He uttereth words of beauty.

At last Jacob comes to the name of his loved son Joseph. Then it seems as if his whole heart were indeed

overflowing. First, he sketches his fruitfulness, like that of a fruit -free "planted by rivers of water," (Psalm

1:3) whose boughs run over the wall (Comp. Psalm 80:8-11); then he describes his strength, as derived from

God Himself; and, lastly, he pours forth richest blessings, richer far than any his ancestors had bestowed:

Son of a fruit -tree (a fruitful bough) is Joseph,

Son of a fruit -tree by a well,

Whose daughters (branches) spread over the wall.

The archers harass him,

They shoot at him, and hate him;

But his bow abid eth in firmness,

And the arms of his hands remain supple

From the Hands of the Strong One of Jacob,

From thence, from the Shepherd, from the Rock of Israel,

From the God of thy father - may He help thee!

And from the Almighty -may He bless thee!

Blessings of heaven from above!

Blessings of the deep that lieth beneath!

Blessings of the breasts and of the womb!

The blessings of thy father exceed

The blessings of my ancestors

Unto the bound of the everlasting hills  91 -

May they come on the head of Joseph,

And on the crown of the head of him who is separated  92 among his brethren!

The allusions to Benjamin will be understood by a reference to Ehud (Judges 3:15), to Judges 5:14; 20:16; 1

Chronicles 8:40; 12:2; 2 Chronicles 14:8; 17:17, and to the history of Saul and of Jonathan:

Benjamin - a wolf who ravins:

In the morning he devoureth prey,

And at even he divideth spoil!

And now, having spoken these his last blessings, Jacob once more charged his sons to bury him in the cave

of Machpelah. Then he gathered up his feet into the bed, laid him peacefully down, and without sigh or

struggle yielded up the ghost, and was "gathered unto his people."

Such was the end of Jacob - the most pilgrim-like of the pilgrim fathers. His last wishes were obeyed to the

letter. The first natural outburst of grief on the part of Joseph past, he "commanded his servants, the

physicians, to embalm his father" - either to do the work themselves or to superintend it. Forty days the

process lasted,93 and seventy days, as was their wont, the Egyptians mourned.

At the end of that period Joseph, as in duty bound, applied to Pharaoh, though not personally, since he

could not appear before the king in the garb of mourning, craving permission for himself and his retinue to

go up and bury his father in the land of Canaan. The funeral procession included, besides Joseph and "all

his house," "his brethren, and his father's house," also "all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house,

and all the elders of the land of Egypt," - that is, the principal state and court officials, under a guard of both

"chariots and horsemen." So influential and "very great a company" would naturally avoid, for fear of any

collisions, the territory of the Philistines, through which the direct road from Egypt lay. They took the

circuitous route through the desert and around the Dead Sea - significantly, the same which Israel

afterwards followed on their return from Egypt - and halted on the Eastern bank of Jordan, at Goren-ha-Atad,