I will go and see him before I die." Then Jacob set forth with all that he had, to go into the land of Egypt, to his son Joseph.

And the sons of Israel carried Jacob their father, and their little ones, and their wives, in the wagons which Pharaoh the king of Egypt had sent to carry him. And they took their cattle, and the goods which they had gotten in the land of Canaan, and journeyed on towards Egypt. And they came to Beersheba, which was on the border of the land of Canaan.

But before Israel left the land where he had lived very many years, and where Abraham and Isaac had lived before him, he offered a sacrifice unto God. And God spake unto Israel in a vision that night, and said, "I am God, the God of thy father: fear not to go down into Egypt; for I will there make of thee a great nation. I will go down with thee into Egypt; and I will also surely bring thee up again."

God did not mean that He would bring Jacob himself out of Egypt again; for Jacob was to die there; but that He would surely bring his chil

dren's children out again, because He had promised to give the land of Canaan to Jacob's seed.

And Jacob went on from Beersheba, and came into the land of Egypt, with his sons, and his sons' wives, and their children.

When Jacob came into Egypt, he and his twelve sons, and their wives, and their children, were in all seventy persons.

And Jacob sent Judah his son to Joseph, to tell him that he was coming. Then Joseph made ready his chariot, and went to meet Israel his father. And when Joseph had come to his father, he fell on his neck, and wept on his neck a good while.

Then Joseph went to Pharaoh the king, and told him, that his father and his brethren had come, with their flocks and their herds. And Pharaoh told Joseph that he should give them the best of the land of Egypt to dwell in. So he gave them the land of Goshen.

Then Joseph brought Jacob his father and his brethren unto Pharaoh. And Jacob blessed Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said unto Jacob, "How

old art thou ?" And Jacob told Pharaoh that he was an hundred and thirty years old; and he said, "Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been."

In those days men lived very much longer than they do now. Adam had lived nine hundred and thirty years; Noah had lived nine hundred and fifty years; Abraham lived one hundred and seventy-five years; and Isaac lived one hundred and eighty years.

Then Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from before Pharaoh.

And Joseph placed his father and his brethren in the best of the land of Egypt, the land of Goshen, and gave it to them for their own, as Pharaoh the king had commanded. And Joseph gave bread to his father, and his brethren, and all his father's household, during all the years of famine.

When Jacob told Pharaoh that the days of his life had been few and evil, he was thinking of all the trials that he had had to bear during his life, the few years that he had lived free from sorrow.

Jacob had known many sorrows.

God had loved

him, and been with him, and had greatly blessed him, but He had not kept from him all evil things. He had made many of his days to be evil, that is, sad or sorrowful. God had punished him because he had sinned; and had put troubles upon him, that He might prove his faith, and make him more perfect.

It is good for us to be in trouble. It makes us humble, and mindful of our sins. So God tries those whom He loves, and chastens them with suffering to make them better.

Chapter XL.

THE BLESSING OF JOSEPH.

JACOB dwelt in the land of Egypt in the country of Goshen, with his sons and their families. And they had possessions there, and they grew and multiplied exceedingly.

And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen

years: so the whole age of Jacob was an hundred and forty-seven years.

And when the time drew nigh that Israel must die, he called his son Joseph, and asked him to promise, that he would not bury him in Egypt, but would carry him out of Egypt, and bury him in the burying-place of his fathers, in the cave where Abraham and Isaac had been buried. And Joseph promised that he would do as Israel his father had said.

Then Joseph brought his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, to see Israel his father. And Israel kissed them, and said unto Joseph, "I had not thought to see thy face: and, lo, God hath shewed me also thy seed." And he blessed Joseph and his two sons, and said, "God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God who fed me all my life long unto this day, bless the lads."

And Israel said, that the seed of Ephraim and Manasseh should be blessed, and become a great people, but that the seed of Ephraim the younger, should be the greater.