Genesis 50 :: New Living Translation (NLT)

Gen 50:1Joseph threw himself on his father and wept over him and kissed him.

Gen 50:2Then Joseph told the physicians who served him to embalm his father’s body; so Jacob[fn] was embalmed.

Gen 50:3The embalming process took the usual forty days. And the Egyptians mourned his death for seventy days.

Gen 50:4When the period of mourning was over, Joseph approached Pharaoh’s advisers and said, “Please do me this favor and speak to Pharaoh on my behalf.

Gen 50:5

Gen 50:5Tell him that my father made me swear an oath. He said to me, ‘Listen, I am about to die. Take my body back to the land of Canaan, and bury me in the tomb I prepared for myself.’ So please allow me to go and bury my father. After his burial, I will return without delay.”

Gen 50:6

Gen 50:6Pharaoh agreed to Joseph’s request. “Go and bury your father, as he made you promise,” he said.

Gen 50:7

Gen 50:7So Joseph went up to bury his father. He was accompanied by all of Pharaoh’s officials, all the senior members of Pharaoh’s household, and all the senior officers of Egypt.

Gen 50:8

Gen 50:8Joseph also took his entire household and his brothers and their households. But they left their little children and flocks and herds in the land of Goshen.

Gen 50:9

Gen 50:9A great number of chariots and charioteers accompanied Joseph.

Gen 50:10

Gen 50:10When they arrived at the threshing floor of Atad, near the Jordan River, they held a very great and solemn memorial service, with a seven-day period of mourning for Joseph’s father.

Gen 50:11

Gen 50:11The local residents, the Canaanites, watched them mourning at the threshing floor of Atad. Then they renamed that place (which is near the Jordan) Abel-mizraim,[fn] for they said, “This is a place of deep mourning for these Egyptians.”

Gen 50:12

Gen 50:12So Jacob’s sons did as he had commanded them.

Gen 50:13

Gen 50:13They carried his body to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave in the field of Machpelah, near Mamre. This is the cave that Abraham had bought as a permanent burial site from Ephron the Hittite.

Joseph Reassures His Brothers

Gen 50:14

Gen 50:14After burying Jacob, Joseph returned to Egypt with his brothers and all who had accompanied him to his father’s burial.

Gen 50:15

Gen 50:15But now that their father was dead, Joseph’s brothers became fearful. “Now Joseph will show his anger and pay us back for all the wrong we did to him,” they said.

Gen 50:16

Gen 50:16So they sent this message to Joseph: “Before your father died, he instructed us

Gen 50:17

Gen 50:17to say to you: ‘Please forgive your brothers for the great wrong they did to you—for their sin in treating you so cruelly.’ So we, the servants of the God of your father, beg you to forgive our sin.” When Joseph received the message, he broke down and wept.

Gen 50:18

Gen 50:18Then his brothers came and threw themselves down before Joseph. “Look, we are your slaves!” they said.

Gen 50:19

Gen 50:19But Joseph replied, “Don’t be afraid of me. Am I God, that I can punish you?

Gen 50:20

Gen 50:20You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people.

Gen 50:21

Gen 50:21No, don’t be afraid. I will continue to take care of you and your children.” So he reassured them by speaking kindly to them.

The Death of Joseph

(Heb 11:22 )

Gen 50:22

Gen 50:22So Joseph and his brothers and their families continued to live in Egypt. Joseph lived to the age of 110.

Gen 50:23

Gen 50:23He lived to see three generations of descendants of his son Ephraim, and he lived to see the birth of the children of Manasseh’s son Makir, whom he claimed as his own.[fn]

Gen 50:24

Gen 50:24“Soon I will die,” Joseph told his brothers, “but God will surely come to help you and lead you out of this land of Egypt. He will bring you back to the land he solemnly promised to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.”

Gen 50:25

Gen 50:25Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear an oath, and he said, “When God comes to help you and lead you back, you must take my bones with you.”

Gen 50:26

Gen 50:26So Joseph died at the age of 110. The Egyptians embalmed him, and his body was placed in a coffin in Egypt.

See the NLT Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).

NLT Footnotes

(50:2)

Hebrew Israel. See note on 35:21.

(50:11)

Abel-mizraim means “mourning of the Egyptians.”

(50:23)

Hebrew who were born on Joseph’s knees.

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For more information on this translation, see the NLT Preface.