Jacob Is Buried

50 Then Joseph fell on his father’s face, and wept over him and kissed him. Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father. So the physicians (A)embalmed Israel. Now forty days were [a]required for [b]it, for [c]such is the period required for embalming. And the Egyptians (B)wept for him seventy days.

When the days of [d]mourning for him were past, Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh, saying, “If now I have found favor in your sight, please speak [e]to Pharaoh, saying, (C)My father made me swear, saying, “Behold, I am about to die; in my grave (D)which I dug for myself in the land of Canaan, there you shall bury me.” Now then, please let me go up and bury my father; then I will return.’” Pharaoh said, “Go up and bury your father, as he made you swear.”

So Joseph went up to bury his father, and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his household and all the elders of the land of Egypt, and all the household of Joseph and his brothers and his father’s household; they left only their little ones and their flocks and their herds in the land of Goshen. Chariots with teams of horses also went up with him; and it was a very great company. 10 When they came to the [f]threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, they (E)mourned there with a very great and [g]sorrowful lamentation; and he [h]observed seven days of mourning for his father. 11 Now when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning at [i]the threshing floor of Atad, they said, “This is a [j]grievous [k]mourning for the Egyptians.” Therefore it was named [l]Abel-mizraim, which is beyond the Jordan.

Burial at Machpelah

12 And so his sons did for him as he had commanded them; 13 for his sons carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in (F)the cave of the field of Machpelah opposite Mamre, which Abraham had bought along with the field as a [m]burial site from Ephron the Hittite. 14 And after he had buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt, he and his brothers, and all who had gone up with him to bury his father.

15 When Joseph’s brothers had seen that their father was dead, they said, “(G)What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back in full for all the wrong which we did to him!” 16 So they sent instructions to Joseph, saying, “Your father commanded us before he died, saying, 17 ‘This is what you shall say to Joseph: “Please forgive, I beg you, the offense of your brothers and their sin, for they did you wrong.”’ And now, please forgive the offense of the servants of the God of your father.” And Joseph wept when they spoke to him. 18 Then his brothers also came and (H)fell down before him and said, “Behold, we are your servants.” 19 But Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid, for am I in God’s place? 20 As for you, (I)you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about [n]this present result, to keep many people alive. 21 So therefore, do not be afraid; (J)I will provide for you and your little ones.” So he comforted them and spoke [o]kindly to them.

Death of Joseph

22 Now Joseph stayed in Egypt, he and his father’s household, and Joseph lived 110 years. 23 Joseph saw the third generation of Ephraim’s sons; also the sons of Machir, the son of Manasseh, were (K)born on Joseph’s knees. 24 Joseph said to his brothers, “(L)I am about to die, but God will assuredly [p]take care of you and bring you up from this land to the land which He [q]promised on oath to (M)Abraham, to (N)Isaac, and to (O)Jacob.” 25 Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, “God will assuredly [r]take care of you, and (P)you shall carry my bones up from here.” 26 So Joseph died at the age of 110 years; and they (Q)embalmed him and placed him in a coffin in Egypt.

Israel Multiplies in Egypt

Now these are the (R)names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob; they came, each one [s]with his household: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah; Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin; Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. [t]All the people who descended from Jacob were (S)seventy [u]people, but Joseph was already in Egypt. And (T)Joseph died, and all his brothers and all that generation. But the sons of Israel (U)were fruitful and [v]increased greatly, and multiplied, and became exceedingly [w]mighty, so that the land was filled with them.

Now a new (V)king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. And (W)he said to his people, “Behold, the people of the sons of Israel are [x]too many and too mighty for us. 10 Come, let us (X)deal [y]shrewdly with them, otherwise they will multiply, and [z]in the event of war, they will also join those who hate us, and fight against us and [aa]depart from the land.” 11 So they appointed (Y)taskmasters over them to oppress them with [ab](Z)hard labor. And they built for Pharaoh (AA)storage cities, Pithom and (AB)Raamses. 12 But the more they oppressed them, (AC)the more they multiplied and the more they [ac]spread out, so that they dreaded the sons of Israel. 13 The Egyptians [ad]used violence to compel the sons of Israel (AD)to labor; 14 and they made (AE)their lives bitter with hard labor in mortar and bricks and at all kinds of labor in the field, all their labors which they violently had them perform as slaves.

