The Message Bible MSG
New Living Translation NLT
1 Joseph threw himself on his father, wept over him, and kissed him.
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Joseph threw himself on his father and wept over him and kissed him.
2 Joseph then instructed the physicians in his employ to embalm his father. The physicians embalmed Israel.
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Then Joseph told the physicians who served him to embalm his father’s body; so Jacob was embalmed.
3 The embalming took forty days, the period required for embalming. There was public mourning by the Egyptians for seventy days.
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The embalming process took the usual forty days. And the Egyptians mourned his death for seventy days.
4 When the period of mourning was completed, Joseph petitioned Pharaoh's court:
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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.
5 "If you have reason to think kindly of me, present Pharaoh with my request: My father made me swear, saying, 'I am ready to die. Bury me in the grave plot that I prepared for myself in the land of Canaan.' Please give me leave to go up and bury my father. Then I'll come back."
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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.”
6 Pharaoh said, "Certainly. Go and bury your father as he made you promise under oath."
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Pharaoh agreed to Joseph’s request. “Go and bury your father, as he made you promise,” he said.
7 So Joseph left to bury his father. And all the high-ranking officials from Pharaoh's court went with him, all the dignitaries of Egypt,
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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.
8 joining Joseph's family - his brothers and his father's family. Their children and flocks and herds were left in Goshen.
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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.
9 Chariots and horsemen accompanied them. It was a huge funeral procession.
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A great number of chariots and charioteers accompanied Joseph.
10 Arriving at the Atad Threshing Floor just across the Jordan River, they stopped for a period of mourning, letting their grief out in loud and lengthy lament. For seven days, Joseph engaged in these funeral rites for his father.
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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 When the Canaanites who lived in that area saw the grief being poured out at the Atad Threshing Floor, they said, "Look how deeply the Egyptians are mourning." That is how the site at the Jordan got the name Abel Mizraim (Egyptian Lament).
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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, for they said, “This is a place of deep mourning for these Egyptians.”
12 Jacob's sons continued to carry out his instructions to the letter.
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So Jacob’s sons did as he had commanded them.
13 They took him on into Canaan and buried him in the cave in the field of Machpelah facing Mamre, the field that Abraham had bought as a burial plot from Ephron the Hittite.
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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.
14 After burying his father, Joseph went back to Egypt. All his brothers who had come with him to bury his father returned with him.
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After burying Jacob, Joseph returned to Egypt with his brothers and all who had accompanied him to his father’s burial.
15 After the funeral, Joseph's brothers talked among themselves: "What if Joseph is carrying a grudge and decides to pay us back for all the wrong we did him?"
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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 Joseph a message, "Before his death, your father gave this command:
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So they sent this message to Joseph: “Before your father died, he instructed us
17 Tell Joseph, 'Forgive your brothers' sin - all that wrongdoing. They did treat you very badly.' Will you do it? Will you forgive the sins of the servants of your father's God?" When Joseph received their message, he wept.
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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 the brothers went in person to him, threw themselves on the ground before him and said, "We'll be your slaves."
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Then his brothers came and threw themselves down before Joseph. “Look, we are your slaves!” they said.
19 Joseph replied, "Don't be afraid. Do I act for God?
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But Joseph replied, “Don’t be afraid of me. Am I God, that I can punish you?
20 Don't you see, you planned evil against me but God used those same plans for my good, as you see all around you right now - life for many people.
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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 Easy now, you have nothing to fear; I'll take care of you and your children." He reassured them, speaking with them heart-to-heart.
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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.
22 Joseph continued to live in Egypt with his father's family. Joseph lived 110 years.
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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 Ephraim's sons into the third generation. The sons of Makir, Manasseh's son, were also recognized as Joseph's.
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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.
24 At the end, Joseph said to his brothers, "I am ready to die. God will most certainly pay you a visit and take you out of this land and back to the land he so solemnly promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob."
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“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 promise under oath, "When God makes his visitation, make sure you take my bones with you as you leave here."
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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 Joseph died at the age of 110 years. They embalmed him and placed him in a coffin in Egypt.
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So Joseph died at the age of 110. The Egyptians embalmed him, and his body was placed in a coffin in Egypt.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.
Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by
Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.