Genesis 50
50
Jacob’s Funeral. 1Joseph flung himself upon his father and wept over him as he kissed him. 2Then Joseph ordered the physicians in his service to embalm his father. When the physicians embalmed Israel, 3they spent forty days at it, for that is the full period of embalming; and the Egyptians mourned him for seventy days. 4When the period of mourning was over, Joseph spoke to Pharaoh’s household. “If you please, appeal to Pharaoh, saying: 5My father made me swear: ‘I am dying. Bury me in my grave that I have prepared for myself in the land of Canaan.’ So now let me go up to bury my father. Then I will come back.”#Gn 47:30. 6Pharaoh replied, “Go and bury your father, as he made you promise on oath.”
7So Joseph went up to bury his father; and with him went all of Pharaoh’s officials who were senior members of his household and all the other elders of the land of Egypt, 8as well as Joseph’s whole household, his brothers, and his father’s household; only their children and their flocks and herds were left in the region of Goshen. 9Chariots, too, and horsemen went up with him; it was a very imposing retinue.
10When they arrived at Goren-ha-atad,#Goren-ha-atad: “Threshing Floor of the Brambles.” Abel-mizraim: although the name really means “watercourse of the Egyptians,” it is understood here, by a play on the first part of the term, to mean “mourning of the Egyptians.” The site has not been identified through either reading of the name. But it is difficult to see why the mourning rites should have been held in the land beyond the Jordan when the burial was at Hebron. Perhaps an earlier form of the story placed the mourning rites beyond the Wadi of Egypt, the traditional boundary between Canaan and Egypt (Nm 34:5; Jos 15:4, 47). which is beyond the Jordan, they held there a very great and solemn memorial service; and Joseph observed seven days of mourning for his father. 11When the Canaanites who inhabited the land saw the mourning at Goren-ha-atad, they said, “This is a solemn funeral on the part of the Egyptians!” That is why the place was named Abel-mizraim. It is beyond the Jordan.
12Thus Jacob’s sons did for him as he had instructed them. 13They carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave in the field of Machpelah, facing on Mamre, the field that Abraham had bought for a burial ground from Ephron the Hittite.#Gn 23:16; Jos 24:32; Acts 7:16.
14After Joseph had buried his father he returned to Egypt, together with his brothers and all who had gone up with him for the burial of his father.
Plea for Forgiveness. 15#The final reconciliation of the brothers. Fearful of what may happen after the death of their father, the brothers engage in a final deception, inventing the dying wish of Jacob. Again, Joseph weeps, and, again, his brothers fall down before him, offering to be his slaves (44:16, 33). Joseph’s assurance is also a summation of the story: “Even though you meant harm to me, God meant it for good, to achieve this present end, the survival of many people” (v. 20). Joseph’s adoption of the children of Manasseh’s son Machir recalls Jacob’s adoption of his grandchildren (48:5, 13–20); the adoptions reflect tribal history (cf. Jgs 5:14). Now that their father was dead, Joseph’s brothers became fearful and thought, “Suppose Joseph has been nursing a grudge against us and now most certainly will pay us back in full for all the wrong we did him!” 16So they sent to Joseph and said: “Before your father died, he gave us these instructions: 17‘Thus you shall say to Joseph: Please forgive the criminal wrongdoing of your brothers, who treated you harmfully.’ So now please forgive the crime that we, the servants of the God of your father, committed.” When they said this to him, Joseph broke into tears. 18Then his brothers also proceeded to fling themselves down before him and said, “We are your slaves!” 19But Joseph replied to them: “Do not fear. Can I take the place of God? 20Even though you meant harm to me, God meant it for good, to achieve this present end, the survival of many people.#Gn 45:5. 21So now, do not fear. I will provide for you and for your children.” By thus speaking kindly to them, he reassured them.#Gn 47:12.
22Joseph remained in Egypt, together with his father’s household. He lived a hundred and ten years. 23He saw Ephraim’s children to the third generation, and the children of Manasseh’s son Machir were also born on Joseph’s knees.#Nm 32:39; Jos 17:1.
Death of Joseph. 24Joseph said to his brothers: “I am about to die. God will surely take care of you and lead you up from this land to the land that he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”#Ex 3:8; Heb 11:22. 25Then, putting the sons of Israel under oath, he continued, “When God thus takes care of you, you must bring my bones up from this place.”#Ex 13:19; Heb 11:22. 26Joseph died at the age of a hundred and ten. He was embalmed and laid to rest in a coffin in Egypt.#Sir 49:15.
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Genesis 50: NABRE
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Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc
Genesis 50
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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