New Revised Standard NRS
The Bible in Basic English BBE
1 Then Joseph threw himself on his father's face and wept over him and kissed him.
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And Joseph put his head down on his father's face, weeping and kissing him.
2 Joseph commanded the physicians in his service to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel;
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And Joseph gave orders to his servants who had the necessary knowledge, to make his father's body ready, folding it in linen with spices, and they did so.
3 they spent forty days in doing this, for that is the time required for embalming. And the Egyptians wept for him seventy days.
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And the forty days needed for making the body ready went by: and there was weeping for him among the Egyptians for seventy days.
4 When the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph addressed the household of Pharaoh, "If now I have found favor with you, please speak to Pharaoh as follows:
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And when the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph said to the servants of Pharaoh, If now you have love for me, say these words to Pharaoh:
5 My father made me swear an oath; he said, "I am about to die. In the tomb that I hewed out for myself in the land of Canaan, there you shall bury me.' Now therefore let me go up, so that I may bury my father; then I will return."
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My father made me take an oath, saying, When I am dead, put me to rest in the place I have made ready for myself in the land of Canaan. So now let me go and put my father in his last resting-place, and I will come back again.
6 Pharaoh answered, "Go up, and bury your father, as he made you swear to do."
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And Pharaoh said, Go up and put your father to rest, as you gave your oath to him.
7 So Joseph went up to bury his father. With him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his household, and all the elders of the land of Egypt,
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So Joseph went up to put his father in his last resting-place; and with him went all the servants of Pharaoh, and the chief men of his house and all the chiefs of the land of Egypt,
8 as well as all the household of Joseph, his brothers, and his father's household. Only their children, their flocks, and their herds were left in the land of Goshen.
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And all the family of Joseph, and his brothers and his father's people: only their little ones and their flocks and herds they did not take with them from the land of Goshen.
9 Both chariots and charioteers went up with him. It was a very great company.
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And carriages went up with him and horsemen, a great army.
10 When they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, they held there a very great and sorrowful lamentation; and he observed a time of mourning for his father seven days.
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And they came to the grain-floor of Atad on the other side of Jordan, and there they gave the last honours to Jacob, with great and bitter sorrow, weeping for their father for seven days.
11 When the Canaanite inhabitants of the land saw the mourning on the threshing floor of Atad, they said, "This is a grievous mourning on the part of the Egyptians." Therefore the place was named Abel-mizraim; it is beyond the Jordan.
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And when the people of the land, the people of Canaan, at the grain-floor of Atad, saw their grief, they said, Great is the grief of the Egyptians: so the place was named Abel-mizraim, on the other side of Jordan.
12 Thus his sons did for him as he had instructed them.
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So his sons did as he had given them orders to do:
13 They carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field at Machpelah, the field near Mamre, which Abraham bought as a burial site from Ephron the Hittite.
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For they took him into the land of Canaan and put him to rest in the hollow rock in the field of Machpelah, which Abraham got with the field, for a resting-place, from Ephron the Hittite at Mamre.
14 After he had buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt with his brothers and all who had gone up with him to bury his father.
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And when his father had been put to rest, Joseph and his brothers and all who had gone with him, went back to Egypt.
15 Realizing that their father was dead, Joseph's brothers said, "What if Joseph still bears a grudge against us and pays us back in full for all the wrong that we did to him?"
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Now after the death of their father, Joseph's brothers said to themselves, It may be that Joseph's heart will be turned against us, and he will give us punishment for all the evil which we did to him.
16 So they approached Joseph, saying, "Your father gave this instruction before he died,
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So they sent word to Joseph, saying, Your father, before his death, gave us orders, saying,
17 "Say to Joseph: I beg you, forgive the crime of your brothers and the wrong they did in harming you.' Now therefore please forgive the crime of the servants of the God of your father." Joseph wept when they spoke to him.
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You are to say to Joseph, Let the wrongdoing of your brothers be overlooked, and the evil they did to you: now, if it is your pleasure, let the sin of the servants of your father's God have forgiveness. And at these words, Joseph was overcome with weeping.
18 Then his brothers also wept, fell down before him, and said, "We are here as your slaves."
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Then his brothers went, and falling at his feet, said, Truly, we are your servants.
19 But Joseph said to them, "Do not be afraid! Am I in the place of God?
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And Joseph said, Have no fear: am I in the place of God?
20 Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people, as he is doing today.
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As for you, it was in your mind to do me evil, but God has given a happy outcome, the salvation of numbers of people, as you see today.
21 So have no fear; I myself will provide for you and your little ones." In this way he reassured them, speaking kindly to them.
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So now, have no fear: for I will take care of you and your little ones. So he gave them comfort with kind words.
22 So Joseph remained in Egypt, he and his father's household; and Joseph lived one hundred ten years.
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Now Joseph and all his father's family went on living in Egypt: and the years of Joseph's life were a hundred and ten.
23 Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third generation; the children of Machir son of Manasseh were also born on Joseph's knees.
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And Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third generation: and the children of Machir, the son of Manasseh, came to birth on Joseph's knees.
24 Then Joseph said to his brothers, "I am about to die; but God will surely come to you, and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob."
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Then Joseph said to his brothers, The time of my death has come; but God will keep you in mind and take you out of this land into the land which he gave by his oath to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.
25 So Joseph made the Israelites swear, saying, "When God comes to you, you shall carry up my bones from here."
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Then Joseph made the children of Israel take an oath, saying, God will certainly give effect to his word, and you are to take my bones away from here.
26 And Joseph died, being one hundred ten years old; he was embalmed and placed in a coffin in Egypt.
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So Joseph came to his death, being a hundred and ten years old: and they made his body ready, and he was put in a chest in Egypt.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
The Bible in Basic English is in the public domain.