Genesis 50
50
1Joseph threw himself on his father, wept over him, and kissed him.
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2-3Joseph then instructed the physicians in his employ to embalm his father. The physicians embalmed Israel. The embalming took forty days, the period required for embalming. There was public mourning by the Egyptians for seventy days.
4-5When the period of mourning was completed, Joseph petitioned Pharaoh’s court: “If you have reason to think kindly of me, present Pharaoh with my request: My father made me swear, saying, ‘I am ready to die. Bury me in the grave plot that I prepared for myself in the land of Canaan.’ Please give me leave to go up and bury my father. Then I’ll come back.”
6Pharaoh said, “Certainly. Go and bury your father as he made you promise under oath.”
7-9So Joseph left to bury his father. And all the high-ranking officials from Pharaoh’s court went with him, all the dignitaries of Egypt, joining Joseph’s family—his brothers and his father’s family. Their children and flocks and herds were left in Goshen. Chariots and horsemen accompanied them. It was a huge funeral procession.
10Arriving at the Atad Threshing Floor just across the Jordan River, they stopped for a period of mourning, letting their grief out in loud and lengthy lament. For seven days, Joseph engaged in these funeral rites for his father.
11When the Canaanites who lived in that area saw the grief being poured out at the Atad Threshing Floor, they said, “Look how deeply the Egyptians are mourning.” That is how the site at the Jordan got the name Abel Mizraim (Egyptian Lament).
12-13Jacob’s sons continued to carry out his instructions to the letter. They took him on into Canaan and buried him in the cave in the field of Machpelah facing Mamre, the field that Abraham had bought as a burial plot from Ephron the Hittite.
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14-15After burying his father, Joseph went back to Egypt. All his brothers who had come with him to bury his father returned with him. After the funeral, Joseph’s brothers talked among themselves: “What if Joseph is carrying a grudge and decides to pay us back for all the wrong we did him?”
16-17So they sent Joseph a message, “Before his death, your father gave this command: Tell Joseph, ‘Forgive your brothers’ sin—all that wrongdoing. They did treat you very badly.’ Will you do it? Will you forgive the sins of the servants of your father’s God?”
When Joseph received their message, he wept.
18Then the brothers went in person to him, threw themselves on the ground before him and said, “We’ll be your slaves.”
19-21Joseph replied, “Don’t be afraid. Do I act for God? Don’t you see, you planned evil against me but God used those same plans for my good, as you see all around you right now—life for many people. Easy now, you have nothing to fear; I’ll take care of you and your children.” He reassured them, speaking with them heart-to-heart.
22-23Joseph continued to live in Egypt with his father’s family. Joseph lived 110 years. He lived to see Ephraim’s sons into the third generation. The sons of Makir, Manasseh’s son, were also recognized as Joseph’s.
24At the end, Joseph said to his brothers, “I am ready to die. God will most certainly pay you a visit and take you out of this land and back to the land he so solemnly promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”
25Then Joseph made the sons of Israel promise under oath, “When God makes his visitation, make sure you take my bones with you as you leave here.”
26Joseph died at the age of 110 years. They embalmed him and placed him in a coffin in Egypt.
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.
Genesis 50
50
1And Joseph fell upon his father's face, and wept upon him, and kissed him. 2And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father. And the physicians embalmed Israel. 3And forty days were fulfilled for him; for so are fulfilled the days of those who are embalmed. And the Egyptians mourned for him seventy days. 4And when the days of his mourning were past, Joseph spoke to the house of Pharaoh, saying, If now I have found favour in your eyes, speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh, saying, 5My father made me swear, saying, Behold, I die; in my grave which I have dug myself in the land of Canaan, there shalt thou bury me. And now, let me go up, I pray thee, that I may bury my father; and I will come again. 6And Pharaoh said, Go up and bury thy father, according as he made thee swear.
7And Joseph went up to bury his father; and with him went up all the bondmen of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, 8and all the house of Joseph, and his brethren, and his father's house; only their little ones, and their flocks, and their herds, they left in the land of Goshen. 9And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen; and the camp was very great. 10And they came to the threshing-floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan; and there they lamented with a great and very grievous lamentation; and he made a mourning for his father of seven days. 11And the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning at the threshing-floor of Atad, and they said, This is a grievous mourning of the Egyptians. Therefore the name of it was called Abel-Mizraim, which is beyond the Jordan. 12And his sons did to him according as he had commanded them; 13and his sons carried him into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah which Abraham had bought along with the field, for a possession of a sepulchre, of Ephron the Hittite, opposite to Mamre. 14And, after he had buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt, he and his brethren, and all that had gone up with him to bury his father.
15And when Joseph's brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, If now Joseph should be hostile to us, and should indeed requite us all the evil that we did to him! 16And they sent a messenger to Joseph, saying, Thy father commanded before he died, saying, 17Thus shall ye speak to Joseph: Oh forgive, I pray thee, the transgression of thy brethren, and their sin! for they did evil to thee. And now, we pray thee, forgive the transgression of the servants of the God#GodHebrew: Elohim of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spoke to him. 18And his brethren also went and fell down before his face, and said, Behold, we are thy bondmen. 19And Joseph said to them, Fear not: am I then in the place of God#GodHebrew: Elohim 20Ye indeed meant evil against me: God#GodHebrew: Elohim meant it for good, in order that he might do as it is this day, to save a great people alive. 21And now, fear not: I will maintain you and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spoke consolingly to them.
22And Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he and his father's house; and Joseph lived a hundred and ten years. 23And Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third generation; the sons also of Machir the son of Manasseh were born on Joseph's knees. 24And Joseph said to his brethren, I die; and God#GodHebrew: Elohim will certainly visit you, and bring you up out of this land, into the land that he swore unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. 25And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God#GodHebrew: Elohim will certainly visit you; and ye shall carry up my bones hence. 26And Joseph died, a hundred and ten years old; and they embalmed him; and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.
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First published in 1890. This edition is maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society.