Genesis 50
50
1Joseph started crying, then leaned over to hug and kiss his father.
2Joseph gave orders for Jacob's body to be embalmed, 3and it took the usual 40 days.
The Egyptians mourned 70 days for Jacob. 4When the time of mourning was over, Joseph said to the Egyptian leaders, “If you consider me your friend, please speak to the king#50.4 the king: See the note at 12.15. for me. 5#Gn 47.29-31. Just before my father died, he made me promise to bury him in his burial cave in Canaan. If the king will give me permission to go, I will come back here.”
6The king answered, “Go to Canaan and keep your promise to your father.”
7-9When Joseph left Goshen with his brothers, his relatives, and his father's relatives to bury Jacob, many of the king's highest officials and even his military chariots and cavalry went along. The Israelites left behind only their children, their cattle, and their sheep and goats.
10After crossing the Jordan River, Joseph stopped at Atad's threshing place, where they all mourned and wept seven days for Jacob. 11The Canaanites saw this and said, “The Egyptians are in great sorrow.” Then they named the place “Egypt in Sorrow.”#50.11 Egypt in Sorrow: Or “Abel-Mizraim.”
12So Jacob's sons did just as their father had instructed. 13#Ac 7.16. They took him to Mamre in Canaan and buried him in Machpelah Cave, the burial place Abraham had bought from Ephron the Hittite.
14After the funeral, Joseph, his brothers, and everyone else returned to Egypt.
Joseph's Promise to His Brothers
15After Jacob died, Joseph's brothers said to each other, “What if Joseph still hates us and wants to get even with us for all the cruel things we did to him?”
16So they sent this message to Joseph:
Before our father died, 17he told us, “You did some cruel and terrible things to Joseph, but you must ask him to forgive you.”
Now we ask you to please forgive the terrible things we did. After all, we serve the same God that your father worshiped.
When Joseph heard this, he started crying.
18Right then, Joseph's brothers came and bowed down to the ground in front of him and said, “We are your slaves.”
19But Joseph told them, “Don't be afraid! I have no right to change what God has decided. 20You tried to harm me, but God made it turn out for the best, so that he could save all these people, as he is now doing. 21Don't be afraid! I will take care of you and your children.” After Joseph said this, his brothers felt much better.
Joseph's Death
22Joseph lived in Egypt with his brothers until he died at the age of 110. 23Joseph lived long enough to see Ephraim's children and grandchildren. He also lived to see the children of Manasseh's son Machir, and he welcomed them into his family. 24Before Joseph died, he told his brothers, “I won't live much longer. But God will take care of you and lead you out of Egypt to the land he promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 25#Ex 13.19; Js 24.32; He 11.22. Now promise me that you will take my body with you when God leads you to that land.”
26So Joseph died in Egypt at the age of 110; his body was embalmed and put in a coffin.
Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
Genesis 50
50
1 Joseph fell on his father’s face, wept on him, and kissed him. 2Joseph commanded his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father; and the physicians embalmed Israel. 3Forty days were used for him, for that is how many days it takes to embalm. The Egyptians wept for Israel for seventy days.
4 When the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph spoke to Pharaoh’s staff, saying, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, please speak in the ears of Pharaoh, saying, 5‘My father made me swear, saying, “Behold, I am dying. Bury me in my grave which I have dug for myself in the land of Canaan.” Now therefore, please let me go up and bury my father, and I will come again.’”
6 Pharaoh said, “Go up, and bury your father, just like he made you swear.”
7 Joseph went up to bury his father; and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, all the elders of the land of Egypt, 8all the house of Joseph, his brothers, and his father’s house. Only their little ones, their flocks, and their herds, they left in the land of Goshen. 9Both chariots and horsemen went up with him. It was a very great company. 10They came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, and there they lamented with a very great and severe lamentation. He mourned for his father seven days. 11When the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning in the floor of Atad, they said, “This is a grievous mourning by the Egyptians.” Therefore its name was called Abel Mizraim, which is beyond the Jordan. 12His sons did to him just as he commanded them, 13for his sons carried him into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which Abraham bought with the field, as a possession for a burial site, from Ephron the Hittite, near Mamre. 14Joseph returned into Egypt—he, and his brothers, and all that went up with him to bury his father, after he had buried his father.
15 When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “It may be that Joseph will hate us, and will fully pay us back for all the evil which we did to him.” 16They sent a message to Joseph, saying, “Your father commanded before he died, saying, 17‘You shall tell Joseph, “Now please forgive the disobedience of your brothers, and their sin, because they did evil to you.”’ Now, please forgive the disobedience of the servants of the God of your father.” Joseph wept when they spoke to him. 18His brothers also went and fell down before his face; and they said, “Behold, we are your servants.” 19Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid, for am I in the place of God? 20As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to save many people alive, as is happening today. 21Now therefore don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your little ones.” He comforted them, and spoke kindly to them.
22 Joseph lived in Egypt, he, and his father’s house. Joseph lived one hundred ten years. 23Joseph saw Ephraim’s children to the third generation. The children also of Machir, the son of Manasseh, were born on Joseph’s knees. 24Joseph said to his brothers, “I am dying, but God will surely visit you, and bring you up out of this land to the land which he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” 25Joseph took an oath from the children of Israel, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.” 26So Joseph died, being one hundred ten years old, and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.
PUBLIC DOMAIN