The BibleTruth.cc Torah Study Series

Parashat Vayechi

"And He Lived"

Bereshith [Genesis] 47:28-50:26

Torah portion vayechi begins with the summary of years of Ya'acov's life.  As his death approached, he still had some work to do - the blessing of Yoseph's sons and the future of his 12 sons.  The deaths of Yisrael and Yoseph finish out the book of Bereshith.

Theme

The theme of Parashat

Sedarim

Yisrael Expresses His Burial Requirements

Yisrael Blesses Yoseph's Sons

Yisrael Tells of His Sons' Future

Yisrael's Death and Burial

Yoseph Forgives His Brothers

Yoseph's Death and Burial

Prophetic Pictures in this Week's Torah Portion

Messiah in the Torah Parashah

Prophetic End Time Shadows in the Torah Parashah

Yisrael Expresses His Burial Requirements

28 Ya'acov lived in Mitzrayim seventeen years, and the years of his life were a hundred and forty-seven.
29 When the time drew near for Yisrael to die, he called for his son Yoseph and said to him, "If I have found favor in your eyes, put your hand under my thigh and promise that you will show me kindness and faithfulness. Do not bury me in Mitzrayim,
30 but when I rest with my fathers, carry me out of Mitzrayim and bury me where they are buried." "I will do as you say," he said.
31 "Swear to me," he said. Then Yoseph swore to him, and Yisrael worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff.

Yisrael Blesses Yoseph's Sons

48:1 Some time later Yoseph was told, "Your father is ill." So he took his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim along with him.
2 When Ya'acov was told, "Your son Yoseph has come to you," Yisrael rallied his strength and sat up on the bed.
3 Ya'acov said to Yoseph, "Elohim Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and there he blessed me
4 and said to me, 'I am going to make you fruitful and will increase your numbers. I will make you a community of peoples, and I will give this land as an everlasting possession to your descendants after you.'
5 "Now then, your two sons born to you in Mitzrayim before I came to you here will be reckoned as mine; Ephraim and Manasseh will be mine, just as Re'uven and Shim'on are mine.
6 Any children born to you after them will be yours; in the territory they inherit they will be reckoned under the names of their brothers.
7 As I was returning from Paddan, to my sorrow Rachel died in the land of Canaan while we were still on the way, a little distance from Ephrath. So I buried her there beside the road to Ephrath" (that is, Bethlehem).
8 When Yisrael saw the sons of Yoseph, he asked, "Who are these?"
9 "They are the sons Elohim has given me here," Yoseph said to his father. Then Yisrael said, "Bring them to me so I may bless them."
10 Now Yisrael's eyes were failing because of old age, and he could hardly see. So Yoseph brought his sons close to him, and his father kissed them and embraced them.
11 Yisrael said to Yoseph, "I never expected to see your face again, and now Elohim has allowed me to see your children too."
12 Then Yoseph removed them from Yisrael's knees and bowed down with his face to the ground.
13 And Yoseph took both of them, Ephraim on his right toward Yisrael's left hand and Manasseh on his left toward Yisrael's right hand, and brought them close to him.
14 But Yisrael reached out his right hand and put it on Ephraim's head, though he was the younger, and crossing his arms, he put his left hand on Manasseh's head, even though Manasseh was the firstborn.
15 Then he blessed Yoseph and said, "May the Elohim before whom my fathers Avraham and Yitzchak walked, the Elohim who has been my shepherd all my life to this day,
16 the Angel who has delivered me from all harm--may he bless these boys. May they be called by my name and the names of my fathers Avraham and Yitzchak, and may they increase greatly upon the earth."
17 When Yoseph saw his father placing his right hand on Ephraim's head he was displeased; so he took hold of his father's hand to move it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's head.
18 Yoseph said to him, "No, my father, this one is the firstborn; put your right hand on his head."
19 But his father refused and said, "I know, my son, I know. He too will become a people, and he too will become great. Nevertheless, his younger brother will be greater than he, and his descendants will become a group of nations."
20 He blessed them that day and said, "In your name will Yisrael pronounce this blessing: 'May Elohim make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.'" So he put Ephraim ahead of Manasseh.
21 Then Yisrael said to Yoseph, "I am about to die, but Elohim will be with you and take you back to the land of your fathers.
22 And to you, as one who is over your brothers, I give the ridge of land I took from the Amorites with my sword and my bow."

