Genesis 50

The Burial of Jacob

1#Ge 46:4Then Joseph fell on his father’s face and wept over him and kissed him. 2#Ge 50:26; 2Ch 16:14Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel. 3#Nu 20:29; Dt 34:8Forty days were required for him, for such is the time required for those who are embalmed. Then the Egyptians mourned for him seventy days.

4When the days of his mourning were past, Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh, saying, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, speak to Pharaoh, saying, 5#2Ch 16:14; Isa 22:16‘My father made me swear, saying, “I am about to die. Bury me in my tomb which I dug for myself in the land of Canaan.” Now therefore please let me go up and bury my father, and then I will return.’ ”

6Pharaoh said, “Go up and bury your father, as he made you swear to do.”

7Joseph went up to bury his father, and all the servants of Pharaoh went up with him too, the elders of his household and all the elders of the land of Egypt, 8all the house of Joseph and his brothers and his father’s household. They left only their little ones and their flocks and their herds in the land of Goshen. 9Both the chariots and horsemen also went up with him. It was a very great company.

10#Ac 8:2; 2Sa 1:17When they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, they mourned with a great and very sorrowful lamentation. He observed seven days of mourning for his father. 11When the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, they said, “This is a grievous mourning for the Egyptians.” Therefore the place was called Abel Mizraim, which is beyond the Jordan.

12So his sons did with him just as he had commanded them. 13#Ge 23:16–18; Ac 7:16For his sons carried him into the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, near Mamre, which Abraham bought with the field as a burial site from Ephron the Hittite. 14After he had buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt, he and his brothers and all who went up with him to bury his father.

Joseph Reassures His Brothers

15When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “Perhaps Joseph will hate us and will certainly pay us back for all the wrong we did to him.” 16So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, “Your father gave this command before he died: 17#Ge 49:25‘Say to Joseph, “I beg you, forgive the transgressions of your brothers and their sin. For they did evil to you.” ’ Now, please forgive the transgressions of the servants of the God of your father.” And Joseph wept when they spoke to him.

18Then his brothers also went and fell down before his face and said, “We are your servants.”

19#Ge 30:2; 2Ki 5:7Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God? 20#Ro 8:28But as for you, you intended to harm me, but God intended it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many lives. 21#Ge 47:12So now, do not fear. I will provide for you and your little ones.” So he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.

The Death of Joseph

22Joseph stayed in Egypt, he and his father’s household, and Joseph lived one hundred and ten years. 23#Ge 30:3; Nu 32:39Joseph saw Ephraim’s children to the third generation. Also, the children of Makir, the son of Manasseh, were brought up on Joseph’s knees.

24#Ge 26:3; 35:12; 46:4Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die. God will surely come to you and bring you out of this land to the land of which He swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” 25#Ex 13:19; Jos 24:32Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.”

26So Joseph died at the age of one hundred and ten years old, and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.

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Genesis 50

CHAPTER 50

1Which thing Joseph saw, and he fell on his father’s face, and wept, and kissed him;

2and he commanded his servants, leeches, that they should anoint his father with sweet smelling spiceries.

3While they fulfilled his behests, forty days passed, for this was the custom of dead bodies that were anointed; and Egypt bewept him seventy days.

4And when the time of wailing was fulfilled, Joseph spake to the meine of Pharaoh, If I have found grace in your sight, speak ye in the ears of Pharaoh;

5for my father charged me [with an oath], and said, Lo! I die; thou shalt bury me in my sepulchre which I digged to me in the land of Canaan; therefore I shall go up that I bury my father, and I shall turn again.

6And Pharaoh said to him, Go up, and bury thy father, as thou art charged.

7And when Joseph went up, all the elder men of the household of Pharaoh went with him, and all the greater men in birth of the land of Egypt;

8 and all the household of Joseph with their brethren, without little children, and flocks, and great beasts, which they left in the land of Goshen, went with him.

9And he had chariots, and horse-men, and fellowship with him, and the company was made not little.

10And they came to the cornfloor of Atad, which is set over Jordan, where they made the service of the dead body, with great wailing and strong, and filled seven days.

11And when the dwellers of the land of Canaan had seen this, they said, This is a time of great wailing to the Egyptians; therefore they called the name of that place The wailing of Egypt.

12Therefore the sons of Jacob did, as he had commanded to them;

13and they bare him into the land of Canaan, and they buried him in the double den, which den with the field Abraham had bought of Ephron the Hittite, against the face of Mamre, into possession of a sepulchre.

14And Joseph turned again into Egypt with his brethren and all the fellowship, when his father was buried.

15And when their father was dead, the brethren of Joseph dreaded, and spake together, Lest peradventure he be mindful of the wrong which he suffered, and yield to us all the evil, that we did.

16And they sent to him, and said, Thy father commanded to us, before that he died,

17that we should say to thee these things by his words; I beseech thee, that thou forget the wickedness of thy brethren, and the sin, and [the] malice that they haunted against thee; also we pray thee, that thou forgive this wickedness which we did to thy father, the servant of God. When these things were heard, Joseph wept.

18And his brethren came to him, and worshipped low to the earth, and said, We be thy servants.

19To which he answered, Do not ye dread; whether we may against-stand God’s will?

20Ye thought evil of me, and God turned it into good, that he should enhance me, as ye see in this present time, and that he should make safe many peoples;

21do not ye dread, I shall feed you and your little children. And he comforted them, and spake sweetly and lightly to them;

22and Joseph dwelled in Egypt, with all the house of his father. And he lived an hundred [and ten] years,

23and he saw the sons of Ephraim till to the third generation; also the sons of Machir, the son of Manasseh, were borne in the knees of Joseph.

24When these things were done, Joseph spake to his brethren, After my death God shall visit you, and he shall make you to go up from this land to the land which he swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

25And when Joseph had charged them with an oath, and had said, God shall visit you, bear ye out with you my bones from this place;

26he died, when an hundred and ten years of his life were filled; and he was anointed with sweet smelling spiceries, and he was kept in a bier in Egypt.

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