Vayechi (And He Lived)
(Sefer Bereishit) Genesis 47:27-50:26

48:3- “And Yaakov said to Yoseph, El Shaddai appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me.
4- And said unto me, Behold, I will make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, and I will make of thee a
multitude of people; and will give this land to thy seed after thee for an everlasting possession.
5- And now thy two sons, Ephraim and Menashe, which were born unto thee in the land of Egypt before
I came unto thee into Egypt, are mine; as Reuven and Shimon, they shall be mine.
15- And he blessed Yoseph, and said, Elohim, before Whom my fathers Avraham and Yitzchak did walk,
the Elohim Who fed me all my life long unto this day,
16- The Angel who redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name and the name of my fathers
Avraham and Yitzchak be named on them; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.
20- And he blessed them that day, saying, In thee shall Yisrael bless, saying, Elohim make thee as Ephraim
and as Menashe: and he set Ephraim before Menashe.
21- And Yisrael said unto Yoseph, Behold, I die: but Elohim shall be with you, and bring you again unto
the land of your fathers.
49:1- And Yaakov called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which
shall befall you in the last days.
2- Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Yaakov and hearken unto Yisrael your father.
8- Yehudah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies;
thy father's children shall bow down before thee.
9- Yehudah is a lion's whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a
lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up?
10- The scepter shall not depart from Yehudah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come;
and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.
11- Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass's colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in
wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes:
12- His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.
22- Yoseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall:
23- The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him:
24- But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the
mighty Elohim of Yaakov from thence is the shepherd, the stone of Yisrael:
25- Even by the Elohim of thy father, Who shall help thee; and by the Almighty, Who shall bless thee with
blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lie under, blessings of the breasts and of the womb:
26- The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: they shall be on the head of Yoseph and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren.”

“And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Yisrael, and gather
together the dispersed of Yehudah from the four corners of the earth. The envy also of Ephraim
shall depart, and the adversaries of Yehudah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Yehudah,
and Yehudah shall not vex Ephraim.”
(Isaiah 11:12-13)

“Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it, For Yehudah and for the
children of Yisrael his companions: then take another stick, and write upon it, For Yoseph, the
stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Yisrael his companions: And join them one to
another into one stick; and they shall become one in thine hand.”
(Ezekiel 37:16-17)

“For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Yehudah: I, even I, will
tear and go away; I will take away, and none shall rescue him. I will go and return to my place, till
they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early.”
(Hosea 5:14-15)

“And I will strengthen the house of Yehudah, and I will save the house of Yoseph, and I will bring
them again to place them; for I have mercy upon them: and they shall be as though I had not cast
them off: for I am YHVH their Elohim, and will hear them.”
(Zechariah 10:6)

Vayechi Summary:
1. Yoseph and Yehudah, Strength and Authority to Last:
Before he could rest with his fathers, guarding the trust they passed down to him, Yaakov bestows upon his sons, the blessings of HaShem. Even as the provisions of the Covenant sustained him outside the Land as he saw Elohim’s faithful hand, increasing his portion and multiplying his seed, so would the Twelve Tribes find themselves both preserved and illustriously enlarged as the seeds of seventy souls would soon see a great gathering of millions in the Exodus from Egypt. Although these blessings were
pronounced to befall (them) in the last days, from the moment of their to return to Canaan, the words of Yaakov began being realized. For with the call to go up and possess, only Ephraim, who received the choicest part of Yoseph’s double portion, represented by Yehoshua, and Yehudah, the one given the Birthright and Scepter, represented by Calev, would enter. And so it was that the children of Yaakov would be divided into two Kingdoms. While we know that this promise was realized long ago in those Days when Yisrael looked south to Yehudah, now, with the dispersal of the Ephraim’s northern tribes in the Assyrian exile and their subsequent covertness among the nations, the question of how these promises given to Yoseph are being expressed today becomes the cloaked controversy.
Clearly the blessings spoken over Yehudah are apparent and being fulfilled before all our eyes. The
Yehudim have been gathered back to the Land of Yisrael, quieting the peoples to see that the Elohim of Yisrael is true in keeping His word, which He says will stand forever. And because this is so explicit in Torah, we can also foresee the manifestation of the Yehudah’s Davidic Reign over the Earth. Among the words spoken over Yehudah is the profoundly obscure yet evidentially prophetic promise of Redemption, Genesis 49:11 relates that it is Yehudah who washes his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes. The words of Isaiah 63:1-4, this blessing gives purport to that day of Messianic Redemption, i.e.:
“Who is this that comes from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? This that is glorious in His
apparel, traveling in the greatness of His strength? I, that speak in righteousness, am Mighty to save.
Wherefore are thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treads in the winefat? I have
trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with Me: for I will tread them in Mine
anger, and trample them in My fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon My garments, and I will
stain all My raiment. For the day of vengeance is in Mine heart, and the year of My redeemed is come.”
Confirming Yehudah’s preeminence, the throne is handed to Mashiach, as is written in Ezek 37:24-25,
“And David My servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also
walk in My judgments, and observe My statutes, and do them. And they shall dwell in the land that I
have given unto Yaakov My servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein...”
 

2. The Return of Ephraim, An expectant End:
The provision given to Yoseph’s seed is not to be denied. From generation to generation the hope of Ephraim’s awaited reunion with his brethren lives on. The prophet Jeremiah confirms not only the fact of his return, but also the place of his sojourning. Parallel with Redemption is Ephraim’s gathering to Tzion:
“For there shall be a day, that the watchmen upon the mount Ephraim shall cry, Arise ye, and let us go
up to Tzion unto YHVH our Elohim...Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather
them from the coasts of the earth...a great company shall return…They shall come with weeping, and
with supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way...
for I am a father to Yisrael, and Ephraim is My firstborn...declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He
that scattered Yisrael will gather him, and keep him, as a Shepherd does His flock. (Jeremiah 31:6-10)