King James Version, with Nii Okai's journal notes · 7 notes
1And Joseph fell upon his father’s face, and wept upon him, and kissed him.
2And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father: and the physicians embalmed Israel.
3And forty days were fulfilled for him; for so are fulfilled the days of those which are embalmed: and the Egyptians mourned for him threescore and ten days.
4And when the days of his mourning were past, Joseph spake unto the house of Pharaoh, saying, If now I have found grace in your eyes, speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh, saying,
5My father made me swear, saying, Lo, I die: in my grave which I 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.
6And Pharaoh said, Go up, and bury thy father, according as he made thee swear.
7And 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,
8And 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.
9And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen: and it was a very great company.
10And they came to the threshingfloor of Atad, which is beyond Jordan, and there they mourned with a great and very sore lamentation: and he made a mourning for his father seven days.
11And when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning in the floor of Atad, they said, This is a grievous mourning to the Egyptians: wherefore the name of it was called Abel-mizraim, which is beyond Jordan.
The man was indeed very great.
Jacob the swindler, now Israel the prince.
12And his sons did unto him according as he commanded them:
13For 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 buryingplace of Ephron the Hittite, before Mamre.
Israel kept good records because they were on a mission, a mission that transcended generations, so each generation carried the mantle.
People did not just get up and do what they liked and lived vain and separate lives.
No, there was always someone who championed the cause, and of course God ensured the preservation of the nation so the vision was not lost.
These people kept such accurate records, and even up to now they have such a strong sense of history — the average Jew.
14And 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.
15And when Joseph’s brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him.
16And they sent a messenger unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying,
17So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren, and their sin; for they did unto thee evil: and now, we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake unto him.
As they aged more and more, they realized the foolishness of their ways and the far-reaching consequences of their actions.
It haunted them and now they sought forgiveness again, because another dimension of understanding of how wicked their actions were had dawned on them.
18And his brethren also went and fell down before his face; and they said, Behold, we be thy servants.
Joseph was truly powerful; he was ruler of all of Egypt. His brethren had seen men bow to Joseph. They had his power and it had an effect on them.
Joseph was not a president, he was a king, for life. So his brethren easily bowed to him.
19And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God?
20But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.
Simeon and Levi knew all too well the power of deception. They themselves had practiced it, as well as the other brethren, and now they feared Joseph was doing same to them.
Using fair words to hide his true intentions.
21Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them.
22And Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he, and his father’s house: and Joseph lived an hundred and ten years.
23And Joseph saw Ephraim’s children of the third generation: the children also of Machir the son of Manasseh were brought up upon Joseph’s knees.
24And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die: and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
25And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence.
And this promise they kept... It’s interesting how this instruction was carried on from generation to generation without losing it until they departed from Egypt 🇪🇬.
26So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years old: and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.
Oh, details were not given as to how grand his burial was.
See how Jacob was buried ⚰ in grand style that the children of Canaan noticed. How much more the Zaphnath-paaneah.