New International Reader s Version - NIrV - 1996
Genesis 50
1
Joseph threw himself on his father's body. He sobbed over him and kissed him.
Reference
Parallel theme
Genesis 46:4
2
Then Joseph talked to the doctors who served him. He told them to prepare the body of his father Israel to be buried. So the doctors prepared it.
Reference
3
They took 40 days to do it. They needed that much time to prepare a body in the right way. The Egyptians sobbed over Jacob for 70 days.
Reference
4
After the days of sorrow had passed, Joseph went to Pharaoh's officials. He said to them, "If you are pleased with me, speak to Pharaoh for me. Tell him,
5
'My father made me take an oath and make a promise to him. He said, "I'm about to die. Bury me in the tomb I dug for myself in the land of Canaan." So let me go up and bury my father. Then I'll come back.' "
Reference
6
Pharaoh said, "Go up and bury your father. Do what he made you promise to do."
7
So Joseph went up to bury his father. All of Pharaoh's officials went with him. They were the important people of his court and all of the leaders of Egypt.
8
All of Joseph's family also went. His brothers and all of the rest of his father's family went too. 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 group.
10
They came to the threshing floor of Atad. It was near the Jordan River. There they sobbed loudly and bitterly. Joseph set apart seven days of sadness to honor his father's memory.
Reference
Creation
Acts 8:2
Parallel theme
Job 2:13
2 Samuel 1:17
1 Samuel 31:13
Genesis 50:4
Genesis 50:11
Deuteronomy 1:1
Deuteronomy 34:8
Numbers 19:11
11
The people of Canaan who were living there saw how sad all of them were at the threshing floor of Atad. They said, "The Egyptians are having a very special service for the dead." That's why that place near the Jordan River is called Abel of the Egyptians.
Reference
Parallel theme
Genesis 24:6
13
They carried his body to the land of Canaan. They buried it in the cave in the field of Machpelah near Mamre. Abraham had bought the cave as a place where he could bury his wife's body. He had bought it from Ephron the Hittite, along with the field.
Reference
References Abraham
Acts 7:16
14
After Joseph buried his father, he went back to Egypt. His brothers and all of the others who had gone to help him bury his father went back with him.
15
Now that their father was dead, Joseph's brothers were worried. They said, "Remember all of the bad things we did to Joseph? What if he decides to hold those things against us? What if he pays us back for them?"
Reference
16
So they sent a message to Joseph. They said, "Your father gave us directions before he died.
Reference
Parallel theme
Proverbs 29:25
17
He said, 'Here's what you must say to Joseph. Tell him, "I'm asking you to forgive your brothers. Forgive the terrible things they did to you. Forgive them for treating you so badly." ' Now then, please forgive our sins. We serve the God of your father." When their message came to Joseph, he sobbed.
Reference
18
Then his brothers came and threw themselves down in front of him. "We are your slaves," they said.
Reference
20
You planned to harm me. But God planned it for good. He planned to do what is now being done. He wanted to save many lives.
Reference
Evil
Acts 2:23
Psalm 56:5
Good
Romans 8:28
Psalm 119:71
Parallel theme
Genesis 37:4
Isaiah 10:7
Psalm 76:10
References God
Acts 3:26
21
"So then, don't be afraid. I'll provide for you and your children." He set them free from their fears. And he spoke in a kind way to them.
Reference
22
Joseph stayed in Egypt, along with all of his father's family. He lived 110 years.
23
He lived long enough to see Ephraim's children and grandchildren. When the children of Makir were born, they were placed on Joseph's knees and counted as his own children. Makir was the son of Manasseh.
Reference
Parallel theme
Numbers 32:39
Job 42:16
Genesis 30:3
Psalm 128:6
Genesis 48:19
Joshua 17:1
Numbers 32:33
24
Joseph said to his brothers, "I'm about to die. But I'm sure that God will come to help you. He'll take you up out of this land. He'll bring you to the land he promised with an oath to give to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob."
Reference
Parallel theme
Genesis 46:4
Genesis 15:18
Genesis 13:17
Genesis 13:15
Genesis 15:7
Genesis 12:7
References Abraham
Genesis 35:12
Genesis 26:3
References God
Genesis 28:13
Genesis 48:21
25
Joseph made the sons of Israel take an oath and make a promise to him. He said, "I'm sure that God will come to help you. Then you must carry my bones up from this place."
