Genesis 49; Genesis 50; Matthew 13:31-58

1 And Jacob called his sons, and said to them: Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you the things that shall befall you in the last days.

2 Gather yourselves together, and hear, O ye sons of Jacob, hearken to Israel, your father:

3 Ruben, my firstborn, thou art my strength, and the beginning of my sorrow; excelling in gifts, greater in command.

4 Thou art poured out as water, grow thou not; because thou wentest up to thy father’s bed, and didst defile his couch.

5 Simeon and Levi brethren: vessels of iniquity waging war.

6 Let not my soul go into their counsel, nor my glory be in their assembly: because in their fury they slew a man, and in their selfwill they undermined a wall.

7 Cursed be their fury, because it was stubborn: and their wrath, because it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, and will scatter them in Israel.

8 Juda, thee shall thy brethren praise: thy hand shall be on the necks of thy enemies; the sons of thy father shall bow down to thee.

9 Juda is a lion’s whelp: to the prey, my son, thou art gone up: resting thou hast couched as a lion, and as a lioness, who shall rouse him?

10 The sceptre shall not be taken away from Juda, nor a ruler from his thigh, till he come that is to be sent, and he shall be the expectation of nations.

11 Tying his foal to the vineyard, and his ass, O my son, to the vine. He shall wash his robe in wine, and his garment in the blood of the grape.

12 His eyes are more beautiful than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk.

13 Zabulon shall dwell on the seashore, and in the road of ships, reaching as far as Sidon.

14 Issachar shall be a strong ass, lying down between the borders.

15 He saw rest that it was good: and the land that it was excellent: and he bowed his shoulder to carry, and became a servant under tribute.

16 Dan shall judge his people like another tribe in Israel.

17 Let Dan be a snake in the way, a serpent in the path, that biteth the horse’s heels, that his rider may fall backward.

18 I will look for thy salvation, O Lord.

19 Gad, being girded, shall fight before him: and he himself shall be girded backward.

20 Aser, his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield dainties to kings.

21 Nephthali, a hart let loose, and giving words of beauty.

22 Joseph is a growing son, a growing son and comely to behold: the daughters run to and fro upon the wall;

23 But they that held darts, provoked him, and quarrelled with him, and envied him.

24 His bow rested upon the strong, and the bands of his arms and his hands were loosed, by the hands of the mighty one of Jacob: thence he came forth a pastor, the stone of Israel.

25 The God of thy father shall be thy helper, and the Almighty shall bless thee with the blessings of heaven above, with the blessings of the deep that lieth beneath, with the blessings of the breasts and of the womb.

26 The blessings of thy father are strengthened with the blessings of his fathers: until the desire of the everlasting hills should come: may they be upon the head of Joseph, and upon the crown of the Nazarite among his brethren.

27 Benjamin a ravenous wolf, in the morning shall eat the prey, and in the evening shall divide the spoil.

28 All these are the twelve tribes of Israel: these things their father spoke to them, and he blessed every one with their proper blessings.

29 And he charged them, saying: I am now going to be gathered to my people: bury me with my fathers in the double cave, which is in the field of Ephron the Hethite,

30 Over against Mambre, in the land of Chanaan, which Abraham bought together with the field, of Ephron the Hethite, for a possession to bury in.

31 There they buried him, and Sara his wife: there was Isaac buried with Rebecca, his wife: there also Lia doth lie buried.

32 (49-31)

33 (49-32) And when he had ended the commandments, wherewith he instructed his sons, he drew up his feet upon the bed, and died: and he was gathered to his people.

1 And when Joseph saw this, he fell upon his father’s face, weeping and kissing him.

2 And he commanded his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father.

3 And while they were fulfilling his commands, there passed forty days: for this was the manner with bodies that were embalmed, and Egypt mourned for him seventy days.

4 And the time of the mourning being expired, Joseph spoke to the family of Pharao: If I have found favour in your sight, speak in the ears of Pharao:

5 For my father made me swear to him, saying: Behold I die; thou shalt bury me in my sepulchre which I have digged for myself in the land of Chanaan. So I will go up and bury my father, and return.

6 And Pharao said to him: Go up and bury thy father according as he made thee swear.

7 So he went up, and there went with him all the ancients of Pharao’s house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt.

8 And the house of Joseph with his brethren, except their children, and their flocks and herds, which they left in the land of Gessen.

