Through My Bible Year 03 – April 28

genesis 50

¹ Joseph turned his face to his father, and wept for him, and kissed him. ² Joseph ordered the physicians who served him to put ointments on his father’s body, in the same way the physicians used ointments in Israel. ³ Forty days were kept aside for this, because it takes so many days to embalm a dead body. The Egyptians mourned for him for seventy days.

⁴ When Jacob’s days of mourning were over, Joseph said to Pharaoh’s household. He said, “If I have now found favor in your sight, please speak for me directly to Pharaoh and say ⁵ That my father made me take an oath. He told me, ‘Look, I’m dying. Bury me in my grave which I have dug for myself in the land of Canaan.’ So now please allow me to go up and bury my father, and I will return here again.”

⁶ Pharaoh said, “Go and bury your father, as he swore to you.”

⁷ Joseph went to bury his father, and all Pharaoh’s officials went with him, the chief officials of Pharaoh’s household and all the elders of the land of Egypt, ⁸ The entire household of Joseph, and his brothers, and his father’s household. Only their young children, their sheep, and their cattle remained in the land of Goshen. ⁹ Both the chariot and the riders went with him. It was a wonderful group.

¹⁰ And they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, and wailed there with a loud and bitter wailing. Joseph mourned for his father for seven days. ¹¹ When the inhabitants of that land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning in the threshing floor of Atad, they said, “This is the great mourning of the Egyptians.” So they named the place Abel Mizraim. ⁽¹⁾ It is across the Jordan. ¹² His sons did for him what he commanded them to do: ¹³ They took him to the land of Canaan and buried him in a cave in the field of Machpelah, which Abraham had bought along with the field. He purchased it from Ephron the Hittite as a piece of property for a burial site near Mamre. ¹⁴ After burying his father, Joseph returned to Egypt – he and his brothers, and all those who had gone with him to bury his father.

Joseph and his brothers

¹⁵ When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “It is possible that Joseph will hate us, and will repay us in full for all the evil we have done to him.”

¹⁶ They sent this message to Joseph: “Before he died your father gave us this command, ¹⁷ ‘Tell Joseph, ‘Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they have wronged you.’ Now, please forgive the sins of your father’s servants of God.

When they spoke to him Joseph wept.

¹⁸ His brothers also came and fell down before him, and said, Behold, we are your servants.

¹⁹ Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid, am I in the place of God? ²⁰ You intended evil against me, but God intended it for good, so that it might be accomplished and many people might be kept alive, as it is this day. ²¹ So don’t be afraid now. I will nourish you and your little ones.” He consoled them and spoke to them kindly.

death of joseph

²² Joseph lived in Egypt with his father’s household. Joseph lived for one hundred and ten years. ²³ He looked after Ephraim’s children up to the third generation. The children of Machir, son of Manasseh, were also placed on Joseph’s knees when they were born. ²⁴ Joseph said to his brothers, I am dying, but God will surely take care of you and will take you out of this land and take you to the land that he swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. ²⁵ Joseph swore an oath to the descendants of Israel. He said, “God will surely take care of you. Then you will take my bones from here.” ²⁶ So Joseph died at the age of one hundred and ten, and his body was embalmed, and he was put in a tomb in Egypt.