The Bible Story Part 136

And he sent Judah before him unto Joseph, to show the way before him unto Goshen; and they came into the {124} land of Goshen. And Joseph made ready his chariot, and went up to meet Israel his father, to Goshen; and he presented himself to him, and fell on his neck, and wept on his neck a good while. And Israel said unto Joseph, "Now let me die, since I have seen thy face, and know that thou art yet alive."

And Joseph said to his brethren, and to his father's house, "I will go up, and tell Pharaoh, and will say unto him, 'My brethren, and my father's house, which were in the land of Canaan, are come unto me; and the men are shepherds, for they have been keepers of cattle; and they have brought their flocks, and their herds, and all that they have.' And it shall come to pa.s.s, when Pharaoh shall call you, and shall say, 'What is your occupation?' that ye shall say, 'Thy servants have been keepers of cattle from our youth even until now, both we, and our fathers': that ye may dwell in the land of Goshen; for every shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptians."

Then Joseph went in and told Pharaoh, and said, "My father and my brethren, and their flocks, and their herds, and all that they have, are come out of the land of Canaan; and, behold, they are in the land of Goshen."

And from among his brethren he took five men, and presented them to Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said to his brethren, "What is your occupation?"

And they said to Pharaoh, "Thy servants are shepherds, both we, and our fathers."

And they said to Pharaoh, "To sojourn in the land are we come; for there is no pasture for thy servants' {125} flocks; for the famine is sore in the land of Canaan: now therefore, we pray thee, let thy servants dwell in the land of Goshen."

And Pharaoh spoke unto Joseph, saying, "Thy father and thy brethren are come to thee: the land of Egypt is before thee; in the best of the land make thy father and thy brethren to dwell; in the land of Goshen let them dwell: and if thou knowest any able men among them, then make them rulers over my cattle."

And Joseph brought in Jacob his father, and set him before Pharaoh: and Jacob blessed Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said unto Jacob, "How many are the days of the years of thy life?"

And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, "The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage."

And Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from the presence of Pharaoh.

And Joseph placed his father and his brethren, and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded. And Joseph nourished his father, and his brethren, and all his father's household, with food, according to their families.

And there was no food in all the land; for the famine was very sore, so that the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan fainted by reason of the famine. And Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in the land of {126} Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, for the corn which they bought: and Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh's house. And when the money was all spent in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came to Joseph, and said, "Give us bread: for why should we die in thy presence? for our money faileth."

And Joseph said, "Give your cattle; and I will give you for your cattle if money fail."

And they brought their cattle unto Joseph: and Joseph gave them food in exchange for the horses, and for the flocks, and for the herds, and for the a.s.ses: and he fed them with food in exchange for all their cattle for that year. And when that year was ended, they came to him the second year, and said to him, "We will not hide from my lord, how that our money is all spent; and the herds of cattle are my lord's; there is nought left in the sight of my lord, but our bodies, and our lands: wherefore should we die before thine eyes, both we and our land? buy us and our land for food, and we and our land will be servants unto Pharaoh: and give us seed, that we may live, and not die, and that the land be not desolate."

So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh; for the Egyptians sold every man his field, because the famine was sore upon them: and the land became Pharaoh's. And as for the people, he removed them to the cities from one end of the border of Egypt even to the other end thereof.

{127}{128}

[Ill.u.s.tration]

A VIEW IN LUXOR

From a photograph belonging to Miss Clara L. Bodman and used by her kind permission.

[End ill.u.s.tration]

{129}

Only the land of the priests bought he not: for the priests had a portion from Pharaoh, and did eat their portion which Pharaoh gave them; wherefore they sold not their land. Then Joseph said unto the people, "Behold, I have bought you this day and your land for Pharaoh: lo, here is seed for you, and ye shall sow the land. And it shall come to pa.s.s at the ingatherings, that ye shall give a fifth to Pharaoh, and four parts shall be your own, for seed of the field, and for your food, and for them of your households, and for food for your little ones."

And they said, "Thou hast saved our lives: let us find grace in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh's servants."

And Joseph made it a statute concerning the land of Egypt unto this day, that Pharaoh should have the fifth; only the land of the priests alone became not Pharaoh's. And Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen; and they got them possessions therein, and were fruitful, and multiplied exceedingly.

And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years: so the days of Jacob, the years of his life, were an hundred forty and seven years.

And the time drew near that Israel must die: and he called his son Joseph, and said unto him, "If now I have found grace in thy sight, put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh, and deal kindly and truly with me; bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt: bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hitt.i.te, in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hitt.i.te for a possession of a buryingplace: there they {130} buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah: the field and the cave that is therein, which was purchased from the children of Heth."

And when Jacob made an end of charging his sons, he laid himself down upon his bed and died. And Joseph fell upon his father's face, and wept upon him, and kissed him. And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father: and the physicians embalmed Israel.

