The excellency of brotherly unity.

A Song of Ascents; of David.

²⁹ And he charged them, and said unto them, I am to be gathered unto my people: bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, ³⁰ in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a burying-place. ³¹ There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah— ³² the field and the cave that is therein, which was purchased from the children of Heth. ³³ And when Jacob made an end of charging his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people.

50 And Joseph fell upon his father’s face, and wept upon him, and kissed him. ² And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father: and the physicians embalmed Israel. ³ And forty days were fulfilled for him; for so are fulfilled the days of embalming: and the Egyptians wept for him three-score and ten days.

⁴ And when the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph spake unto the house of Pharaoh, saying, If now I have found favor in your eyes, speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh, saying, ⁵ My father made me swear, saying, Lo, I die: in my grave which I ^[a]have digged for me in the land of Canaan, there shalt thou bury me. Now therefore let me go up, I pray thee, and bury my father, and I will come again. ⁶ And Pharaoh said, Go up, and bury thy father, according as he made thee swear. ⁷ And 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 and all the house of Joseph, and his brethren, and his father’s house: only their little ones, and 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 company. ¹⁰ And they came to the threshing-floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, and there they lamented with a very great and sore lamentation: and he made a mourning for his father seven days. ¹¹ And when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning in the floor of Atad, they said, This is a grievous ^[b]mourning to the Egyptians: wherefore the name of it was called Abel-mizraim, which is beyond the Jordan. ¹² And his sons did unto him according as he commanded them: ¹³ for his sons carried him into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which Abraham bought with the field, for a possession of a burying-place, of Ephron the Hittite, before Mamre. ¹⁴ And Joseph returned into Egypt, he, and his brethren, and all that went up with him to bury his father, after he had buried his father.

¹³ Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge ye this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock in his brother’s way, or an occasion of falling. ¹⁴ I know, and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean of itself: save that to him who accounteth anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. ¹⁵ For if because of meat thy brother is grieved, thou walkest no longer in love. Destroy not with thy meat him for whom Christ died. ¹⁶ Let not then your good be evil spoken of: ¹⁷ for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. ¹⁸ For he that herein serveth Christ is well-pleasing to God, and approved of men. ¹⁹ So then ^[a]let us follow after things which make for peace, and things whereby we may edify one another. ²⁰ Overthrow not for meat’s sake the work of God. All things indeed are clean; howbeit it is evil for that man who eateth with offence. ²¹ It is good not to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor to do anything whereby thy brother stumbleth^[b]. ²² The faith which thou hast, have thou to thyself before God. Happy is he that judgeth not himself in that which he ^[c]approveth. ²³ But he that doubteth is condemned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith; and whatsoever is not of faith is sin.^[d]

15 Now we that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. ² Let each one of us please his neighbor for that which is good, unto edifying.