CHAP. XLVIII.
And now when Joseph heard his father lay
Even at the point of death he hastes away
To visit him, and took along with him
His son Manasseh, and's son Ephraim.
Whereof when Jacob heard he strength'ned
Himself, and rose and sat upon the bed:
And thus to Joseph said, Lo! God appeared
To me at Luz in Canaan, and declared,
That he would bless, and make me a great nation,
And give my seed that land for a possession:
And Jacob said, Behold, these sons of thine
As Reuben and as Simeon shall be mine;
And all the rest that shall be born to thee
Hereafter, shall be thine, and they shall be
Call'd by the name of their own family.
Behold thy mother died upon the way,
When I from Padan came, near Ephratah,
The which is in the land of Canaan, where,
To wit, in Bethlem, did I bury her.
And Jacob seeing Joseph's sons were there,
He asked of him who the children were.
And Joseph said, My father, lo! these be
The sons, God in this place hath given me.
Then Jacob said, I pray thee bring them nigh
To me, and I will bless them e'er I die.
(Now Jacob's eyes, by reason of age, were dim)
And Joseph brought his sons near unto him,
And Jacob kissed and embraced them:
And said, I never thought to see thy face,
And lo! the Lord hath shewn me of thy race.
And Joseph from between his knees brought forth
His sons, and bow'd himself even to the earth:
And in his right hand held up Ephraim,
Towards his father's left hand guiding him
And in his left hand to his father's right,
He held his son Manasseh opposite.
And Isra'l stretching our his right hand, laid
It on the youngest, namely Ephraim's head:
And laid his left hand wittingly upon
Manasseh's head, although the eldest son.
And Jacob blessed Joseph, saying, The God
Of heaven, in whose paths my fathers trod,
Who all my life hath nourish'd me, even he
Who from all evil hath redeemed me,
Bless both the lads, and let them bear my name,
And the name of my fathers Abraham
And Isaac, and let them multiply
In the midst of the earth exceedingly.
And Joseph seeing his father's right hand laid
On Ephraim's head, he was displeas'd, and said,
Not so, my father, lay this hand upon
Manasseh's head, for he's the eldest son:
And therewithal attempted to have laid
His father's right hand on Manasseh's head
But he refus'd and said, I know't my son,
I know't full well, he also shall become
A people, and be mighty: But indeed
His younger brother shall him far exceed,
And many nations shall come from his seed.
Thus Jacob blessed them, and said, In thee
Shall Isra'l bless, and say, God make thee be
Like Ephraim and Manasseh. Thus did he
Prefer the youngest to the first degree.
And Isra'l said to Joseph, Lo! I die,
But God shall visit you, and certainly
Shall bring you back unto your father's land.
And thou shalt have a portion from my hand,
Above thy brethren, which with sword and bow
I took from th' Amorite, my deadly foe.
CHAP. XLIX.
And Jacob called all his sons together,
And said, Ye sons of Jacob come you hither:
And hearken what your aged father says,
Who tells you what shall be in the last days.
Reuben my first born, of my strength the flow'rs,
The excellency of dignity and power:
Unstable as water, be for ever vile,
Because thou did thy father's bed defile.
Simeon and Levi 're brethren. Instruments
Of cruelty lodged in their tents.
Come not, my soul, their secret councils nigh,
My honour, with them have no unity:
For in their wrath they caused a man to fall,
And in their self-will digged down a wall.
Curs'd be their anger, fierce, yea cursed be
Their wrath, for it was full of cruelty.
In Jacob therefore let their seed be spread,
And every where in Israel scattered.
Judah shall have his brethren's praise, and they
Shall bow before him; he his foes shall slay.
Judah's a lion's whelp return'd from prey,
He stoop'd, he couch'd, and as a lion lay;
As an old lion, who shall dare molest,
Or rouse him up, when he lies down to rest.
The sceptre shall from Judah never start,
Nor a lawgiver from his feet depart;
Until the blessed Shiloh come, to whom
The scatter'd people shall from all parts come:
Binding his foal unto the choicest vine,
He wash'd his garments, all of them in wine:
His eyes shall with the blood of th' grapes look red,
And milky whiteness shall his teeth o'erspread.
