Genesis 50

1Joseph went and hugged his father, weeping over him and kissing him. 2Then Joseph instructed the physicians who worked for him to embalm his father's body. So the physicians embalmed Israel. 3This took a full 40 days, the normal time for the process, and the Egyptians mourned for him for 70 days.

4Once the time of mourning was over, Joseph said to Pharaoh's officials, “If you'd be so kind, please speak to Pharaoh on my behalf, and explain to him that 5my father made me swear an oath, telling me, ‘You must bury me in the tomb I've prepared for myself in Canaan. Please allow me to go and bury my father and then I'll return.’”

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

7Joseph went to bury his father, and all Pharaoh's officials went with him—all Pharaoh's senior advisors and all the leaders of Egypt— 8as well as Joseph's family, his brothers, and his father's family. They only left the small children and their flocks and herds back in Goshen. 9They were accompanied by chariots and horsemen—a really large procession.

10When they got to the threshing floor of Atad, on the other side of the Jordan, they wept loudly in sorrow. Joseph held a seven-day ceremony of mourning for his father there. 11The Canaanites who lived there watched the ceremony of mourning at the threshing floor of Atad. They said, “This is a very sad time of mourning for the Egyptians,” so they renamed the place Abel-mizraim,#50:11. “Abel-mizraim”: meaning “mourning of the Egyptians.” which is on the other side of the Jordan.

12Jacob's sons did what he had instructed them to do. 13They carried his body to Canaan and buried him in the cave at Machpelah in the field near Mamre, which Abraham had bought from Ephron the Hittite as a burial site.

14After they had buried their father, Joseph and his brothers returned to Egypt along with all those who had gone with them. 15However, now that their father was dead, Joseph's brothers became worried, saying, “Maybe Joseph is holding a grudge against us, and he'll pay us back for all the bad things we did to him.”

16So they sent a message to Joseph to tell him, “Before your father died, he gave this order: 17‘This is what you are to tell Joseph: Forgive your brothers their sins, the bad things they did to you, treating you in such a nasty way.’ Now please forgive us our sins, we who are servants of the God of your father.” When Joseph received their message, he cried.

18Then his brothers themselves came and fell down before Joseph and said, “We are your slaves!”

19“You don't need to be afraid!” he told them. “I don't stand in the place of God, do I? 20While you planned bad things for me, God planned it for good so that in the end many lives could be saved.#50:20. See 45:5, 45:7. 21So don't worry. I'll go on taking care of you and your children.” Speaking kindly like this he calmed them down.

22Joseph remained in Egypt, together with his father's whole family. He lived to be 110, 23and saw three generations of his son Ephraim, and the sons of Makir, Manasseh's son, were placed in his lap when they were born.

24“I'm going to die soon,” Joseph told his brothers, “but God will be with you, and he will lead you out of this country to the land that he swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

25Joseph made the sons of Israel swear an oath, saying, “When God comes to be with you, you must take my bones with you when you leave.”#50:25. “When you leave”: supplied for clarity. 26Joseph died when he was 110. After his body was embalmed, he was placed in a coffin in Egypt.

Genesis 50

1And when Joseph saw this, he fell upon his father's face weeping and kissing him.

2And he commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father.

3And while they were fulfilling his commands, there passed forty days: for this was the manner with bodies that were embalmed. And Egypt mourned for him seventy days.

4And the time of the mourning being expired, Joseph spoke to the family of Pharao: If I have found favour in your sight, speak in the ears of Pharao.

5For my father made me swear to him, saying: Behold, I die: thou shalt bury me in my sepulchre which I have digged for myself in the land of Chanaan. So I will go up and bury my father, and return.

6And Pharao said to him: Go up and bury thy father according as he made thee swear.

7So he went up, and there went with him all the ancients of Pharao's house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt,

8And the house of Joseph with his brethren, except their children, and their flocks and herds, which they left in the land of Gessen.

9He had also in his train chariots and horsemen: and it was a great company.

10And they came to the threshing-floor of Atad, which is situated beyond the Jordan: where celebrating the exequies with a great and vehement lamentation, they spent full seven days.

11And when the inhabitants of Chanaan saw this, they said: This is a great mourning to the Egyptians. And therefore the name of that place was called: The mourning of Egypt.

12So the sons of Jacob did as he had commanded them.

13And carrying him into the land of Chanaan, they buried him in the double cave which Abraham had bought together with the held for a possession of a burying place, of Ephron the Hethite over against Mambre.

14And Joseph returned into Egypt with his brethren, and all that were in his company, after he had buried his father.

15Now he being dead, his brethren were afraid, and talked one with another: Lest perhaps he should remember the wrong he suffered, and requite us all the evil that we did to him.

16And they sent a message to him, saying: Thy father commanded us before he died,

17That we should say thus much to thee from him: I beseech thee to forget the wickedness of thy brethren, and the sin and malice they practiced against thee. We also pray thee, to forgive the servants of the God of thy father this wickedness. And when Joseph heard this, he wept.

18And his brethren came to him: and worshipping prostrate on the ground they said: We are thy servants.

19And he answered them: Fear not. Can we resist the will of God?

20You thought evil against me: but God turned it into good, that he might exalt me, as at present you see, and might save many people.

21Fear not: I will feed you and your children. And he comforted them, and spoke gently and mildly.

22And he dwelt in Egypt with all his father's house: and lived a hundred and ten years. And he saw the children of Ephraim to the third generation. The children also of Machir the son of Manasses were born on Joseph's knees.

23After which he told his brethren: God will visit you after my death, and will make you go up out of this land, to the land which he swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

24And he made them swear to him, saying: God will visit you. Carry my bones with you out of this place:

25And he died being a hundred and ten years old. And being embalmed he was laid in a coffin in Egypt.

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Genesis 50

Genesis 50