Genesis Chapter 50
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
The mourning for Jacob, and his interment. Joseph’s kindness towards his brethren. His death.
50:1. And when Joseph saw this, he fell upon his father’s face, weeping and kissing him.
50:2. And he commanded his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father.
50:3. And while they were fulfilling his commands, there passed forty days: for this was the manner with bodies that were embalmed, and Egypt mourned for him seventy days.
50:4. And the time of the mourning being expired, Joseph spoke to the family of Pharao: If I have found favour in your sight, speak in the ears of Pharao:
50:5. For my father made me swear to him, saying: Behold I die; thou shalt bury me in my sepulchre which I have digged for myself in the land of Chanaan. So I will go up and bury my father, and return.
50:6. And Pharao said to him: Go up and bury thy father according as he made thee swear.
50:7. So he went up, and there went with him all the ancients of Pharao’s house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt.
50:8. And the house of Joseph with his brethren, except their children, and their flocks and herds, which they left in the land of Gessen.
50:9. He had also in his train chariots and horsemen: and it was a great company.
50:10. And they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is situated beyond the Jordan: where celebrating the exequies with a great and vehement lamentation, they spent full seven days.
50:11. And when the inhabitants of Chanaan saw this, they said: This is a great mourning to the Egyptians. And therefore the name of that place was called, The mourning of Egypt.
50:12. So the sons of Jacob did as he had commanded them.
50:13. And carrying him into the land of Chanaan, they buried him in the double cave, which Abraham had bought together with the field for a possession of a burying place, of Ephron, the Hethite, over against Mambre.
50:14. And Joseph returned into Egypt with his brethren, and all that were in his company, after he had buried his father.
50:15. Now he being dead, his brethren were afraid, and talked one with another: Lest perhaps he should remember the wrong he suffered, and requite us all the evil that we did to him.
50:16. And they sent a message to him, saying: Thy father commanded us before he died,
50:17. That we should say thus much to thee from him: I beseech thee to forget the wickedness of thy brethren, and the sin and malice they practised against thee: we also pray thee, to forgive the servants of the God of thy father this wickedness. And when Joseph heard this, he wept.
50:18. And his brethren came to him; and worshipping prostrate on the ground, they said: We are thy servants.
50:19. And he answered them: Fear not: can we resist the will of God?
50:20. You thought evil against me: but God turned it into good, that he might exalt me, as at present you see, and might save many people.
50:21. Fear not: I will feed you and your children. And he comforted them, and spoke gently and mildly.
50:22. And he dwelt in Egypt with all his father’s house; and lived a hundred and ten years. And he saw the children of Ephraim to the third generation. The children also of Machir, the sons of Manasses, were born on Joseph’s knees.
50:23. After which he told his brethren: God will visit you after my death, and will make you go up out of this land, to the land which he swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
50:24. And he made them swear to him, saying: God will visit you, carry my bones with you out of this place:
50:25. And he died, being a hundred and ten years old. And being embalmed, he was laid in a coffin in Egypt.