1 In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the one God.
2 We begin, with the help of God Most High and through his mediation, to write the life story of our father, the patriarch Jacob, son of the patriarch Isaac, on the twenty-eighth day of the month of Misri.
3 May the blessing of his prayer guard us and protect us from the temptations of the obstinate enemy. Amen, amen, amen!
4 He said, “Come, listen, my beloved ones and my brethren who love the Lord, to what has been received.”
5 Now when the time of our father Jacob, father of fathers, son of Isaac, son of Abraham, approached and drew near for him to steal away from his body, this faithful one was advanced in years and distinction.
6 So the Lord sent to him Michael, the chief of the angels, who said to him, “O Israel, my beloved, of noble lineage, write down your spoken legacy and your instruction for your household and give them a covenant; also concern yourself with the proper ordering of your household, for the time has drawn near for you to go to your fathers to rejoice with them forever.”
7 So when our father Jacob, the faithful one, heard this from the angel, he answered and said, as was his custom every day to speak in this manner with the angels,
8 “Let the will of the Lord be done.”
9 And God pronounced a blessing upon our father Jacob. Jacob had a secluded place which he would enter to offer his prayers before the Lord in the night and in the day.
10 The angels would visit him and guard him and strengthen him in all things.
11 God blessed him and multiplied his people in the land of Egypt at the time when he went down to the land of Egypt to meet his son Joseph.
12 His eyes had become dull from weeping, but when he went down to Egypt he saw clearly when he beheld his son.
13 So Jacob-Israel bowed with his face to the ground, then fell upon the neck of his son Joseph and kissed him, while weeping and saying, “I can die now, O my son, because I have seen your face once more in my lifetime; O my beloved son.”