Genesis 50
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.
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Dr. Jonathan Gallagher. Released under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Unported License. Version 4.3. For corrections send email to jonathangallagherfbv@gmail.com
Genesis 50
50
Jacob’s Funeral
1When Israel died, Joseph was very sad. He hugged his father and cried over him and kissed him. 2Joseph commanded his servants to prepare his father’s body. (These servants were doctors.) The doctors prepared Jacob’s body to be buried. They prepared the body in the special way of the Egyptians. 3When the Egyptians prepared the body in this special way, they waited 40 days before they buried the body. Then the Egyptians had a special time of sadness for Jacob. This time was 70 days.
4After the time of sadness was finished, Joseph spoke to Pharaoh’s officers and said, “Please tell this to Pharaoh: 5‘When my father was near death, I made a promise to him. I promised that I would bury him in a cave in the land of Canaan. This is the cave that he prepared for himself. So please let me go and bury my father. Then I will come back here to you.’”
6Pharaoh answered, “Keep your promise. Go and bury your father.”
7So Joseph went to bury his father. All of Pharaoh’s officials, personal advisors, and all the older leaders of Egypt went with Joseph. 8All the people in Joseph’s family, his brothers, and all the people in his father’s family went with him. Only the children and the animals stayed in the land of Goshen. 9So there was a large crowd of people with him. There was even a group of soldiers riding in chariots and some on horses.
10They went to Goren Atad,#50:10 Goren Atad Or “Atad’s threshing floor.” east of the Jordan River. There they had a long funeral service for Israel, which continued for seven days. 11When the people who lived in Canaan saw the funeral service at Goren Atad, they said, “This is a time of great sorrow for those Egyptians.” So now that place across the Jordan River is named Abel Mizraim.#50:11 Abel Mizraim This means “Egyptian time of sadness.”
12So Jacob’s sons did what their father told them. 13They carried his body to Canaan and buried it in the cave at Machpelah. This was the cave near Mamre in the field that Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite. Abraham bought that cave to use as a burial place. 14After Joseph buried his father, he and everyone in the group with him went back to Egypt.
The Brothers Are Still Afraid of Joseph
15After Jacob died, Joseph’s brothers were worried. They were afraid that Joseph would still be mad at them for what they had done years before. They said, “Maybe Joseph still hates us for what we did.” 16So the brothers sent this message to Joseph: “Before your father died, he told us to give you a message. 17He said, ‘Tell Joseph that I beg him to please forgive his brothers for the bad things they did to him.’ So now Joseph, we beg you, please forgive us for the bad things we did to you. We are the servants of God, the God of your father.”
That message made Joseph very sad, and he cried. 18His brothers went to him and bowed down in front of him. They said, “We will be your servants.”
19Then Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. I am not God! I have no right to punish you. 20It is true that you planned to do something bad to me. But really, God was planning good things. God’s plan was to use me to save the lives of many people. And that is what happened. 21So don’t be afraid. I will take care of you and your children.” And so Joseph said kind things to his brothers, and this made them feel better.
22Joseph continued to live in Egypt with his father’s family. He died when he was 110 years old. 23During Joseph’s life Ephraim had children and grandchildren. And his son Manasseh had a son named Makir. Joseph lived to see Makir’s children.
The Death of Joseph
24When Joseph was near death, he said to his brothers, “My time to die is almost here. But I know that God will take care of you and lead you out of this country. God will lead you to the land he promised to give Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”
25Then Joseph asked his people to make a promise. Joseph said, “Promise me that you will carry my bones with you when God leads you out of Egypt.”
26Joseph died in Egypt when he was 110 years old. Doctors prepared his body for burial and put the body in a coffin in Egypt.
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