15 Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom [ae]was named Shiphrah, and the other [af]was named Puah; 16 and he said, “When you are helping the Hebrew women to give birth and see them upon the birthstool, (AF)if it is a son, then you shall put him to death; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.” 17 But the midwives [ag](AG)feared God, and (AH)did not do as the king of Egypt had [ah]commanded them, but let the boys live. 18 So the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this thing, and let the boys live?” 19 The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife [ai]can get to them.” 20 So (AI)God was good to the midwives, and (AJ)the people multiplied, and became very [aj]mighty. 21 And because the midwives [ak](AK)feared God, He [al](AL)established [am]households for them. 22 Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “(AM)Every son who is born, [an]you are to throw into (AN)the Nile, but every daughter, you are to keep alive.”

The Birth of Moses

Now a man from (AO)the house of Levi went and [ao]married a daughter of Levi. And the woman conceived and gave birth to a son; and when she saw [ap]that he was [aq](AP)beautiful, she hid him for three months. But when she could no longer hide him, she got him a (AQ)papyrus [ar]basket and covered it with tar and pitch. Then she put the child in it and set it among the (AR)reeds by the bank of the Nile. (AS)And his sister stood at a distance to [as]find out what would [at]happen to him.

Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down (AT)to bathe at the Nile, with her female attendants walking alongside the Nile; and she saw the [au]basket among the reeds and sent her slave woman, and she brought it to her. When she opened it, she [av]saw the child, and behold, the boy was crying. And she had pity on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.” Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and call a woman for you who is nursing from the Hebrew women, so that she may nurse the child for you?” Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go ahead.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. Then Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed him. 10 And the child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter and (AU)he became her son. And she named him [aw]Moses, and said, “Because I drew him out of the water.”

Notas al pie

  1. Genesis 50:3 Lit fulfilled
  2. Genesis 50:3 Or him
  3. Genesis 50:3 Lit so are fulfilled the days of embalming
  4. Genesis 50:4 Lit weeping
  5. Genesis 50:4 Lit In the ears of
  6. Genesis 50:10 Heb Goren ha-Atad
  7. Genesis 50:10 Lit heavy
  8. Genesis 50:10 Lit made a mourning for seven days
  9. Genesis 50:11 Heb Goren ha-Atad
  10. Genesis 50:11 Lit heavy
  11. Genesis 50:11 Heb ebel
  12. Genesis 50:11 I.e., the meadow (or mourning) of Egypt
  13. Genesis 50:13 Lit possession of a burial place
  14. Genesis 50:20 Lit as this day
  15. Genesis 50:21 Lit to their heart
  16. Genesis 50:24 Or visit
  17. Genesis 50:24 Lit swore
  18. Genesis 50:25 Or visit
  19. Exodus 1:1 Lit and
  20. Exodus 1:5 Lit Every soul
  21. Exodus 1:5 Lit souls
  22. Exodus 1:7 Lit swarmed
  23. Exodus 1:7 Or numerous
  24. Exodus 1:9 Or more and mightier than we
  25. Exodus 1:10 Or wisely
  26. Exodus 1:10 Lit it will come about when war occurs that
  27. Exodus 1:10 Lit go up from
  28. Exodus 1:11 Lit their burdens
  29. Exodus 1:12 Lit broke forth
  30. Exodus 1:13 Lit with violence compelled
  31. Exodus 1:15 Lit the name was
  32. Exodus 1:15 Lit the name was
  33. Exodus 1:17 Or revered
  34. Exodus 1:17 Lit spoken to
  35. Exodus 1:19 Lit comes to
  36. Exodus 1:20 Or numerous
  37. Exodus 1:21 Or revered
  38. Exodus 1:21 Lit made
  39. Exodus 1:21 Or families
  40. Exodus 1:22 Some ancient versions insert to the Hebrews
  41. Exodus 2:1 Lit took
  42. Exodus 2:2 Lit him that
  43. Exodus 2:2 Lit good
  44. Exodus 2:3 Or chest
  45. Exodus 2:4 Lit know
  46. Exodus 2:4 Lit be done
  47. Exodus 2:5 Or chest
  48. Exodus 2:6 Heb saw it, the child
  49. Exodus 2:10 Heb Mosheh, from a verb meaning to draw out

50 Joseph threw himself on his father and wept over him and kissed him. Then Joseph told the physicians who served him to embalm his father’s body; so Jacob[a] was embalmed. The embalming process took the usual forty days. And the Egyptians mourned his death for seventy days.

When 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. Tell 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.”

