meekly and wept. And his father received him joyously and embraced also
him. Then said the father to Joseph: Now shall I die joyously because I
have seen thy visage. Then said Joseph to his brethren and to all the
house of his father: I shall go and ascend to Pharaoh and shall say to
him, that my brethren and the house of my father that were in the land
of Canaan be come to me, and be men keeping sheep, and can the manner
well for to keep the flocks of sheep, and that they have brought with
them their beasts, and all that ever they had. When he shall call you
and ask you of what occupation ye be, ye shall say: We be shepherds, thy
servants, from our childhood unto now, and our fathers also. This shall
ye say that ye may dwell in the land of Goshen, for the Egyptians have
spite unto herdmen of sheep. Then Joseph entered tofore Pharaoh and said
to him: My father, my brethren, their sheep and beasts be come from the
land of Canaan, and be in the land of Goshen. And he brought five of his
brethren tofore the king, whom he demanded of what occupation they were
of. They answered: We be keepers of sheep, thy servants, we and our
fathers, we be come to dwell in thy land, for there is no grass for the
flocks of sheep of us thy servants, the famine is so great in the land
of Canaan. We beseech thee that thou command us thy servants to dwell in
the land of Goshen. Then said the king to Joseph: Thy father and thy
brethren be come to thee, the land of Egypt is at thy commandment, make
thou them to dwell in the best place, and deliver to them the land of
Goshen. And if thou know them for conning, ordain they to be masters of
my beasts. After this Joseph brought his father in, and made him stand
tofore the king which blessed him, and was demanded of the king how old
he was. He answered: The days of the pilgrimage of my life be an hundred
and thirty years, small and evil, and yet I am not come unto the days of
my fathers that they have lived. And he blessed the king and went out.
Then Joseph gave to his father and brethren possession in Egypt in the
best soil of Rameses like as Pharaoh had commanded, and there fed them,