Genesis - Chapter 50

In Chapter 50 of the Book of Genesis, you can experience the powerful conclusion of the Book of Genesis. After Jacob's death, a period of elaborate mourning follows, which includes a grand procession to Canaan for Jacob's burial, as per his wishes. Fearing retribution now that their father is gone, Joseph's brothers plead for forgiveness for their past misdeeds. Joseph reassures them, emphasizing his belief in God's providence, and he promises to care for them and their children. The chapter and the book of Genesis conclude with the death of Joseph. Before he dies, Joseph makes the Israelites swear to carry his bones back to Canaan when God comes to their aid, thus affirming his faith in God's promise. This final chapter reinforces themes of forgiveness, divine providence, and the enduring hope in God's promises.

Mourning for Jacob

¹ Then Joseph fell on his father's face, and wept over him, and kissed him.

² And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel.

³ Forty days were required for him, for such are the days required for those who are embalmed; and the Egyptians mourned for him seventy days.

⁴ And when the days of his mourning were past, Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh, saying, "If now I have found favor in your eyes, please speak in the hearing of Pharaoh, saying,

⁵ 'My father made me swear, saying, "Behold, I am dying; in my grave which I dug for myself in the land of Canaan, there you shall bury me." Now therefore, please let me go up and bury my father, and I will come back.' "

⁶ And Pharaoh said, "Go up and bury your father, as he made you swear."

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

⁸ as well as all the house of Joseph, his brothers, and his father's house. Only their little ones, their flocks, and their herds they left in the land of Goshen.

⁹ And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen, and it was a very great gathering.

¹⁰ Then they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which [is] beyond the Jordan, and they mourned there with a great and very solemn lamentation. He observed seven days of mourning for his father.

¹¹ And when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, they said, "This [is] a deep mourning of the Egyptians." Therefore its name was called Abel Mizraim, which [is] beyond the Jordan.

¹² So his sons did for him just as he had commanded them.

¹³ For his sons carried him to the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, before Mamre, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite as property for a burial place.

¹⁴ And after he had buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt, he and his brothers and all who went up with him to bury his father.

¹⁵ When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, "Perhaps Joseph will hate us, and may actually repay us for all the evil which we did to him."

¹⁶ So they sent [messengers] to Joseph, saying, "Before your father died he commanded, saying,

¹⁷ 'Thus you shall say to Joseph: "I beg you, please forgive the trespass of your brothers and their sin; for they did evil to you." ' Now, please, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of your father." And Joseph wept when they spoke to him.

¹⁸ Then his brothers also went and fell down before his face, and they said, "Behold, we [are] your servants."

¹⁹ Joseph said to them, "Do not be afraid, for [am] I in the place of God?

²⁰ "But as for you, you meant evil against me; [but] God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as [it is] this day, to save many people alive.

²¹ "Now therefore, do not be afraid; I will provide for you and your little ones." And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.

Death of Joseph

²² So Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he and his father's household. And Joseph lived one hundred and ten years.

²³ Joseph saw Ephraim's children to the third [generation.] The children of Machir, the son of Manasseh, were also brought up on Joseph's knees.

²⁴ And Joseph said to his brethren, "I am dying; but God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land to the land of which He swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob."

²⁵ Then Joseph took an oath from the children of Israel, saying, "God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here."

²⁶ So Joseph died, [being] one hundred and ten years old; and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.