Genesis 50

1 And Joseph put his head down on his father's face, weeping and kissing him.

Joseph went and hugged his father, weeping over him and kissing him.

2 And Joseph gave orders to his servants who had the necessary knowledge, to make his father's body ready, folding it in linen with spices, and they did so.

Then Joseph instructed the physicians who worked for him to embalm his father's body. So the physicians embalmed Israel.

3 And the forty days needed for making the body ready went by: and there was weeping for him among the Egyptians for seventy days.

This took a full 40 days, the normal time for the process, and the Egyptians mourned for him for 70 days.

4 And when the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph said to the servants of Pharaoh, If now you have love for me, say these words to Pharaoh:

Once 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

5 My father made me take an oath, saying, When I am dead, put me to rest in the place I have made ready for myself in the land of Canaan. So now let me go and put my father in his last resting-place, and I will come back again.

my 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.’”

6 And Pharaoh said, Go up and put your father to rest, as you gave your oath to him.

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

7 So Joseph went up to put his father in his last resting-place; and with him went all the servants of Pharaoh, and the chief men of his house and all the chiefs of the land of Egypt,

Joseph went to bury his father, and all Pharaoh's officials went with him—all Pharaoh's senior advisors and all the leaders of Egypt—

8 And all the family of Joseph, and his brothers and his father's people: only their little ones and their flocks and herds they did not take with them from the land of Goshen.

as 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.

9 And carriages went up with him and horsemen, a great army.

They were accompanied by chariots and horsemen—a really large procession.

10 And they came to the grain-floor of Atad on the other side of Jordan, and there they gave the last honours to Jacob, with great and bitter sorrow, weeping for their father for seven days.

When 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.

11 And when the people of the land, the people of Canaan, at the grain-floor of Atad, saw their grief, they said, Great is the grief of the Egyptians: so the place was named Abel-mizraim, on the other side of Jordan.

The 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, which is on the other side of the Jordan.

12 So his sons did as he had given them orders to do:

Jacob's sons did what he had instructed them to do.

13 For they took him into the land of Canaan and put him to rest in the hollow rock in the field of Machpelah, which Abraham got with the field, for a resting-place, from Ephron the Hittite at Mamre.

They 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.

14 And when his father had been put to rest, Joseph and his brothers and all who had gone with him, went back to Egypt.

After they had buried their father, Joseph and his brothers returned to Egypt along with all those who had gone with them.

15 Now after the death of their father, Joseph's brothers said to themselves, It may be that Joseph's heart will be turned against us, and he will give us punishment for all the evil which we did to him.

However, 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.”

16 So they sent word to Joseph, saying, Your father, before his death, gave us orders, saying,

So they sent a message to Joseph to tell him, “Before your father died, he gave this order,

17 You are to say to Joseph, Let the wrongdoing of your brothers be overlooked, and the evil they did to you: now, if it is your pleasure, let the sin of the servants of your father's God have forgiveness. And at these words, Joseph was overcome with weeping.

‘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.

18 Then his brothers went, and falling at his feet, said, Truly, we are your servants.

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

19 And Joseph said, Have no fear: am I in the place of God?

“You don't need to be afraid!” he told them. “I don't stand in the place of God, do I?

20 As for you, it was in your mind to do me evil, but God has given a happy outcome, the salvation of numbers of people, as you see today.

While you planned bad things for me, God planned it for good so that in the end many lives could be saved.

21 So now, have no fear: for I will take care of you and your little ones. So he gave them comfort with kind words.

So don't worry. I'll go on taking care of you and your children.” Speaking kindly like this he calmed them down.

22 Now Joseph and all his father's family went on living in Egypt: and the years of Joseph's life were a hundred and ten.

Joseph remained in Egypt, together with his father's whole family. He lived to be 110,

23 And Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third generation: and the children of Machir, the son of Manasseh, came to birth on Joseph's knees.

and 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 Then Joseph said to his brothers, The time of my death has come; but God will keep you in mind and take you out of this land into the land which he gave by his oath to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.

“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.”

25 Then Joseph made the children of Israel take an oath, saying, God will certainly give effect to his word, and you are to take my bones away from here.

Joseph 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.”

26 So Joseph came to his death, being a hundred and ten years old: and they made his body ready, and he was put in a chest in Egypt.

Joseph died when he was 110. After his body was embalmed, he was placed in a coffin in Egypt.