Genesis 49 - 50

So this is getting more like the monthly dose! I had to return to work full-time, plus putting on about 3,000 miles a month for my job, so it's hard to find the time. On the positive, I'm almost through Genesis, so here goes. I will persevere.
Israel knows he is near death, so he gathers his twelve sons to pronounce a blessing over each one. Over his firstborn, Reuben, however, he more or less pronounces a curse. Seems Reuben had been caught having relations with one of Israel's concubines. Cowardly Jacob neither did nor said anything about it at the time, but he lets Reuben know he did not get away with sin while he is on his deathbed. Simeon and Levi also garnered a curse from their father. He still had not forgotten when they made his name an anathema in Sechem.
Judah, who was evil in his youth, but who had totally repented, gains his father's blessing. Israel pronounces that Judah will be the father of a perpetual king over Israel, referring to Christ, who would come from the lineage of Judah. Israel uses poetry in his blessing ritual with his sons and he referrs to Judah as a lion. This same poetic language would later be used to refer to the coming Messiah.
Zebulun gets a mild blessing as Israel pronounces that he will live by the sea, which history says he did. Issachar gets an ominous message that says his descendants will become slaves. Dan is likened to a snake.
Gad's future is said by Israel to hold much war, Asher is said to behold riches and dine sumptously, and Naphtali is likened to a graceful deer.
Not surprisingly, Israel dwells on Joseph as he pronounces his blessing, and calls him a prince among his brothers. He acknowledges that God has been with Joseph and will continue to be.
Benjamin is last and gets only a short pronouncement which seems to say he will be a successful warrior.
Then Jacob gives his last request and that is that he be buried beside Leah, his first wife, in the family burial plot back in Canaan where Abraham, Sarah and Isaac are buried. It strikes me as a little out of character for Jacob to want to be buried beside Leah instead of Rachael, whom he loved so dearly. Again, he stresses that Abraham bought the field and burial plot from the Hittites. When he was all done with these prounouncements and requests, he breathed his last.
Jacob's death caused Joseph to become very emotional. He called for the Egyptian embalmers to embalm his father so he could be carried back to Canaan for burial without his body decomposing. There was a 70 day mourning period, after which Joseph approached Pharaoh to ask permission to leave to return his father's body to Mamre. Although Joseph was Prime Minister of Egypt, he still considered himself a servant to Pharaoh and submitted himself to him.
Pharaoh thought highly of Joseph and sent a large contingent of important people with him for the funeral.
Following the burial of their father, Joseph's brothers again become fearful of what he might do to them now that their father was gone. They sent a message to him saying their father requested their forgiveness before his death, and they also asked meekly for forgiveness. This grieved Joseph, I think, because he had already spoke and demonstrated his forgiveness over them. But in complete fulfillment of the dream God had sent Joseph when he was a boy, his brothers came and prostrated themselves in front of him and pronounced themselves his slaves. Joseph reminds them that, even though they meant to do him harm, God meant the whole episode for their good, and he promised to provide for them and their families.
They remained in Egypt where Joseph lived to the age of 110 and was a great-grandfather. Before he died, he expressed his faith that God would return the twelve tribes to The Promised Land and made his brothers promise to take his body with them when they returned to be buried in the cave at Mamre with his ancestors. His body was also embalmed and placed in a coffin there in Egypt, where it stayed for a long time until the Exodus, which is where we will go next.