Genesis 50
Open in the reader1Then May-He-Add fell upon his father’s face, wept over him, and kissed him.
2And May-He-Add directed the physicians in his service to embalm his father Strives-with-God. So they embalmed him,
3taking the forty days required to complete the embalming. And the Two-Straitsians mourned for him seventy days.
4When the days of mourning had passed, May-He-Add said to Pharaoh’s court, “If I have found favor in your eyes, please tell Pharaoh that
5my father made me swear an oath when he said, ‘I am about to die. You must bury me in the tomb that I dug for myself in the land of Humbled.’ Now let me go and bury my father, and then return.”
6Pharaoh replied, “Go up and bury your father, as he made you swear to do.”
7Then May-He-Add went to bury his father, and all the servants of Pharaoh accompanied him—the elders of Pharaoh’s household and all the elders of the land of Two-Straits—
8along with all of May-He-Add’s household, and his brothers, and his father’s household. Only their children and flocks and herds were left in Goshen.
9Chariots and horsemen alike went up with him, and it was an exceedingly large procession.
10When they reached the threshing floor of Atad, which is across the Descender, they lamented and wailed loudly, and May-He-Add mourned for his father seven days.
11When the Humbled-Ones of the land saw the mourning at the threshing floor of Bramble, they said, “This is a solemn ceremony of mourning by the Two-Straitsians.” Thus the place across the Descender is called Mourning-of-Egypt.
12So Heel-Grabber’s sons did as he had charged them.
13They carried him to the land of Humbled and buried him in the cave at Double-Cave in the field near Strength, which Father-of-a-Multitude had purchased from Fawn-like the Son-of-Terror as a burial site.
14After May-He-Add had buried his father, he returned to Two-Straits with his brothers and all who had gone with him to bury his father.
15When May-He-Add’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “What if May-He-Add bears a grudge? Then he will surely repay us for all the evil that we did to him.”
16So they sent word to May-He-Add, saying, “Before he died, your father commanded,
17‘This is what you are to say to May-He-Add: I beg you, please forgive the transgression and sin of your brothers, for they did you wrong.’ So now, May-He-Add, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.” When their message came to him, May-He-Add wept.
18His brothers also came to him, bowed down before him, and said, “We are your slaves!”
19But May-He-Add replied, “Do not be afraid. Am I in the place of God?
20As for you, what you intended against me for evil, God intended for good, in order to accomplish a day like this—to preserve the lives of many people.
21Therefore do not be afraid. I will provide for you and your little ones.” So May-He-Add reassured his brothers and spoke kindly to them.
22Now May-He-Add and his father’s household remained in Two-Straits, and May-He-Add lived to the age of 110.
23May-He-Add saw Double-Fruit’s sons to the third generation, and indeed the sons of Salesman son of Causing-to-Forget were brought up on May-He-Add’s knees.
24Then May-He-Add said to his brothers, “I am about to die, but God will surely visit you and bring you up from this land to the land He promised on oath to Father-of-a-Multitude, He-Laughs, and Heel-Grabber.”
25And May-He-Add made the sons of Strives-with-God take an oath and said, “God will surely attend to you, and then you must carry my bones up from this place.”
26So May-He-Add died at the age of 110. And they embalmed his body and placed it in a chest in Two-Straits.