Shabbat Shalom!
Welcome to Vayechi / And He Lived - this week’s Torah reading


Prophecy 103, 132, 151;
Genesis 47:28-50:26;
1 Kings 2:1-12;
John 13:1-19;



Genesis 47:28-50:26


28 And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years. And the days of Jacob, the years of his life were a hundred and forty seven years.
29 And the days of Israel to die drew near. And he called to his son Joseph and said to him, Now if I have found favor in your eyes, please put your hand under my thigh, and do kindness and truth with me. Please do not bury me in Egypt;
30 but let me lie with my fathers, and carry me from Egypt, and bury me in their burying place. And he said, I will do according to your words.
31 And he said, Swear to me. And he swore to him. And Israel bowed on the head of the bed.

*~Genesis Chapter 48 ~*


1 And after these things it happened, one said to Joseph, Behold, your father is sick. And he took his two sons with him, Manasseh and Ephraim.
2 And one spoke to Jacob and said, Behold, your son Joseph has come to you. And Israel took strength and sat on the bed.
3 And Jacob said to Joseph, El Shaddai appeared to me in Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me,
4 and said to me, Behold, I will make you fruitful and will multiply you, and will give you a multitude of peoples. And I will give this land to your seed after you as a continual possession.
5 And now your two sons, those born to you in the land of Egypt before my coming to you in Egypt, are mine, Ephraim and Manasseh, like Reuben and Simeon, even they shall be mine.
6 And your offspring which you father after them, they shall be yours. According to the name of their brothers they shall be called in their inheritance.
7 And I, when I came from Padan, Rachel died on me in the land of Canaan in the way, with only a little way to come to Ephrath. And I buried her there in the way to Ephrath, it being Bethlehem.
8 And Israel saw the sons of Joseph, and he said, Who are these?
9 And Joseph said to his father, They are my sons, whom ELOHIM has given to me here. And he said, Now bring them to me and I will bless them.
10 And the eyes of Israel were heavy from age, he not being able to see. And he brought them near to him. And he kissed them and embraced them.
11 And Israel said to Joseph, I did not think to see your face, and, behold, ELOHIM also causes me to see your seed.
12 And Joseph brought them out from his knees; and he bowed his face to the earth.
13 And Joseph took both of them, Ephraim in his right hand, to the left of Israel; and Manasseh in his left hand, to the right of Israel. And he brought them to him.
14 And Israel sent forth his right hand and put it on the head of Ephraim; and he was the younger. And he put his left hand on the head of Manasseh, crossing his hands; for Manasseh was the first-born.
15 And he blessed Joseph and said, The ELOHIM before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the ELOHIM who has fed me since I was born until today;
16 The Messenger that redeemed me from every evil, may He bless the youths; and may my name be called on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, and may they like fishes grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.
17 And Joseph saw that his father was putting his right hand on the head of Ephraim; and it was evil in his eyes. And he took hold of his father’s hand to turn it from Ephraim’s head to the head of Manasseh.
18 And Joseph said to his father, Not so, my father! For this one is the firstborn; put your right hand on his head.
19 And his father refused and said, I know, my son, I know. He also shall be a people, and he shall become great. But his younger brother shall become greater than he, and his seed shall become the fullness of the nations.
20 And he blessed them in that day, saying, In you shall Israel bless, saying, May ELOHIM make you like Ephraim and like Manasseh.
21 And Israel said to Joseph, See, I am dying; and ELOHIM will be with you, and will return you to the land of your fathers.
22 And I will give to you one spur of land beyond your brothers, which I took from the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow.

