Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Genesis Reader

And he blessed Joseph, and said: The Lord, before whom my fathers Abraham and Izhak, did serve; the Lord who hath fed me since I have been unto this day,

be pleased that the angel whom thou didst ordain for me, to redeem me from all evil, may bless the children; and let my name be called upon them, and the names of my fathers Abrabam and Izhak. And as the fishes of the sea in multiplying are multiplied in the sea, so may the children of Joseph be multiplied abundantly in the midst of the earth.

And Joseph saw that his father placed his right hand upon Ephraim's head; and it was evil before him, and he uplifted his father's hand to remove it from off the head of Ephraim, that it might rest on the head of Menasheh.

But his father was not willing, and said, I know, my son, I know that he is the firstborn, and also that he will be a great people, and will also be multiplied; yet will his younger brother be greater than he, and his sons be greater among the nations.

And he blessed them in that day, saying, In thee, Joseph my son, shall the house of Israel bless their infants in the day of their circumcision, saying, The Lord set thee as Ephraim and as Menasheh. And in the numbering of the tribes the prince of Ephraim shall be numbered before the prince of Menasheh. And he appointed that Ephraim should be before Menasheh.

and I, behold, I have given to thee the city of Shekem, one portion for a gift above thy brethren, which I took from the hand of the Amoraee at the time that you went into the midst of it, and I arose and helped you with my sword and with my bow.

Reuben thou art my firstborn, the beginning of the strength of my generation, and the chief event of my thoughts To thee belonged the birthright, and the high priesthood, and the kingdom: but because thou hast sinned, my son, the birthright is given to Joseph, and the, kingdom to Jehuda, and the priesthood to Levi.

I will liken thee to a little garden in the midst of which there enter torrents swift and strong, which it cannot bear, but is overwhelmed. Be repentant then, Reuben my son, for thou hast sinned, and add not; that wherein thou hast sinned it may be forgiven thee; for it is reckoned to thee as if thou wentest in to have to do with the wife of thy father at the time that thou didst confound my bed upon which thou wentest up.

In their counsel my soul hath not had pleasure, and in their gathering against Shekem. to destroy it mine honour was not united; for in their anger they slew the prince and his ruler, and in their ill will they demolished the wall of their adversary.

And Jakob said, Accursed was the town of Shekem, when they entered within it to destroy it in their violent wrath; and their hatred against Joseph, for it was relentless. If, said Jakob, they dwell together, no king nor ruler may stand before them. Therefore will I divide the inheritance of the sons of Shimeon into two portions; one part shall come to them out of the inheritance of the sons of Jehuda, and one part from among the rest of the tribes of Jakob; and the tribe of Levi I will disperse among all the tribes of Israel.

Jehuda, thou didst make confession in the matter of Tamar: therefore shall thy brethren confess thee, and shall be called Jehudain from thy name. Thy hand shall avenge thee of thy adversaries, in throwing arrows upon them when they turn their backs before thee; and the sons of thy fathers shall come before thee with salutations.

I will liken thee, my son Jehuda, to a whelp, the young of a lion; for from the killing of Joseph my son thou didst uplift thy soul, and from the judgment of Tamar thou wast free. He dwelleth quietly and in strength, as a lion; and as an old lion when he reposeth, who may stir him up?

Kings shall not cease, nor rulers, from the house of Jehuda, nor sapherim teaching the law from his seed, till the time that the King the Meshiha, shall come, the youngest of his sons; and on account of him shall the peoples flow together.

How beauteous is the King, the Meshiha who will arise from the house of Jehuda! He hath girded his loins, and descended, and arrayed the battle against his adversaries, Slaying kings with their rulers; neither is there any king or ruler who shall stand before him. The mountains become red with the blood of their slain; his garments, dipped in blood, are like the outpressed juice of grapes.

How beautiful are the eyes of the king Meshiha, as the pure wine! He cannot look upon what is unclean, nor on the shedding of the blood of the innocent; and his teeth, purer than milk, cannot eat that which is stolen or torn; and therefore his mountains are red with wine, and his hills white with corn, and with the cotes of flocks.

Zebulon shall dwell upon the banks of the sea, and have dominion over the havens; he will surmount the breakers of the sea with ships and his border will extend unto Zidon.

And he saw the rest of the world to come that it is good, and the portion of the land of Israel that it is pleasant; therefore bowed he his shoulders to labour in the law, and unto him shall come his brethren bearing presents.

From the house of Dan there is to arise a man who will judge his people with the judgment of truth. All the tribes of Israel will hearken to him together.

A chosen man shall arise from the house of Dan, like the basilisk which lieth at the dividing of the way, and the serpent's head which lurketh by the way, that biteth the horse in his heel, and the master from his terror is thrown backward. Even thus will Shimshon bar Manovach slay all the heroes of Philistia, the horsemen and the foot; he will hamstring their horses and hurl their riders backwards.

When Jakob saw Gideon bar Joash and Shimshon bar Manovach, who were established to be deliverers, he said, I expect not the salvation of Gideon, nor look I for the salvation of Shimshon; for their salvation will be the salvation of an hour; but for Thy salvation have I waited, and will look for, O Lord; for Thy salvation is the salvation of eternity.

