340 myths · Page 12 of 12
On his deathbed Jacob forced his body upright for Joseph the viceroy, begged the holy spirit for the blessing, and bound his bones to Machpelah.
The ropes bit his wrists and the packs smelled of perfume. He threw himself on Rachel's grave. Gad later told his sons he had wanted the boy dead.
Before Jacob, a sneeze emptied a soul on the spot. He begged for time to charge his house, and sickness entered the world as a warning.
Feeling death draw near, Jacob binds Joseph by oath to carry him home to Canaan, and armed kings who came to raid his funeral leave their crowns on his coffin.
At a hundred forty-seven, a day was the shadow of a bird. Jacob would not lie in Egyptian ground. He made Joseph swear before he would close his eyes.
With Jacob buried, his sons feared Joseph's mercy died with him, so they forged a dying father's plea for their lives.
Hauled from a dungeon at dawn, Joseph rides Pharaoh's second chariot while heralds shout his praise, and a strange new name spells out his whole life.
When Joseph was born the Holy Spirit fell on Jacob and showed him a flame to burn Esau, and that same fire drove his frightened house down to Egypt.
Rabbi Hanina shouted a lion off the road and then chased it down to take the insult back, and the same roar rose in Judah before Egypt.
Judah stood in the tent with a goat-stained coat. Jacob named an evil beast, then looked at the son he would later bless as a lion.