And forty days were fulfilled for him; for so are fulfilled the days of embalming: and the Egyptians wept for him threescore and ten days.

And when the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph spoke unto the house of Pharaoh, saying, "If now I have found grace in your eyes, speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh, saying, 'My father made me swear, saying, Lo, I die: in my grave which I have digged for me in the land of Canaan, there shalt thou bury me. Now therefore let me go up, I pray thee, and bury my father, and I will come again.'"

And Pharaoh said, "Go up, and bury thy father, according as he made thee swear." And Joseph went up to bury his father: and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, and all the house of Joseph, and his brethren, and his father's house: only their little ones, and their flocks and their herds, they left in the land of Goshen. And there went up with him both chariots and hors.e.m.e.n: and it was a very great {131} company. And they came to the threshing-floor of Atad, which is beyond Jordan, and there they lamented with a very great and sore lamentation: and he made a mourning for his father seven days. And when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning in the floor of Atad, they said, "This is a grievous mourning to the Egyptians": wherefore the name of it was called "The Mourning of Egypt," which is beyond Jordan. And his sons did unto him according as he commanded them: for his sons carried him into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which Abraham bought with the field, for a possession of a buryingplace, of Ephron the Hitt.i.te, before Mamre.

And Joseph returned into Egypt, he, and his brethren, and all that went up with him to bury his father, after he had buried his father.

And when Joseph's brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, "It may be that Joseph will hate us, and will fully requite us all the evil which we did unto him." And they sent a message unto Joseph, saying, "Thy father did command before he died, saying, 'So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the transgression of thy brethren, and their sin, in that they did unto thee evil': and now, we pray thee, forgive the transgression of the servants of the G.o.d of thy father."

And Joseph wept when they spoke unto him. And his brethren also went and fell down before his face; and they said, "Behold, we are thy servants." And Joseph {132} said unto them, "Fear not: for am I in the place of G.o.d? And as for you, ye meant evil against me; but G.o.d meant it for good, to bring to pa.s.s, as it is this day, to save much people alive. Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones." And he comforted them, and spoke kindly unto them.

And Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he, and his father's house: and Joseph lived an hundred and ten years. And Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third generation. And Joseph said unto his brethren, "I die: but G.o.d will surely visit you, and bring you up out of this land unto the land which he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob."

And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, "G.o.d will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence."

So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years old: and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.

{133}

The Great Captains

The word "captain" following the use in the Bible and all literature down to the present day, is not the particular term, designating the commander of a small company of soldiers, but a general term, standing for leadership in the largest sense. Moses, according to this meaning of the word, was one of the greatest of the worlds captains, for he took a cowardly, unorganized mob of slaves and led them through the most appalling difficulties and dangers, to freedom, and to a position where national existence was possible. While there was little actual fighting in the journey from Egypt to Palestine, yet there was necessity, every step of the way, for the highest qualities of leadership.

Joshua was a great captain in the more strictly military sense of the word. He found the force organized and disciplined by the leadership of Moses, and he used it as a skillful swordsman uses a keen and tempered blade. In his campaigns he displayed the abilities of the great military genius.

{134}

THE FINDING OF MOSES

Slow glides the Nile: amid the margin flags, Closed in a bulrush ark, the babe is left,-- Left by a mother's hand. His sister waits Far off; and pale, 'tween hope and fear, beholds The royal maid, surrounded by her train, Approach the river bank,--approach the spot Where sleeps the innocent: she sees them stoop With meeting plumes; the rushy lid is oped, And wakes the infant, smiling in his tears, As when along a little mountain lake The summer south-wind breathes, with gentle sigh, And parts the reeds, unveiling, as they bend, A water-lily floating on the wave.

{135}{136}

[Ill.u.s.tration]

VIEW FROM RAMAH, THE TRADITIONAL HOME OF SAMUEL Copyright by Underwood & Underwood and used by special permission.

"We know not with certainty the situation of Ramah. Of Samuel as of Moses it may be said, 'No man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day.' But the lofty peak above Gibeon, which has long borne his name, has this feature (in common, to a certain extent, with any high place which can have been the scene of his life and death), that it overlooks the whole of that broad table-land, on which the fortunes of the Jewish monarchy were afterwards unrolled. Its towering eminence, from which the pilgrims first obtained their view of Jerusalem, is no unfit likeness of the solitary grandeur of the prophet Samuel, who lived and died in the very midst of the future glory of his country"

[End ill.u.s.tration]

{137}

MOSES

_The Story of the Man Who Led a Race of Slaves Out of Bondage, and Became the Emanc.i.p.ator of a Great Nation_.

THE ISRAELITES ARE ENSLAVED IN EGYPT.