NIV 2011
A Legacy of Forgiveness and Fulfillment
50 Joseph threw himself on his father and wept over him and kissed him. 2 Then Joseph directed the physicians in his service to embalm his father Israel. So the physicians embalmed him, 3 taking a full forty days, for that was the time required for embalming. And the Egyptians mourned for him seventy days.
4 When the days of mourning had passed, Joseph said to Pharaoh’s court, “If I have found favor in your eyes, speak to Pharaoh for me. Tell him, 5 ‘My father made me swear an oath and said, “I am about to die; bury me in the tomb I dug for myself in the land of Canaan.” Now let me go up and bury my father; then I will return.’”
6 Pharaoh said, “Go up and bury your father, as he made you swear to do.”
7 So Joseph went up to bury his father. All Pharaoh’s officials accompanied him—the dignitaries of his court and all the dignitaries of Egypt— 8 besides all the members of Joseph’s household and his brothers and those belonging to his father’s household. Only their children and their flocks and herds were left in Goshen. 9 Chariots and horsemen also went up with him. It was a very large company.
10 When they reached the threshing floor of Atad, near the Jordan, they lamented loudly and bitterly; and there Joseph observed a seven-day period of mourning for his father. 11 When the Canaanites who lived there saw the mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, they said, “The Egyptians are holding a solemn ceremony of mourning.” That is why that place near the Jordan is called Abel Mizraim.
12 So Jacob’s sons did as he had commanded them: 13 They carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave in the field of Machpelah, near Mamre, which Abraham had bought along with the field as a burial place from Ephron the Hittite. 14 After burying his father, Joseph returned to Egypt, together with his brothers and all the others who had gone with him to bury his father.
Joseph Reassures His Brothers
15 When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did to him?” 16 So they sent word to Joseph, saying, “Your father left these instructions before he died: 17 ‘This is what you are to say to Joseph: I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly.’ Now please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father.” When their message came to him, Joseph wept.
18 His brothers then came and threw themselves down before him. “We are your slaves,” they said.
19 But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? 20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. 21 So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.” And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them.
The Death of Joseph
22 Joseph stayed in Egypt, along with all his father’s family. He lived a hundred and ten years 23 and saw the third generation of Ephraim’s children. Also the children of Makir son of Manasseh were placed at birth on Joseph’s knees.
24 Then Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die. But God will surely come to your aid and take you up out of this land to the land he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” 25 And Joseph made the Israelites swear an oath and said, “God will surely come to your aid, and then you must carry my bones up from this place.”
26 So Joseph died at the age of a hundred and ten. And after they embalmed him, he was placed in a coffin in Egypt.
WYC 1382
A Legacy of Forgiveness and Fulfillment
50 Which thing Joseph saw, and he fell on his father’s face, and wept, and kissed him; 2 and he commanded his servants, (the) leeches, that they should anoint his father with sweet smelling spiceries. 3 While they fulfilled his behests, forty days passed, for this was the custom of dead bodies (that were) anointed; and Egypt bewept him (for) seventy days.
4 And when the time of wailing was fulfilled, Joseph spake to the household of Pharaoh, (and said,) If I have found grace in your sight, speak ye in the ears of Pharaoh;
5 for 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.
6 And Pharaoh said to him, Go up, and bury thy father, as thou art charged.
7 And when Joseph went up, all the elder men of the house of Pharaoh went with him, and all the greater men in birth of the land of Egypt; 8 (and all) the house of Joseph with their brethren, (but) without (the) little children, and flocks, and great beasts, which they left in the land of Goshen, went with him. 9 And he had chariots, and horsemen, and (his) fellowship (with him), and the company was made not little.
10 And 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. 11 And 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.
12 Therefore the sons of Jacob did, as he had commanded to them; 13 and 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. 14 And Joseph turned again into Egypt with his brethren and all the fellowship, when his father was buried.
Joseph Reassures His Brothers
15 And when their father was dead, the brethren of Joseph dreaded, and spake together, (and said,) Lest peradventure he be mindful of the wrong which he suffered, and yield to us all the evil, that we did. 16 And (so) they sent (a message) to him, and said, Thy father commanded to us, before that he died, 17 that 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.
18 And his brethren came to him, and worshipped low to the earth, and said, We be thy servants.
19 To which he answered, Do not ye dread; whether we may against-stand God’s will? 20 Ye 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; 21 do not ye dread (do not ye fear), I shall feed you and your little children. And he comforted them, and spake sweetly and lightly to them;
The Death of Joseph
22 and Joseph dwelled in Egypt, with all the house of his father. And he lived an hundred [and ten] years, 23 and 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.
24 When these things were done, Joseph spake to his brethren, (and said,) 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. 25 And 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;
26 he 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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