Genesis 50

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

Joseph, realizing this, fell upon his father’s face, weeping and kissing him.

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

And he instructed his servant physicians to embalm his father with aromatics.

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

And while they were fulfilling his orders, forty days passed. For this was the method of embalming dead bodies. And Egypt wept for him for seventy days.

4 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

And when the time for mourning was fulfilled, Joseph spoke to the family of Pharaoh: “If I have found favor in your sight, speak to the ears of Pharaoh.

5 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.’”

For my father made me swear, saying: ‘See, I am dying. You shall bury me in my sepulcher which I dug for myself in the land of Canaan.’ Therefore, I shall go up and bury my father, and then return.”

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

And Pharaoh said to him, “Go up and bury your father, just as he made you swear.”

7 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—

So as he went up, all the elders of the house of Pharaoh went with him, along with every patriarch in the land of Egypt,

8 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.

and the house of Joseph with his brothers, except their little ones and flocks and also the herds, which they left behind in the land of Goshen.

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

Likewise, he had in his company chariots and horsemen. And it became a crowd without restraint.

10 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.

And they arrived at the threshing place of Atad, which is situated beyond the Jordan. There they spent seven full days celebrating the funeral rites with a great and vehement lamentation.

11 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.

And when the inhabitants of the land of Canaan had seen this, they said, “This is a great Lamentation for the Egyptians.” And for this reason, the name of that place was called, “The Lamentation of Egypt.”

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

And so, the sons of Jacob did just as he had instructed them.

13 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.

And carrying him into the land of Canaan, they buried him in the double cave, which Abraham had bought along with its field, from Ephron the Hittite, as a possession for burial, opposite Mamre.

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

And Joseph returned into Egypt with his brothers and all those of his company, having buried his father.

15 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.”

Now that he was dead, his brothers were afraid, and they said to one another: “Perhaps now he may remember the injury that he suffered and requite us for all the evil that we did to him.”

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

So they sent a message to him, saying: “Your father instructed us before he died,

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.

that we should say these words to you from him: ‘I beg you to forget the wickedness of your brothers, and the sin and malice that they practiced against you.’ Likewise, we petition you to release the servants of the God of your father from this iniquity.” Hearing this, Joseph wept.

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

And his brothers went to him. And reverencing prostrate on the ground, they said, “We are your servants.”

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

And he answered them: “Do not be afraid. Are we able to resist the will of God?

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

You devised evil against me. But God turned it into good, so that he might exalt me, just as you presently discern, and so that he might bring about the salvation of many peoples.

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

Do not be afraid. I will pasture you and your little ones.” And he consoled them, and he spoke mildly and leniently.

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

And he lived in Egypt with all his father’s house; and he survived for one hundred and ten years.

23 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.

And he saw the sons of Ephraim to the third generation. Likewise, the sons of Machir, the son of Manasseh, were born onto Joseph’s knees.

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.”

After these things happened, he said to his brothers: “God will visit you after my death, and he will make you ascend from this land into the land which he swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

25 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.”

And when he had made them swear and had said, “God will visit you; carry my bones with you from this place,”

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

he died, having completed one hundred and ten years of his life. And having been embalmed with aromatics, he was laid to rest in a coffin in Egypt.