Lo! Zabulon shall dwell upon the sea,
And heaven for the ship's security,
And unto Zidon shall his border be.
And Issachar is a strong ass between
Two burdens crouching, who when he had seen
That rest was pleasant, and the land was good,
His servile neck unto the yoke he bow'd.
Dan as a judge shall over Isra'l sway,
He shall be as a serpent in the way,
To bite the horse, and cast the rider down.
O God! I have look'd for thy salvation.
Gad by a troop shall be o'ercome, but he
Shall at the last obtain the victory.
The bread of Ashur shall be fat indeed,
And royal dainties shall from his proceed.
Like to a hind let loose is Naphtali,
He speaketh all his words acceptably.
Joseph's a fruitful bough, whose branches tall
Grow by a well, and over-top the wall:
By reason of hatred which the archers bore,
They shot at him and griev'd him very sore,
But Joseph's bow in its full strength abode
And by the arm of Jacob's mighty God,
He was indu'd with strength, from whence alone
Is Isra'l's shepherd, and chief corner-stone:
Ev'n by my father's God, who shall assist
Thee, by th' Almighty God shalt thou be blest,
With blessings from above, and from below,
With blessings of the breast, and womb also.
Thy father's blessings have prevail'd beyond
My ancestors. Unto the utmost bound
Of the perpetual hills, yea let them rest
On Joseph's head, and let him be possest
Of all, who was divided from the rest.
Young Benjamin shall wolf-like take his prey,
And part by night what he hath took by day.
All these are the ten tribes of Israel,
And thus their father did their fate foretell:
And blessed every one of them apart,
According to their personal desert.
Moreover he gave them a charge and said,
Lo! I shall die, but let my bones be laid
Among my ancestors in Canaan, where
Of Ephron, Abraham bought a sepulchre,
Together with a field, to be a place
Of burial, for him and all his race.
(There Abraham and Sarah lie, and there
They Isaac and Rebecca did inter,
And there when Leah died I buried her.)
The field was purchas'd of the sons of Heth.
Thus having said, resigning up his breath
To him that gave 't, his feet into the bed
He drew, and so was number'd to the dead.
CHAP. L.
And Joseph fell upon his father's face,
And did with tears his lifeless lips embrace:
And sends for his physicians and advises
Them to embalm his father's corpse with spices.
And they did so, and forty days did pass.
(For so the manner of embalming was)
And the Egyptians mourned for the space
Of three score and ten days, which being expired
He spake to Pharaoh's servants and desired,
That they would please to speak in Pharaoh's ear,
And tell him that my father made me swear,
That I should bury him in Canaan, where
He hath provided his own sepulchre.
I therefore pray thee that I may obtain
Thy leave, and I will soon return again.
And Pharaoh said, Since thou hast sworn, fulfil
Thy oath, according to thy father's will.
And Joseph went up to accompany
His father's corpse with great solemnity.
And with him went up Pharaoh's servants, and
The prime nobility of all the land,
And Joseph's household, and his brethren all,
Only their flocks, and herds, and children small
Were left behind. Moreover there went up
Chariots and horsemen, ev'n a mighty troop.
And they came up to Atad's threshing floor
Beyond the river Jordan, where full sore
They mourned for him till seven days were past,
So long their mourning in that place did last.
Which when the Canaanites beheld they said,
Surely some eminent Egyptian's dead.
Wherefore they call'd it Abel-mizraim.[12]
Thus did his sons as he commanded them.
For to the land of Canaan they convey'd
Him, and in Machpelah near Mamre, laid
His body in the cave which Ephron sold
To Abraham, for him and his to hold.
And thus when Joseph fully had perform'd
His father's will, to Egypt he return'd,
Together with his brethren, and with all
Them that came with him to the funeral.
Now Joseph's brethren being well aware
That they were fatherless, began to fear
That he would hate them, and requite them all
The evil they had treated him withal.
Wherefore to him they sent a messenger
And said, Behold our father did declare
Before he died, that we should come and say,
Forgive thy brethren's trespasses, I pray;
And their misdeeds, for they have been unkind.