Reference
Parallel theme
Acts 7:16
Genesis 50:5
References God
Exodus 13:19
References Israel
Joshua 24:32
Hebrews 11:22
26
So Joseph died at the age of 110. They prepared his body to be buried. Then he was placed in a casket in Egypt.
Summary of Genesis 50
Genesis chapter fifty brings the whole book to a close, and it does so by wrapping up several threads at once, Jacob's burial, one final reckoning between Joseph and his brothers, and finally Joseph's own quiet death, ending an era that's carried the story all the way from creation to a family now settled comfortably, if temporarily, in Egypt.
The chapter opens with Joseph throwing himself on his father's body, weeping over him and kissing him. He then orders the physicians in his service to embalm Israel, a process that takes forty days, the standard length of time for embalming according to the text. The Egyptians mourn for Jacob seventy days, a notably long period that shows just how much respect and honor this foreign family had earned within Egyptian society.
Once the mourning period ends, Joseph approaches Pharaoh's court, since he doesn't go directly to Pharaoh himself, and asks permission to go bury his father in Canaan, reminding them of the oath his father made him swear. Pharaoh grants this without hesitation, telling him to go and bury his father as he promised.
What follows is an enormous procession. Joseph goes up to bury his father, accompanied by all of Pharaoh's officials, the dignitaries of his court, and all the elders of Egypt, along with all of Joseph's own household, his brothers, and his father's household, though the children and the flocks and herds stay behind in Goshen. Chariots and horsemen go along too, making it, the text notes, a very large company. It's a striking image, honestly, this Hebrew shepherd family being sent off with the full honor and pageantry of the Egyptian state itself.
When they reach the threshing floor of Atad, near the Jordan, they hold a loud and bitter lamentation, and Joseph observes seven days of mourning for his father there. The Canaanites living in that area, watching this mourning, remark, the Egyptians are holding a solemn ceremony of mourning, and that's why the place is named Abel Mizraim, meaning something like meadow, or mourning, of Egypt. Jacob's sons then carry him on to Canaan and bury him in the cave in the field of Machpelah, the very field near Mamre that Abraham had bought from Ephron the Hittite generations earlier as a permanent burial site, exactly as Jacob had instructed. After the burial, Joseph returns to Egypt along with his brothers and everyone else who'd made the journey with him.
But with their father now gone, an old fear resurfaces among Joseph's brothers. They start worrying that Joseph might have only held back his anger out of respect for their father, and that now, with Jacob dead, he might finally repay them for all the wrong they did to him years ago. So they send word to Joseph, claiming their father left instructions before he died, asking Joseph to forgive his brothers' sins and the wrong they did in treating him so badly. When the message reaches him, Joseph weeps.
Then his brothers come themselves, fall down before him, and say, we are your slaves. It's the same posture of submission Joseph once dreamed about as a teenager, but the meaning behind it now is entirely different, born of fear and guilt rather than the resentment that dream once provoked in them.
Joseph's response here really is the emotional and theological heart of the whole book of Genesis. Don't be afraid, he tells them. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good, to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So then, don't be afraid, I will provide for you and your children. And he speaks kindly to them, reassuring them completely. It's an extraordinary display of grace, a man who has every right and every opportunity to seek revenge, choosing instead to see God's larger purpose running underneath all the pain his brothers caused him.
Joseph stays in Egypt along with his father's whole family, and he lives to be a hundred and ten years old. He lives long enough to see Ephraim's children to the third generation, and even the children of Makir, son of Manasseh, are placed at birth on Joseph's own knees, a tender image of a great-grandfather cradling the next generations of his family.
As Joseph approaches death himself, he tells 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. Then Joseph makes the sons of Israel swear an oath, just as his father once made him swear, that when God comes to their aid, they'll carry his bones up from Egypt.
The book closes with a single quiet sentence: Joseph died at the age of a hundred and ten. They embalmed him, and he was placed in a coffin in Egypt.
