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History of the Franks

St Gregory of Tours, tr. Dalton, 1927

Book 1, 9. Of Joseph in Egypt

The second son of Isaac was Jacob, the beloved of God, as He spake by the Prophet: ‘I have loved Jacob, but Esau have I hated.’¹ After his wrestling with the angel he was called Israel, and from him the Israelites are named. He begat the twelve patriarchs, whose names are these: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judas, Issachar, Zabulon, Dan, Naphtali,² Gad, and Asser. After these, in the ninety-second year of his age, he begat of Rachel, Joseph, whom he loved more than his other sons; and of her he had also Benjamin, the last of all his sons. In the sixteenth year of his age, Joseph, presenting a type of the Redeemer, saw dreams which he recounted to his brethren: he was binding sheaves, which the sheaves of his brethren worshipped; another time the sun and moon, with eleven stars, bowed down before him. Which thing created a great hatred in his brethren against him, so that they burned with envy and sold him for twenty pieces of silver to certain Ishmaelites passing into Egypt. But when a famine was upon them they also went down into Egypt and were known of Joseph, though he was not known of them. Joseph, having many times tried them and caused them to bring thither Benjamin, who also was born of his own mother Rachel, declared himself to them. Thereafter all the Israelites went down into Egypt, and through Joseph enjoyed the good grace of Pharaoh. In Egypt Jacob died after he had blessed his sons, and was buried in the sepulchre of his father Isaac in the land of Canaan. But when Joseph and Pharaoh were dead, the whole people were reduced to slavery, and after the ten plagues of Egypt were set free by Moses, Pharaoh having been drowned in the Red Sea.

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