And now we humbly pray thee be inclin'd
To pardon our offences, and the rather
For that we serve the God e'en of thy father.
And Joseph wept when they thus spake, and they
Came nearer, and before him prostrate lay,
And said, We are thy servants all this day.
And Joseph bad them not to be afraid,
For in the place of God am I he said:
For though you meant me ill, God meant it good,
And sent me hither to provide you food.
Now therefore trouble not yourselves, for I
Will nourish you, and all your family.
After this manner did he satisfy,
And treat them with extreme civility.
And Joseph and his father's house remain'd
In Egypt, and he liv'd till he attain'd
An hundred and ten years, and liv'd to see
Of Ephraim's children to the third degree.
And Macher's children of Manasseh's tribe
Were also born some time before he died.
Then Joseph said, My brethren, lo! I die,
But God will visit you undoubtedly;
And to that land again whereof he spake
Unto our ancestors, will bring you back.
And Joseph also made his brethren swear,
That they would not inter his body there.
And thus he ended his life's pilgrimage,
Being an hundred and ten years of age;
And was embalm'd, and in a coffin laid,
In Egypt, till he could be thence convey'd.
THE GENERAL EPISTLE OF JAMES
CHAP. I.
Unto the twelve tribes scattered abroad,
James, an apostle of the living God,
And of the Lord Christ Jesus, salutation.
My brethren, when you fall into temptation
Of divers kinds, rejoice, as men that know
From trial of your faith doth patience flow.
But let your patience have its full effect,
That you may be entire, without defect.
If any of you lack wisdom, let him cry
To God, and he will give it lib'rally,
And not upbraid. But let him ask in faith,
Not wavering, for he that wavereth,
Unto a wave o' th' sea I will compare,
Driv'n with the wind and tossed here and there.
For let not such a man himself deceive,
To think that he shall from the Lord receive.
A double-minded man most surely lacketh
Stability in all he undertaketh.
Let ev'ry brother of a low degree
Rejoice in that he is advanc'd, but he
That's rich in being made low, for he shall pass
Away, as doth the flow'r of the grass.
For as the grass, soon as the sun doth rise,
Is scorch'd by reason of the heat, and dies;
Its flow'r fades, and it retains no more
The beauteous comeliness it had before,
So fades the rich man, maugre all his store.
The man is blest that doth endure temptation
For when he's try'd, the crown of God's salvation,
The which the Lord hath promised to give
To them that love him, that man shall receive.
Let no man be possest with a persuasion,
To say, when he falls under a temptation,
That God's the cause; for with no evil can
God be tempted, nor tempts he any man.
But every man is tempted when he's drawn
Away, and by his lusts prevail'd upon;
Then when lust hath conceiv'd, it ushereth
In sin, and sin when finished brings death.
Err not, my brethren, whom I dearly love,
Each good and perfect gift is from above,
Down from th' original of lights descending,
With whom's no change, nor shadow thereto tending,
According to his own good pleasure, he
Begat us with the word of truth, that we
Should as the first fruits of his creatures be.
Wherefore, beloved brethren, I entreat
You to be swift to hear, and slow to speak,
And slow to wrath, for wrath cannot incline
The sons of men to righteousness divine.
Wherefore avoiding ev'ry filthiness,
And superfluity of naughtiness:
Receive with meekness the engrafted word,
Which can salvation to your souls afford.
But be ye doers of the word each one,
And not deceive yourselves to hear alone;
For he that hears the word and doth it not,
Is like unto a man that hath forgot
What kind of man he was, tho' in a glass
He just before beheld his nat'ral face.
But whoso minds the law of liberty
In its perfection, and continually
Abides therein, forgets not what he's heard,
But doth the work and therein hath reward.
If any man among you seem to be
Religious, he deceives himself if he
Doth not his tongue as with a bit restrain;
And all that man's religion is but vain.
Religion, pure and undefil'd, which is
Acceptable before the Lord, is this:
To visit widows and the fatherless,
In time of their affliction or distress;
And so to regulate his conversation,
As to be spotless in his generation.