*~Genesis Chapter 49 ~*


1 And Jacob called his sons and said, Gather yourselves and I will tell you what will happen to you in the latter days .
2 Gather yourselves and hear, sons of Jacob; yea, listen to your father Israel:
3 Reuben, you are my first-born, my strength and the first-fruit of my power; excellence of dignity and excellence of might.
4 Like boiling water you shall not excel, for you went up to the bed of your father; then you defiled it; he went up to my couch.
5 Simeon and Levi, brothers; their weapons are instruments of violence.
6 Let not my soul come into their counsel; let not my spirit be joined to their company. For in their anger they killed a man; and in self-will they lamed an ox.
7 Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel. I will divide them in Jacob, and I will scatter them in Israel.
8 Judah, may your brothers praise you, your hand be on the neck of your enemies. May the sons of your father bow themselves to you.
9 Judah is a lion’s whelp. My son, you have risen up from the prey; he stoops, he crouches like a lion; and like a lioness, who can rouse him?
10 The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the lawmaker from between his feet, until He comes to whom it belongs (Shiloh), and the obedience of the people to him.
11 Binding his foal to the vine, and his donkey ‘s colt to the choice vine, he washes his clothing in wine, and his covering in the blood of grapes.
12 His eyes shall be dark from wine and his teeth white from milk.
13 Zebulun shall live at the seashore, and he shall be a haven of ships, even his border beside Sidon.
14 Issachar is a strong donkey, crouching between the sheepfolds.
15 And he saw a resting place that it was good, and that the land was pleasant. And he bowed his neck to bear, and became a tribute slave.
16 Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel.
17 Let Dan be a serpent on the way, a horned snake on the path that bites the horses’ heels, and its rider falls backward.
18 I have waited for your Y’shua*(salvation), O YAHUVEH.
19 Gad, an army shall attack him, and he shall overcome on their heel.
20 Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall give a king’s delicacies.
21 Naphtali is a deer let loose giving one beautiful answers.
22 Joseph is a fruitful son, a fruitful son by a spring; his daughters run over a wall.
23 And the masters of arrows harass him, and shoot, and an archer lurks for him.
24 His bow abides in strength, and the hands of his arms are made agile by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob, from the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel.
25 From the El of your father, may He help you. And may the Almighty bless you with blessings of Heaven from above, blessings of the deep that lies beneath, blessings of the breasts and womb.
26 The blessings of your father are above the blessings of my offspring, to the limit of everlasting hills; may they be for the head of Joseph and for the crown of the one separated of his brothers.
27 Benjamin is a wolf that tears. In the morning he devours the prey, and at evening he divides the spoil.
28 All these were the tribes of Israel, two and ten. And this is what their father spoke to them. And he blessed them, each one with what was according to his blessing, he blessed them.
29 And he commanded them, and said to them, I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me beside my fathers, at the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite,
30 in the cave in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, the field which Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite for a burying place.
31 They buried Abraham and his wife Sarah there, and they buried Isaac and his wife Rebekah; and I buried Leah there;
32 the purchase of the field and the cave in it, from the sons of Heth.
33 And Jacob finished commanding his sons, and he gathered his feet into the bed. And he expired, and was gathered to his people.

*~Genesis Chapter 50 ~*


1 And Joseph fell on the face of his father and wept on him, and kissed him.
2 And Joseph commanded the physicians, his servants, to embalm his father; and the physicians embalmed Israel.
3 And forty days were fulfilled, for so are fulfilled the days of those embalmed. And Egypt wept for him seventy days.
4 And the days of his weeping passed by, and Joseph spoke to the house of Pharaoh, saying, Now if I have found favor in your eyes, please speak in the ears of Pharaoh, saying,
5 My father made me swear, saying, Lo, I am dying; you shall bury me there in the grave which I have dug for myself in the land of Canaan. And now please let me go up and bury my father, and return.
6 And Pharaoh said, Go up and bury your father, as he made you swear.
7 And Joseph went up to bury his father; and all the servants of Pharaoh went up with him, the elders of his house, even all the elders of the land of Egypt,
8 and all the house of Joseph and his brothers, and the house of his father. Only, they left their little ones and their flocks and their herds in the land of Goshen.
9 And both horsemen and chariots went up with him; and the company was very great.
10 And they came as far as the threshing floor of thorns, which is on the other side of the Jordan. And they mourned there with a great and very heavy mourning. And he made a heavy wailing for his father seven days.
11 And those living in the land, the Canaanites, saw the wailing in the grain floor of thorns. And they said, This is a very great wailing to Egypt; for this reason its name was called Abel Mizraim , which is on the other side of Jordan.
12 And his sons did to him as he had commanded them.
13 And his sons carried him to the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah; the field which Abraham bought for a burying place from Ephron the Hittite, before Mamre.
14 And after he buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt, he and his brothers, and all those going up with him to bury his father.
15 And Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead. And they said, What if Joseph should bear a grudge against us and surely should repay us all the evil which we did to him?
16 And they sent a message to Joseph, saying,
17 Your father commanded before his death, saying, So you shall say to Joseph, Please lift up now the rebellion of your brothers, and their sin; for they did evil to you. And now please lift up the rebellion of the servants of the ELOHIM of your father. And Joseph wept when they spoke to him.
18 His brothers also went and fell down before his face. And they said, Behold, we are your servants.
19 And Joseph said to them, Do not fear. For am I in the place of ELOHIM?
20 And you, you intended evil against me, but ELOHIM meant it for good, in order to make it as it is this day, to keep a great many people alive.
21 And now do not fear; I will nourish you and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spoke to their hearts.
22 And Joseph lived in Egypt, he and the house of his father. And Joseph lived a hundred and ten years.
23 And Joseph saw the sons of Ephraim to the third generation. Also the sons of Machir the son of Manasseh were born on Joseph’s knees.
24 And Joseph said to his brothers, I am dying, and ELOHIM visiting will visit you and bring you up from this land to the land which He swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
25 And Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, ELOHIM surely will visit you, and you will bring up my bones from here.
26 And Joseph died, a son of a hundred and ten years. And they embalmed him, and put him in a coffin in Egypt.