88 Jacob's Death

The Testament to Joseph is of extraordinary length, equaled only, and significantly, by that to Judah. He gets treated more favorably than any of the others. Joseph is compared to the branch of a fruit-tree planted by a well (Psalm. 1:3), which sends it shoots over the wall, and by which, according to Ps. 80, we are probably to understand a vine. Jacob took up the promise of fruitfulness from the name of Joseph’s son Ephraim (which means fruitful) and lavished the promise of victory, and prosperity on Joseph’s two tribes. From the simile of the fruit-tree Jacob passed to a warlike figure, and described the mighty and victorious unfolding of the tribe of Joseph in conflict with all its foes, describing with prophetic intuition the future as already come. It also described the persecution that he experienced as a young adult.