For they gave themselves to thy word,
And kept thy covenant [law].

They shall teach Jacob thy judgments,

And Israel thy law :

They shall put incense in thy nostrils,

And whole burnt offering upon thine altar.

And of Judah he said,

Bless, Yahweh, his substance,

And accept the work of his hands:

"With thy hands" contend for him ;

And be thou an help against his adversaries.

Smite through the loins of them that rise up against him,
And of them that hate him, that they rise not again.

Of Benjamin he said,

Yahweh's favorite is he ;

He dwelleth in safety by him

He covereth him all the day long,

And hath taken up his abode between his [mountain] shoul

ders.

And of Joseph he said,

ΙΟ

7a

II

12

13

'Blessed of Yahweh' be his land;

'With the precious things of heaven, with the dew,

And with the 'deep' that coucheth beneath,

And with the precious things which the sun doth ripen
And with the precious things that the moon bringeth forth,
And with the chief things of the ancient mountains,
And with the precious things of the everlasting hills,
And with the precious things of the earth and its fulness,' 16
And the good will of him that dwelt in the bush :

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15

Let [it] come upon the head of Joseph,

'And upon the crown of the head of the crowned one among his brethren.'

Majesty surrounds his firstling bullock ;

And his horns are like the horns of the wild-ox:

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18

19

20

21

22

23

24

With them he shall gore the nations all of them, [even] the

ends of the earth :

These are the ten thousands of Ephraim,

And these are the thousands of Manasseh.

And of Zebulun he said,

Rejoice thou, Zebulun, in thy voyages;
And thou, Issachar, in thy tents.

They invite the peoples unto the mountain ;
They offer there sacrifices of righteousness :
For they suck the abundance of the seas,
And the hidden treasures of the sand.

And of Gad he said,

'Blessed be He that enlargeth' Gad:

He hath couched as a lioness,'

And teareth the arm, yea, the crown of the head.

He sought out for himself the lot of a firstborn son,

For there a ruler's portion lay ready;

Yet he came [with] the heads of the people,

He executed the justice of Yahweh,

And his judgments with Israel.

And of Dan he said,

Dan is a lion's whelp,

That leapeth forth from Bashan.

And of Naphtali he said,

O Naphtali, satisfied with [gifts of divine] 'favor,'
And full with the blessing of Yahweh':

Possess thou the sea [of Galilee] and southward.

And of Asher he said,

Blessed be Asher above [the other] sons;

Let him be the favorite of his brethren,

And let him dip his foot in oil.

25

Thy bars shall be iron and brass ;

And thy strength endure all thy days.

And everlasting arms are [stretched out] beneath,

A people victorious by Yahweh ?

He is the 'shield' of thy help,

And the sword that maketh thee glorious.

Thy foes shall feign thee friendship;

And thou shalt tread [victorious] on their high places.

MOSES' DEATH AND BURIAL.

[So Moses went up] to 'the top of Pisgah' that is 34—ıb. over against Jericho [the City of Palm-trees]. And Yahweh shewed him all the land. And Yahweh said unto him, This 4 is the 'land which I sware' unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed: I have caused thee to see it with thine own eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither. [So Moses died there] and he was buried 6 in the valley in the land of Moab over against Beth-peor.

THE EPHRAIMITE PROPHETIC DOCUMENT E,

CIRC. 750 B. C.

(THE) EXODUS.

STORY OF THE OPPRESSION IN EGYPT. PHARAOH'S CRUEL COMMANDS FRUSTRATED.

Now there arose a new king over Egypt, which had not 1—8 known Joseph. And he said unto his people, Behold, the peo- 9 ple of the children of Israel is becoming 'too many and too mighty' for us: come, let us deal wisely with them; lest they 10 multiply, and it come to pass, that, when we are entangled in some* war, they also join themselves unto our enemies, and fight against us, and get them up out of the land.

But the midwives 17 Egypt commanded And the king of 18

So the king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives, of 15 which the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah: and he said, When ye do the office of a 16 midwife to the Hebrew women, look [while they are still] upon the birthstool (?); if it be a son, then ye shall kill him; but if it be a daughter, then she may live. 'feared God,' and did not as the king of them, but saved the men children alive. Egypt sent for the midwives, and said unto them, Why have ye done this thing, and have saved the men children alive? And the midwives said unto Pharaoh, Because the 19 Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous, and are delivered ere the midwife come unto them. And God' dealt well with the midwives. And it 20-21 came to pass, because the midwives 'feared''God,' that he established clans for them. Then Pharaoh charged all his 22 people, saying, Every son that is born to the Hebrews † ye shall cast into the Nile, and every daughter ye shall save alive.

*Text of Sam. and all versions.

1 Sam., LXX., Jer. Targum.