Pharaoh agreed to Joseph’s request. “Go and bury your father, as he made you promise,” he said. So 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. Joseph 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. A great number of chariots and charioteers accompanied Joseph.

10 When 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. 11 The 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,[b] for they said, “This is a place of deep mourning for these Egyptians.”

12 So Jacob’s sons did as he had commanded them. 13 They 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

14 After burying Jacob, Joseph returned to Egypt with his brothers and all who had accompanied him to his father’s burial. 15 But 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.

16 So they sent this message to Joseph: “Before your father died, he instructed us 17 to 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. 18 Then his brothers came and threw themselves down before Joseph. “Look, we are your slaves!” they said.

19 But Joseph replied, “Don’t be afraid of me. Am I God, that I can punish you? 20 You 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. 21 No, 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

22 So Joseph and his brothers and their families continued to live in Egypt. Joseph lived to the age of 110. 23 He 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.[c]

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.”

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

The Israelites in Egypt

These are the names of the sons of Israel (that is, Jacob) who moved to Egypt with their father, each with his family: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Benjamin, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. In all, Jacob had seventy[d] descendants in Egypt, including Joseph, who was already there.

In time, Joseph and all of his brothers died, ending that entire generation. But their descendants, the Israelites, had many children and grandchildren. In fact, they multiplied so greatly that they became extremely powerful and filled the land.

Eventually, a new king came to power in Egypt who knew nothing about Joseph or what he had done. He said to his people, “Look, the people of Israel now outnumber us and are stronger than we are. 10 We must make a plan to keep them from growing even more. If we don’t, and if war breaks out, they will join our enemies and fight against us. Then they will escape from the country.[e]

11 So the Egyptians made the Israelites their slaves. They appointed brutal slave drivers over them, hoping to wear them down with crushing labor. They forced them to build the cities of Pithom and Rameses as supply centers for the king. 12 But the more the Egyptians oppressed them, the more the Israelites multiplied and spread, and the more alarmed the Egyptians became. 13 So the Egyptians worked the people of Israel without mercy. 14 They made their lives bitter, forcing them to mix mortar and make bricks and do all the work in the fields. They were ruthless in all their demands.

15 Then Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, gave this order to the Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah: 16 “When you help the Hebrew women as they give birth, watch as they deliver.[f] If the baby is a boy, kill him; if it is a girl, let her live.” 17 But because the midwives feared God, they refused to obey the king’s orders. They allowed the boys to live, too.

18 So the king of Egypt called for the midwives. “Why have you done this?” he demanded. “Why have you allowed the boys to live?”

19 “The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women,” the midwives replied. “They are more vigorous and have their babies so quickly that we cannot get there in time.”

20 So God was good to the midwives, and the Israelites continued to multiply, growing more and more powerful. 21 And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.

22 Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Throw every newborn Hebrew boy into the Nile River. But you may let the girls live.”

The Birth of Moses

About this time, a man and woman from the tribe of Levi got married. The woman became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She saw that he was a special baby and kept him hidden for three months. But when she could no longer hide him, she got a basket made of papyrus reeds and waterproofed it with tar and pitch. She put the baby in the basket and laid it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile River. The baby’s sister then stood at a distance, watching to see what would happen to him.

Soon Pharaoh’s daughter came down to bathe in the river, and her attendants walked along the riverbank. When the princess saw the basket among the reeds, she sent her maid to get it for her. When the princess opened it, she saw the baby. The little boy was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This must be one of the Hebrew children,” she said.

Then the baby’s sister approached the princess. “Should I go and find one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?” she asked.

“Yes, do!” the princess replied. So the girl went and called the baby’s mother.

“Take this baby and nurse him for me,” the princess told the baby’s mother. “I will pay you for your help.” So the woman took her baby home and nursed him.

10 Later, when the boy was older, his mother brought him back to Pharaoh’s daughter, who adopted him as her own son. The princess named him Moses,[g] for she explained, “I lifted him out of the water.”

Notas al pie

  1. 50:2 Hebrew Israel. See note on 35:21.
  2. 50:11 Abel-mizraim means “mourning of the Egyptians.”
  3. 50:23 Hebrew who were born on Joseph’s knees.
  4. 1:5 Dead Sea Scrolls and Greek version read seventy-five; see notes on Gen 46:27.
  5. 1:10 Or will take the country.
  6. 1:16 Hebrew look upon the two stones; perhaps the reference is to a birthstool.
  7. 2:10 Moses sounds like a Hebrew term that means “to lift out.”