that ye may resist God's will? Ye thought to have done to me
evil, but God hath turned it into good, and hath exalted me as ye see
and know, that he should save much people. Be ye nothing afeard, I shall
feed you and your children. And comforted them with fair words, and
spake friendly and joyously to them. And he abode and dwelled still in
Egypt with all the house of his father, and lived an hundred and ten
years, and saw the sons of Ephraim in to the third generation. After
these things he said to his brethren: After my death, God shall visit
you and shall do you depart from this land unto the land that he
promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. When that time shall come, take
my bones and lead them with you from this place, and then died. Whose
body was embalmed with sweet spices and aromatics and laid in a chest in
Egypt.
HERE NEXT FOLLOWETH THE HISTORY OF MOSES
_Which is read in-the Church on Mid-lent Sunday_
These be the names of the children of Israel that entered into Egypt
with Jacob, and each entered with their household and meiny. Reuben,
Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulon, Benjamin, Dan, Naphtali, Gad,
and Asher; they were all in number that entered seventy. Joseph was
tofore in Egypt. And when he was dead and all his brethren and kindred,
the children of Israel grew and multiplied greatly, and filled the
earth. Then was there a new king upon Egypt which knew nothing of
Joseph, and said to his people: Lo! and see the people of Israel is
great, and stronger than we be, come and let us wisely oppress them,
lest they multiply and give us battle and fight with us and drive us out
of our land. Then he ordained provosts and masters over them to set them
awork and put them to affliction of burdens. They builded to Pharaoh two
towns, Pithom and Raamses. How much more they oppressed them, so much
the more they increased and multiplied. The Egyptians hated the children
of Israel and put them to affliction, scorning and having envy at them,
and oppressed bitterly their life with hard work and sore labors of
tile and clay, and grieved all them in such works. Then Pharaoh
commanded to his people saying: Whatsomever is born of males cast ye
into the river, and what of women keep ye them and let ye them live.