The tribe of Gad with the rest of the tribes will, armed, pass over the streams of Arnona and subdue before them the pillars of the earth, and armed will they return into their limits with much substance and dwell in peace beyond the passage of Jardena; for so will they choose, and it shall be to them to receive their inheritance.

Naphatali is a swift messenger, like a hind that runneth on the tops of the mountains, bringing good tidings: he it was who announced that Joseph was living; he it was who hasteneth to go into Mizraim, and bring the contract of the double field in which Esau had no portion; and when he shall open his mouth in the congregation of Israel to give praise, he shall be the chosen of all tongues.

Joseph, my son, thou hast become great; Joseph, my son, thou hast become great and mighty; the end (determined) on thee was (that thou shouldst) be mighty, because thou didst subdue thy inclination in the matter of thy mistress, and in the work of thy brethren. Thee will I liken to a vine planted by fountains of water, which sendeth forth her roots, and overrunneth the ridges of stone, and covereth by her branches all unfruitful trees; even so didst thou my son Joseph subject by thy wisdom and thy good works all the magicians of Mizraim; and when, celebrating thy praises, the daughters of princes walking on the high places cast before thee bracelets and chains of gold, that thou shouldst lift up thine eyes upon them, thine eyes thou wouldst not lift up on one of them, to become guilty in the great day of judgment.

And all the magicians of Mizraim were bitter and angry against him, and brought accusations against him before Pharoh, expecting to bring him down from his honour They spake against him with the slanderous tongue which is severe as arrows.

But he returned to abide in his early strength, and would not yield himself unto sin, and subdued his inclinations by the strong discipline he had received from Jakob, and thence became worthy of being a ruler, and of being joined in the engraving of the names upon the stones of Israel.

From the Word of the Lord shall be thy help; and He who is called the All--Sufficient shall bless thee with the blessings which descend with the dew of heaven from above, and with the good blessing of the fountains of the deep which ascend and clothe the herbage from beneath. The breasts are blessed at which thou wast suckled, and the womb in which thou didst lie.

The blessings of thy father be added to the blessings wherewith my fathers Abraham and Izhak have blessed me, and which the princes of the world Ishmael and Esau and all the sons of Keturah have desired: let all these blessings be united, and form a diadem of majesty for the head of Joseph, and for the brow of the man who became chief and ruler in Mizraim, and the brightness of the glory of his brethren.

Benjamin is a strong tribe, (like) the wolf (with) his prey. In his land will dwell the Shekina of the Lord of the world, and the house of the sanctuary be builded in his inheritance. In the morning will the priests offer the lamb continually until the fourth hour, and between the evenings the second lamb, and at eventide will they divide the residue remaining of the offering, and eat, every man, his portion.

All these Tribes of Israel are twelve: they are all righteous together, and this it is which their father spake to them, and blessed them; according to his blessing blessed be each man.

And he commanded them and said to them, I am to be gathered to my people; bury me with my fathers in the cavern which is in the field of Ephron the Hitah,

in the cave that is in the Double Field over against Mamre in the land of Kenaan; for Abraham bought the field of Ephron the Hitah for an inheritance of burial.

And the forty days of embalming were completed to him; for so fulfil they the days of embalming; and the Mizraee lamented him seventy days; saying one to another, Come, let us lament over Jakob the Holy, whose righteousness turned away the famine from the land of Mizraim. For it had been decreed that there should be forty and two years of famine, but through the righteousness of Jakob forty years are withheld from Mizraim, and there came famine but for two years only.

And the days of his mourning passed. And Joseph spake with the lords of the house of Pharoh, saying If I may find favour in your eyes, speak now in the hearing of Pharoh, saying,

My father made me swear, saying, Behold, I die, in the sepulchre which I have prepared for me in the land of Kenaan there shalt thou bury me. And now let me go up and bury my father, and I will return.

And Joseph went up to bury his father; and all the servants of Pharoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Mizraim, went up with him.

And all the men of Joseph's house, and his brethren, and his father's household: only their children, and their sheep and oxen, left they in the land of Goshen.

And they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jardena, and there they lamented with a great and mighty lamentation. And he made there a mourning for his father seven days.

And the inhabitants of the land of Kenaan beheld the mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, and they loosed the girdles of their loins in honour of Jakob, and spread forth their hands, and said, This is a mighty mourning of the Mizraee. Therefore he called the name of the, place Abel Mizraim, which is on the other side of Jardena.

But when his sons had brought him into the land of Kenaan, and the thing was heard by Esau the Wicked, he journeyed from the mountain of Gebala with many legions, and came to Hebron, and would not suffer Joseph to bury his father in the Double Cave. Then forthwith went Naphtali and ran, and went down to Mizraim, and came in that day, and brought the Instrument that Esau had written for Jakob his brother in the controversy of the Double Cave.

And immediately he beckoned to Hushim the son of Dan, who unsheathed the sword and struck off the head of the Wicked Esau, and the head of Esau rolled into the midst of the cave, and rested upon the bosom of Izhak his father; and the sons of Esau buried his body in the double field, and afterward the sons of Jakob buried him in the cave of the double field; in the field which Abraham bought for an inheritance--sepulchre, of Ephron the Hitah, over against Mamre.

And Joseph's brethren saw that their father was dead, and that he (Joseph) did not return to eat together with them, and they said, Perhaps Joseph ill bring upon us all retaineth enmity against us, and will bring upon us all the evil that we did him.