1 Joseph continued to rule over all Egypt, while Jacob stayed in the land of Goshen for seventeen years and became very old, so that his life-span was completed.
2 He continually kept all the commandments and feared the Lord.
3 His eyes grew dim and his lifetime was so nearly finished that he could not see a single person because of his long life and senility.
4 Then he lifted his eyes toward the light of Isaac, but he was afraid and became disturbed.
5 So the angel said to him, “Do not fear, O Jacob; I am the angel who has been walking with you and guarding you from your infancy.
6 I announced that you would receive the blessing of your father and of Rebecca, your mother.
7 I am the one who 1s with you, O Israel, in all your acts and in everything which you have witnessed.
8 I saved you from Laban? when he was endangering you and pursuing you.
9 At that time I gave you all his possessions and blessed you, your wives, your children, and your flocks.
10 “I am the one who saved you from the hand of Esau.
11 I am the one who accompanied you to the land of Egypt, O Israel, and a very great people was given to you.
12 Blessed is your father Abraham, for he has become the friend of God— may he (God) be exalted!—because of his generosity and love of strangers.
13 Blessed is your father Isaac who begot you, for he was a perfect sacrifice, acceptable to God.
14 “Blessed are you also, O Jacob, for you have seen God face to face.
15 You saw the angel of God—may he be exalted!—and you saw the ladder standing firm on the ground with its top in the heavens.
16 Then you beheld the Lord sitting at its top with a power which no one could describe.
17 You spoke out and said, ‘This is the house of God and this is the gate of heaven.’
18 Blessed are you, for you have come near to God and he is strong among mankind, so now do not be troubled, O chosen one of God.
19 “Blessed are you, O Israel, and blessed is all your progeny.
20 For all of you will be called ‘the patriarchs’ to the end of the age and of the epochs; you are the people and the lineage of the servants of God.
21 Blessed be the nation which will strive for your purity and will see your good works.
22 Blessed be the man who will remember you on the day of your noble festival.
23 Blessed be the one who will perform acts of mercy in honor of your several names, and will give someone a cup of water to drink, or will come with an offering to the sanctuary, or will take in strangers, or visit the sick and console their children, or will clothe a naked one in honor of your several names.
24 “Such a one shall neither lack any of the good things of this world, nor life everlasting in the world to come.
25 Moreover, whoever shall have caused to be written the stories of your several lives and sufferings at his own expense, or shall have written them by his own hand, or shall have read them soberly, or shall hear them in faith, or shall remember your deeds—such persons will have their sins forgiven and their trespasses pardoned, and they will go on account of you and your progeny into the kingdom of heaven.
26 “And now rise up, Jacob, for you will be translated from hardship and pain of heart to eternal rest, and you will enter into the repose which shall not pass away, into mercy, eternal light, and spiritual joy.
27 So now make your statement to your household, and peace be upon you, for I am about to go to him who sent me.”