Good News Translation GNT
World English Bible WEB
1 Joseph threw himself on his father, crying and kissing his face.
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Joseph fell on his father's face, wept on him, and kissed him.
2 Then Joseph gave orders to embalm his father's body.
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Joseph commanded his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father; and the physicians embalmed Israel.
3 It took forty days, the normal time for embalming. The Egyptians mourned for him seventy days.
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Forty days were fulfilled for him, for that is how many the days it takes to embalm. The Egyptians wept for him for seventy days.
4 When the time of mourning was over, Joseph said to the king's officials, "Please take this message to the king:
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When the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph spoke to the house of Pharaoh, saying, "If now I have found favor in your eyes, please speak in the ears of Pharaoh, saying,
5 "When my father was about to die, he made me promise him that I would bury him in the tomb which he had prepared in the land of Canaan. So please let me go and bury my father, and then I will come back.' "
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'My father made me swear, saying, "Behold, I am dying. Bury me in my grave which I have dug for myself in the land of Canaan." Now therefore, please let me go up and bury my father, and I will come again.'"
6 The king answered, "Go and bury your father, as you promised you would."
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Pharaoh said, "Go up, and bury your father, just like he made you swear."
7 So Joseph went to bury his father. All the king's officials, the senior men of his court, and all the leading men of Egypt went with Joseph.
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Joseph went up to bury his father; and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, all the elders of the land of Egypt,
8 His family, his brothers, and the rest of his father's family all went with him. Only their small children and their sheep, goats, and cattle stayed in the region of Goshen.
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all the house of Joseph, his brothers, and his father's house. Only their little ones, their flocks, and their herds, they left in the land of Goshen.
9 Men in chariots and men on horseback also went with him; it was a huge group.
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There went up with him both chariots and horsemen. It was a very great company.
10 When they came to the threshing place at Atad east of the Jordan, they mourned loudly for a long time, and Joseph performed mourning ceremonies for seven days.
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They came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, and there they lamented with a very great and sore lamentation. He mourned for his father seven days.
11 When the citizens of Canaan saw those people mourning at Atad, they said, "What a solemn ceremony of mourning the Egyptians are holding!" That is why the place was named Abel Mizraim.
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When the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning in the floor of Atad, they said, "This is a grievous mourning by the Egyptians." Therefore, the name of it was called Abel-mizraim, which is beyond the Jordan.
12 So Jacob's sons did as he had commanded them;
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His sons did to him just as he commanded them,
13 they carried his body to Canaan and buried it in the cave at Machpelah east of Mamre in the field which Abraham had bought from Ephron the Hittite for a burial ground.
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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, from Ephron the Hittite, before Mamre.
14 After Joseph had buried his father, he returned to Egypt with his brothers and all who had gone with him for the funeral.
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Joseph returned into Egypt - he, and his brothers, and all that went up with him to bury his father, after he had buried his father.
15 After the death of their father, Joseph's brothers said, "What if Joseph still hates us and plans to pay us back for all the harm we did to him?"
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When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, "It may be that Joseph will hate us, and will fully pay us back for all of the evil which we did to him.
16 So they sent a message to Joseph: "Before our father died,
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They sent a message to Joseph, saying, "Your father commanded before he died, saying,
17 he told us to ask you, "Please forgive the crime your brothers committed when they wronged you.' Now please forgive us the wrong that we, the servants of your father's God, have done." Joseph cried when he received this message.
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"So will you tell Joseph, 'Now please forgive the disobedience of your brothers, and their sin, because they did evil to you.' Now, please forgive the disobedience of the servants of the God of your father." Joseph wept when they spoke to him.
18 Then his brothers themselves came and bowed down before him. "Here we are before you as your slaves," they said.
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His brothers also went and fell down before his face; and they said, "Behold, we are your servants."
19 But Joseph said to them, "Don't be afraid; I can't put myself in the place of God.
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Joseph said to them, "Don't be afraid, for am I in the place of God?
20 You plotted evil against me, but God turned it into good, in order to preserve the lives of many people who are alive today because of what happened.
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As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save many people alive.
21 You have nothing to fear. I will take care of you and your children." So he reassured them with kind words that touched their hearts.
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Now therefore don't be afraid. I will nourish you and your little ones." He comforted them, and spoke kindly to them.
22 Joseph continued to live in Egypt with his father's family; he was a hundred and ten years old when he died.
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Joseph lived in Egypt, he, and his father's house. Joseph lived one hundred ten years.
23 He lived to see Ephraim's children and grandchildren. He also lived to receive the children of Machir son of Manasseh into the family.
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Joseph saw Ephraim's children to the third generation. The children also of Machir, the son of Manasseh, were born on Joseph's knees.
24 He said to his brothers, "I am about to die, but God will certainly take care of you and lead you out of this land to the land he solemnly promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob."
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Joseph said to his brothers, "I am dying, but God will surely visit you, and bring you up out of this land to the land which he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob."
25 Then Joseph asked his people to make a vow. "Promise me," he said, "that when God leads you to that land, you will take my body with you."
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Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, "God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here."
26 So Joseph died in Egypt at the age of a hundred and ten. They embalmed his body and put it in a coffin.
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So Joseph died, being one hundred ten years old, and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.
The World English Bible is in the public domain.