Genesis 50

1 And Joseph fell upon his father's face, and wept on him, and kissed him.

Joseph leaned close to his father’s face and cried over him and kissed him.

2 And Joseph commanded his servants the embalmers to embalm his father; and the embalmers embalmed Israel.

Joseph commanded his servants who were morticians to (embalm his father’s body/put spices on his father’s body) to (preserve it/keep it from decaying), and then wrap it with strips of cloth.

3 And they fulfilled forty days for him, for so are the days of embalming numbered; and Egypt mourned for him seventy days.

So the morticians did that. It took 40 days to embalm Jacob’s body, because that is the amount of time that was always required for them to embalm a body. And the people of Egypt mourned for 70 days because of Jacob’s death.

4 And when the days of mourning were past, Joseph spoke to the princes of Pharao, saying, If I have found favor in your sight, speak concerning me in the ears of Pharao, saying,

When the time of mourning was finished, Joseph said to the king’s officials, “If you are pleased with me, please take this message to the king:

5 My father adjured me, saying, In the sepulchre which I dug for myself in the land of Chanaan, there you shall bury me; now then I will go up and bury my father, and return again.

‘When my father was about to die, he told me to solemnly promise that I would bury his body in Canaan, in the tomb that he himself had prepared. So please let me go up to Canaan and bury my father’s body. Then I will return.’”

6 And Pharao said to Joseph, Go up, bury your father, as he constrained you to swear.

After they gave the king the message, he replied, “Tell Joseph, ‘Go up and bury your father’s body, as you (swore/solemnly promised) that you would do.’”

7 So Joseph went up to bury his father; and all the servants of Pharao went up with him, and the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt.

So Joseph went [up to Canaan] to bury his father’s body. All of the king’s officials, all the king’s advisors, and all the elders in Egypt went with him.

8 And all the household of Joseph, and his brethren, and all the house of his father, and his kindred; and they left behind the sheep and the oxen in the land of Gesem.

His own family’s small children and their sheep and goats and their cattle stayed in the Goshen region. But all the rest of Joseph’s family and his [older] brothers [and younger brother] and his father’s family went with him.

9 And there went up with him also chariots and horsemen; and there was a very great company.

Men riding in chariots [MTY] and on horses also went along. It was a huge group.

10 And they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond Jordan; and they bewailed him with a great and very sore lamentation; and he made a mourning for his father seven days.

They went to the east side of the Jordan [River] and arrived at Atad. There was a place there where people (threshed/beat the grain to separate the wheat from the chaff.) There they mourned loudly for Jacob for a long time. Joseph performed mourning ceremonies for his father for seven days.

11 And the inhabitants of the land of Chanaan saw the mourning at the floor of Atad, and said, This is a great mourning to the Egyptians; therefore he called its name, The mourning of Egypt, which is beyond Jordan.

When the Canaan people-group who lived there saw them mourning like that, they said, “This is a sad mourning place for the people of Egypt!” So they named the place Abel-Mizraim, [which sounds like the Hebrew words that mean ‘mourning of the Egyptians].’

12 And thus his sons did to him.

Then Jacob’s sons did for him what their father had commanded.

13 So his sons carried him up into the land of Chanaan, and buried him in the double cave, which cave Abraam bought for possession of a burying place, of Ephrom the Chettite, before Mambre.

They [crossed the Jordan River and] carried Jacob’s body to Canaan. They buried it in the cave in the field at Machpelah, east of Mamre [town]. That was the field that Abraham had bought from Ephron, who was one of the Heth people-group, to use as a burial place.

14 And Joseph returned to Egypt, he and his brethren, and those that had gone up with him to bury his father.

After he had buried his father, Joseph and his [older] brothers [and younger brother] and all the others who had gone up to Canaan with him for the funeral returned to Egypt.

15 And when the brethren of Joseph saw that their father was dead, they said, [Let us take heed], lest at any time Joseph remember evil against us, and recompense to us all the evils which we have done against him.

After Jacob died, Joseph’s brothers became worried. They realized what might happen. They said, “Suppose Joseph hates us and tries to get revenge for all the evil things that we did to him many years ago?”

16 And they came to Joseph, and said, Your father adjured [us] before his death, saying,

So they sent someone to tell this to Joseph for them: “Before our father died, he told us this:

17 Thus say you to Joseph, Forgive them their injustice and their sin, forasmuch as they have done you evil; and now pardon the injustice of the servants of the God of your father. And Joseph wept while they spoke to him.

‘Say to Joseph, “Please forgive your [older] brothers for the evil thing that they did to you, for their terrible sin against you, because what they did to you was very wrong.”’ So now we, who are servants of your father’s God, ask you, please forgive us for what we did to you.” But Joseph just cried when he received their message.

18 And they came to him and said, We, these [persons], are your servants.

Then his [older] brothers themselves came and threw themselves on the ground in front of Joseph, and one of them said, “Please listen. We will just be your servants.”

19 And Joseph said to them, Fear not, for I am God's.

But Joseph replied to them, “Do not be afraid! [God is the one who punishes people]; (am I God?/I am not God!) [RHQ]

20 You took counsel against me for evil, but God took counsel for me for good, that [the matter] might be as [it is] today, and much people might be fed.

As for you, yes, you wanted to do something very evil to me. But God caused something good to come from it! He wanted to save many people from dying of hunger, and that is what happened! Today they are alive!

21 And he said to them, Fear not, I will maintain you, and your families: and he comforted them, and spoke kindly to them.

So I say [again], do not be afraid! I will make sure that you and your children have enough to eat.” In that way he reassured them and made made them feel much better.

22 And Joseph lived in Egypt, he and his brethren, and all the family of his father; and Joseph lived a hundred and ten years.

Joseph lived with his father’s family in Egypt until he was 110 years old.

23 And Joseph saw the children of Ephraim to the third generation; and the sons of Machir the son of Manasse were borne on the sides of Joseph.

He lived long enough to see Ephraim’s children and grandchildren. The children of Joseph’s grandson Machir, who was Manasseh’s son, were born before Joseph died, and were adopted by Joseph to be his own children [IDM].

24 And Joseph spoke to his brethren, saying, I die, and God will surely visit you, and will bring you out of this land to the land concerning which God sware to our fathers, Abraam, Isaac, and Jacob.

One day Joseph said to his [older] brothers, “I am about to die. But God will certainly (help/take care of) you. And [some day] he will lead your [descendants] up out of this land and take them to Canaan, the land that he solemnly promised to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

25 And Joseph adjured the sons of Israel, saying, At the visitation with which God shall visit you, then you shall carry up my bones hence with you.

Then Joseph said, “When God enables you to do that, you must take my body back to Canaan.” He made his older brothers solemnly promise to do that.

26 And Joseph died, aged an hundred and ten years; and they prepared his corpse, and put him in a coffin in Egypt.

So Joseph died in Egypt when he was 110 years old. His body was embalmed and put in a coffin there.