It's a fittingly restrained ending for a book that's covered so much ground, from the creation of the world to the formation of one particular family, carrying a promise that's been tested, doubted, deceived, and betrayed at nearly every turn, and yet somehow, consistently, kept alive. Genesis ends not with the family back in the promised land, but waiting in Egypt, Joseph's bones resting in a coffin, a silent promise of return still hanging in the air. That unresolved tension, a family settled comfortably in a foreign land but still bound by an oath to go home someday, is exactly the thread the book of Exodus is going to pick back up.
The chapter opens with Joseph throwing himself on his father's body, weeping over him and kissing him. He then orders the physicians in his service to embalm Israel, a process that takes forty days, the standard length of time for embalming according to the text. The Egyptians mourn for Jacob seventy days, a notably long period that shows just how much respect and honor this foreign family had earned within Egyptian society.
Once the mourning period ends, Joseph approaches Pharaoh's court, since he doesn't go directly to Pharaoh himself, and asks permission to go bury his father in Canaan, reminding them of the oath his father made him swear. Pharaoh grants this without hesitation, telling him to go and bury his father as he promised.
What follows is an enormous procession. Joseph goes up to bury his father, accompanied by all of Pharaoh's officials, the dignitaries of his court, and all the elders of Egypt, along with all of Joseph's own household, his brothers, and his father's household, though the children and the flocks and herds stay behind in Goshen. Chariots and horsemen go along too, making it, the text notes, a very large company. It's a striking image, honestly, this Hebrew shepherd family being sent off with the full honor and pageantry of the Egyptian state itself.
When they reach the threshing floor of Atad, near the Jordan, they hold a loud and bitter lamentation, and Joseph observes seven days of mourning for his father there. The Canaanites living in that area, watching this mourning, remark, the Egyptians are holding a solemn ceremony of mourning, and that's why the place is named Abel Mizraim, meaning something like meadow, or mourning, of Egypt. Jacob's sons then carry him on to Canaan and bury him in the cave in the field of Machpelah, the very field near Mamre that Abraham had bought from Ephron the Hittite generations earlier as a permanent burial site, exactly as Jacob had instructed. After the burial, Joseph returns to Egypt along with his brothers and everyone else who'd made the journey with him.
But with their father now gone, an old fear resurfaces among Joseph's brothers. They start worrying that Joseph might have only held back his anger out of respect for their father, and that now, with Jacob dead, he might finally repay them for all the wrong they did to him years ago. So they send word to Joseph, claiming their father left instructions before he died, asking Joseph to forgive his brothers' sins and the wrong they did in treating him so badly. When the message reaches him, Joseph weeps.
Then his brothers come themselves, fall down before him, and say, we are your slaves. It's the same posture of submission Joseph once dreamed about as a teenager, but the meaning behind it now is entirely different, born of fear and guilt rather than the resentment that dream once provoked in them.
Joseph's response here really is the emotional and theological heart of the whole book of Genesis. Don't be afraid, he tells them. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good, to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So then, don't be afraid, I will provide for you and your children. And he speaks kindly to them, reassuring them completely. It's an extraordinary display of grace, a man who has every right and every opportunity to seek revenge, choosing instead to see God's larger purpose running underneath all the pain his brothers caused him.
Joseph stays in Egypt along with his father's whole family, and he lives to be a hundred and ten years old. He lives long enough to see Ephraim's children to the third generation, and even the children of Makir, son of Manasseh, are placed at birth on Joseph's own knees, a tender image of a great-grandfather cradling the next generations of his family.
As Joseph approaches death himself, he tells 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. Then Joseph makes the sons of Israel swear an oath, just as his father once made him swear, that when God comes to their aid, they'll carry his bones up from Egypt.
The book closes with a single quiet sentence: Joseph died at the age of a hundred and ten. They embalmed him, and he was placed in a coffin in Egypt.
It's a fittingly restrained ending for a book that's covered so much ground, from the creation of the world to the formation of one particular family, carrying a promise that's been tested, doubted, deceived, and betrayed at nearly every turn, and yet somehow, consistently, kept alive. Genesis ends not with the family back in the promised land, but waiting in Egypt, Joseph's bones resting in a coffin, a silent promise of return still hanging in the air. That unresolved tension, a family settled comfortably in a foreign land but still bound by an oath to go home someday, is exactly the thread the book of Exodus is going to pick back up.