1 Joseph went and hugged his father, weeping over him and kissing him. 2 Then Joseph instructed the physicians who worked for him to embalm his father's body. So the physicians embalmed Israel. 3 This took a full 40 days, the normal time for the process, and the Egyptians mourned for him for 70 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 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.’” 6 Pharaoh replied, “Go and bury your father as he made you swear to do.” 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— 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. 9 They were accompanied by chariots and horsemen—a really large procession. 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. 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. 12 Jacob's sons did what he had instructed them to do. 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. 14 After they had buried their father, Joseph and his brothers returned to Egypt along with all those who had gone with them. 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.” 16 So they sent a message to Joseph to tell him, “Before your father died, he gave this order: 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. 18 Then his brothers themselves came and fell down before Joseph and said, “We are your slaves!” 19 “You don't need to be afraid!” he told them. “I don't stand in the place of God, do I? 20 While you planned bad things for me, God planned it for good so that in the end many lives could be saved. 21 So don't worry. I'll go on taking care of you and your children.” Speaking kindly like this he calmed them down. 22 Joseph remained in Egypt, together with his father's whole family. He lived to be 110, 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. 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.” 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.” 26 Joseph died when he was 110. After his body was embalmed, he was placed in a coffin in Egypt.
Genesis 50 Free Bible Version
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
People & places in this chapter
From this site's family tree and Bible maps, only where those guides cite this chapter.
People
Joseph
Betrayed and enslaved, he rose to rule Egypt and saved his family from famine.
Cited in the guide: Genesis 37; 39–50
Cross references (24)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Genesis 46:4; 1 Thessalonians 4:13; Ephesians 6:4; Acts 8:2; Genesis 23:2
- 2 2 Chronicles 16:14; Genesis 50:26; John 19:39–40; Mark 16:1; Matthew 26:12
- 3 Numbers 20:29; Deuteronomy 34:8; Genesis 50:10; Deuteronomy 21:13
- 4 Genesis 18:3; Esther 4:2
- 5 2 Chronicles 16:14; Isaiah 22:16; Matthew 27:60; Genesis 47:29–31; Genesis 3:19
- 6 Genesis 48:21
- 7 Genesis 14:16
- 8 Numbers 32:24–27; Exodus 10:8–9; Exodus 10:26
- 9 Song of Songs 1:9; Exodus 14:17; Genesis 46:29; Acts 8:2; Exodus 14:28
- 10 Job 2:13; Acts 8:2; 2 Samuel 1:17; 1 Samuel 31:13; Numbers 19:11
- 11 Genesis 24:6; Genesis 10:15–19; Deuteronomy 11:30; Genesis 50:10; Deuteronomy 3:27
- 12 Acts 7:16; Genesis 49:29–32; Ephesians 6:1; Exodus 20:12; Genesis 47:29–31
- 13 Genesis 23:16–18; Acts 7:16; Genesis 49:29–31; Genesis 35:27; Genesis 23:20
- 15 Proverbs 28:1; Genesis 42:21–22; Psalm 14:5; Genesis 27:41–42; Job 15:21–22
- 16 Proverbs 29:25
- 17 Matthew 6:14–15; Ephesians 4:32; Luke 17:3–4; Genesis 45:4–5; Proverbs 28:13
- 18 Genesis 37:7–11; Genesis 44:14; Genesis 45:3; Genesis 27:29; Genesis 42:6
- 19 Romans 12:19; Genesis 30:2; Genesis 45:5; 2 Kings 5:7; Hebrews 10:30
- 20 Romans 8:28; Psalm 119:71; Genesis 45:5–8; Genesis 37:18–20; Psalm 105:16–17
- 21 Genesis 47:12; 1 Peter 3:9; Genesis 45:10–11; Matthew 5:44; Romans 12:20–21
- 23 Numbers 32:39; Job 42:16; Genesis 30:3; Genesis 48:19; Psalm 128:6
- 24 Exodus 3:16–17; Genesis 35:12; Genesis 26:3; Genesis 46:4; Genesis 28:13
- 25 Joshua 24:32; Exodus 13:19; Acts 7:16; Hebrews 11:22; Genesis 47:29–31
- 26 Joshua 24:29; Genesis 50:22; Genesis 47:28; Genesis 47:9; Genesis 50:2–3
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
For the same Scripture speaks thus of Joseph: "And Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he and his brethren, and all his father's house: and Joseph lived 110 years, and saw Ephraim's children of the third generation." That is, his great-grandson, the third from Ephraim; for the third generation means son, grandson, great-grandson.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)
Then it is added, "The children also of Machir, the son of Manasseh, were born upon Joseph's knees." And this is that grandson of Manasseh, and great-grandson of Joseph.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)