Yisrael Tells of His Sons' Future

49:1 Then Ya'acov called for his sons and said: "Gather around so I can tell you what will happen to you in days to come.
2 "Assemble and listen, sons of Ya'acov; listen to your father Yisrael.
3 "Re'uven, you are my firstborn, my might, the first sign of my strength, excelling in honor, excelling in power.
4 Turbulent as the waters, you will no longer excel, for you went up onto your father's bed, onto my couch and defiled it.
5 "Shim'on and Levi are brothers-- their swords are weapons of violence.
6 Let me not enter their council, let me not join their assembly, for they have killed men in their anger and hamstrung oxen as they pleased.
7 Cursed be their anger, so fierce, and their fury, so cruel! I will scatter them in Ya'acov and disperse them in Yisrael.
8 "Yehudah, your brothers will praise you; your hand will be on the neck of your enemies; your father's sons will bow down to you.
9 You are a lion's cub, O Yehudah; you return from the prey, my son. Like a lion he crouches and lies down, like a lioness-- who dares to rouse him?
10 The scepter will not depart from Yehudah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs and the obedience of the nations is his.
11 He will tether his donkey to a vine, his colt to the choicest branch; he will wash his garments in wine, his robes in the blood of grapes.
12 His eyes will be darker than wine, his teeth whiter than milk.
13 "Zebulun will live by the seashore and become a haven for ships; his border will extend toward Sidon.
14 "Issachar is a rawboned donkey lying down between two saddlebags.
15 When he sees how good is his resting place and how pleasant is his land, he will bend his shoulder to the burden and submit to forced labor.
16 "Dan will provide justice for his people as one of the tribes of Yisrael.
17 Dan will be a serpent by the roadside, a viper along the path, that bites the horse's heels so that its rider tumbles backward.
18 "I look for your deliverance, Yahuwah.
19 "Gad will be attacked by a band of raiders, but he will attack them at their heels.
20 "Asher's food will be rich; he will provide delicacies fit for a king.
21 "Naphtali is a doe set free that bears beautiful fawns.
22 "Yoseph is a fruitful vine, a fruitful vine near a spring, whose branches climb over a wall.
23 With bitterness archers attacked him; they shot at him with hostility.
24 But his bow remained steady, his strong arms stayed limber, because of the hand of the Mighty One of Ya'acov, because of the Shepherd, the Rock of Yisrael,
25 because of your father's Elohim, who helps you, because of the Almighty, who blesses you with blessings of the heavens above, blessings of the deep that lies below, blessings of the breast and womb.
26 Your father's blessings are greater than the blessings of the ancient mountains, than the bounty of the age-old hills. Let all these rest on the head of Yoseph, on the brow of the prince among his brothers.
27 "Benjamin is a ravenous wolf; in the morning he devours the prey, in the evening he divides the plunder."
28 All these are the twelve tribes of Yisrael, and this is what their father said to them when he blessed them, giving each the blessing appropriate to him.

Yisrael's Death and Burial

 Then he gave them these instructions: "I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite,
30 the cave in the field of Machpelah, near Mamre in Canaan, which Avraham bought as a burial place from Ephron the Hittite, along with the field.
31 There Avraham and his wife Sarah were buried, there Yitzchak and his wife Rivkah were buried, and there I buried Leah.
32 The field and the cave in it were bought from the Hittites."
33 When Ya'acov had finished giving instructions to his sons, he drew his feet up into the bed, breathed his last and was gathered to his people.
50:1 Yoseph threw himself upon his father and wept over him and kissed him.
2 Then Yoseph directed the physicians in his service to embalm his father Yisrael. So the physicians embalmed him,
3 taking a full forty days, for that was the time required for embalming. And the Mitzrayim mourned for him seventy days.
4 When the days of mourning had passed, Yoseph said to Pharaoh's court, "If I have found favor in your eyes, speak to Pharaoh for me. Tell him,
5 'My father made me swear an oath and said, "I am about to die; bury me in the tomb I dug for myself in the land of Canaan." Now let me go up and bury my father; then I will return.'"
6 Pharaoh said, "Go up and bury your father, as he made you swear to do."
7 So Yoseph went up to bury his father. All Pharaoh's officials accompanied him-- the dignitaries of his court and all the dignitaries of Mitzrayim--
8 besides all the members of Yoseph's household and his brothers and those belonging to his father's household. Only their children and their flocks and herds were left in Goshen.
9 Chariots and horsemen also went up with him. It was a very large company.
10 When they reached the threshing floor of Atad, near the Yarden, they lamented loudly and bitterly; and there Yoseph observed a seven-day period of mourning for his father.
11 When the Canaanites who lived there saw the mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, they said, "The Mitzrayim are holding a solemn ceremony of mourning." That is why that place near the Yarden is called Abel Mizraim.
12 So Ya'acov's sons did as he had commanded them:
13 They carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave in the field of Machpelah, near Mamre, which Avraham had bought as a burial place from Ephron the Hittite, along with the field.

Yoseph Forgives His Brothers

 14 After burying his father, Yoseph returned to Mitzrayim, together with his brothers and all the others who had gone with him to bury his father.
15 When Yoseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, "What if Yoseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did to him?"
16 So they sent word to Yoseph, saying, "Your father left these instructions before he died:
17 'This is what you are to say to Yoseph: I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly.' Now please forgive the sins of the servants of the Elohim of your father." When their message came to him, Yoseph wept.
18 His brothers then came and threw themselves down before him. "We are your slaves," they said.
19 But Yoseph said to them, "Don't be afraid. Am I in the place of Elohim?
20 You intended to harm me, but Elohim intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.
21 So then, don't be afraid. I will provide for you and your children." And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them.

Yoseph's Death and Burial

22 Yoseph stayed in Mitzrayim, along with all his father's family. He lived a hundred and ten years
23 and saw the third generation of Ephraim's children. Also the children of Makir son of Manasseh were placed at birth on Yoseph's knees.
24 Then Yoseph said to his brothers, "I am about to die. But Elohim will surely come to your aid and take you up out of this land to the land he promised on oath to Avraham, Yitzchak and Ya'acov."
25 And Yoseph made the sons of Yisrael swear an oath and said, "Elohim will surely come to your aid, and then you must carry my bones up from this place."
26 So Yoseph died at the age of a hundred and ten. And after they embalmed him, he was placed in a coffin in Mitzrayim.

Messiah in the Torah Parashah

Prophetic End Time Shadows in the Torah Parashah