9 He had also in his train chariots and horsemen: and it was a great company.

10 And they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is situated beyond the Jordan: where celebrating the exequies with a great and vehement lamentation, they spent full seven days.

11 And when the inhabitants of Chanaan saw this, they said: This is a great mourning to the Egyptians. And therefore the name of that place was called, The mourning of Egypt.

12 So the sons of Jacob did as he had commanded them.

13 And carrying him into the land of Chanaan, they buried him in the double cave, which Abraham had bought together with the field for a possession of a burying place, of Ehpron, the Hethite, over against Mambre.

14 And Joseph returned into Egypt with his brethren, and all that were in his company, after he had buried his father.

15 Now he being dead, his brethren were afraid, and talked one with another: Lest perhaps he should remember the wrong he suffered, and requite us all the evil that we did to him.

16 And they sent a message to him, saying: Thy father commanded us before he died,

17 That we should say thus much to thee from him: I beseech thee to forget the wickedness of thy brethren, and the sin and malice they practised against thee: we also pray thee, to forgive the servants of the God of thy father this wickedness. And when Joseph heard this, he wept.

18 And his brethren came to him; and worshipping prostrate on the ground, they said: We are thy servants.

19 And he answered them: Fear not: can we resist the will of God?

20 You thought evil against me: but God turned it into good, that he might exalt me, as at present you see, and might save many people.

21 Fear not: I will feed you and your children. And he comforted them, and spoke gently and mildly.

22 And he dwelt in Egypt with all his father’s house; and lived a hundred and ten years.

23 (50-22) And he saw the children of Ephraim to the third generation. The children also of Machir, the sons of Manasses, were born on Joseph’s knees.

24 (50-23) After which he told his brethren: God will visit you after my death, and will make you go up out of this land, to the land which he swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

25 (50-24) And he made them swear to him, saying: God will visit you, carry my bones with you out of this place:

26 (50-25) And he died, being a hundred and ten years old. And being embalmed, he was laid in a coffin in Egypt.

31 Another parable he proposed unto them, saying: The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field.

32 Which is the least indeed of all seeds; but when it is grown up, it is greater than all herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come, and dwell in the branches thereof.

33 Another parable he spoke to them: The kingdom of heaven is like to leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, until the whole was leavened.

34 All these things Jesus spoke in parables to the multitudes: and without parables he did not speak to them.

35 That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying: I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things hidden from the foundation of the world.

36 Then having sent away the multitudes, he came into the house, and his disciples came to him, saying: Expound to us the parable of the cockle of the field.

37 Who made answer and said to them: He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man.

38 And the field is the world. And the good seed are the children of the kingdom. And the cockle are the children of the wicked one.

39 And the enemy that sowed them, is the devil. But the harvest is the end of the world. And the reapers are the angels.

40 Even as cockle therefore is gathered up, and burnt with fire: so shall it be at the end of the world.

41 The Son of man shall send his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all scandals, and them that work iniquity.

42 And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

43 Then shall the just shine as the sun, in the kingdom of their Father. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

44 The kingdom of heaven is like unto a treasure hidden in a field. Which a man having found, hid it, and for joy thereof goeth, and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.

45 Again the kingdom of heaven is like to a merchant seeking good pearls.

46 Who when he had found one pearl of great price, went his way, and sold all that he had, and bought it.

47 Again the kingdom of heaven is like to a net cast into the sea, and gathering together of all kinds of fishes.

48 Which, when it was filled, they drew out, and sitting by the shore, they chose out the good into vessels, but the bad they cast forth.

49 So shall it be at the end of the world. The angels shall go out, and shall separate the wicked from among the just.

50 And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

51 Have ye understood all these things? They say to him: Yes.

52 He said unto them: Therefore every scribe instructed in the kingdom of heaven, is like to a man that is a householder, who bringeth forth out of his treasure new things and old.

53 And it came to pass: when Jesus had finished these parables, he passed from thence.

54 And coming into his own country, he taught them in their synagogues, so that they wondered and said: How came this man by this wisdom and miracles?

55 Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary, and his brethren James, and Joseph, and Simon, and Jude:

56 And his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence therefore hath he all these things?

57 And they were scandalized in his regard. But Jesus said to them: A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country, and in his own house.

58 And he wrought not many miracles there, because of their unbelief.