6497. Genesis 50

1. And Joseph fell upon his father's face, and wept on him, and kissed him.

2. And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father; and the physicians embalmed Israel.

3. And forty days were completed for him, for thus are completed the days of embalming. And the Egyptians wept for him seventy days.

4. And the days of weeping for him passed, and Joseph spoke to Pharaoh's house, saying, If now I have found favour in your eyes, speak, I beg you, in Pharaoh's ears, saying,

5. My father made me swear on oath, saying, Behold, I am dying; in my grave which I dug for myself in the land of Canaan, there you are to bury me. And now let me go up, I beg you, and bury my father, and I will return.

6. And Pharaoh said, Go up and bury your father, as he made you swear on oath.

7. And Joseph went up to bury his father, and there went up with him all Pharaoh's servants, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt,

8. And the whole house of Joseph, and his brothers, and his father's house; only their young children, and their flocks, and their herds they left behind in the land of Goshen.

9. And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen; and it was an extremely large army. ¹

10. And they came to the threshing-floor of Atad, which is at the crossing of the Jordan, and wailed there with great and extremely loud ² wailing; and he made a mourning for his father seven days.

11. And the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning at the threshing-floor of Atad, and they said, This is an intense mourning for the Egyptians; therefore they called the name of it Abel Mizraim, which is at the crossing of the Jordan.

12. And his sons did for him thus, as he had commanded them.

13. And his sons carried him to the land of Canaan, and buried him in the had bought with the cave of the field of Machpelah, which Abraham had brought with the field, as a possession for a grave, from Ephron the Hittite - facing Mamre.

14. And Joseph returned to Egypt, he and his brothers, and all who went up with him to bury his father, after he had buried his father.

15. And Joseph's brothers saw that their father had died, and they said, Perhaps Joseph will hate us and will fully return to us all the evil with which we repaid him.

16. And they gave a command to Joseph, saying, Your father commanded before he died, saying,

17. Thus you are to say to Joseph, I beg you, forgive - I beg you - the transgression of your brothers, and their sin, for the evil with which they repaid you; and now forgive, I beg you, the transgression of the servants of your father's God. And Joseph wept as they spoke to him.

18. And his brothers also went and fell down before him, and said, Behold, we are your slaves.

19. And Joseph said to them, Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God?

20. And you thought evil against me; God thought [to turn] it into good, in order to do what is in accord with this day, to bestow life on a great people.

21. And now, do not be afraid; I will sustain you and your young children. And he consoled them and spoke to their heart.

22. And Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he and his father's house; and Joseph lived a hundred and ten years.

23. And Joseph saw Ephraim's sons of the third generation; also the sons of Machir, Manasseh's son, were born on Joseph's knees.

24. And Joseph said to his brothers, I am dying; and God will certainly visit you and cause you to go up out of this land to the land which He swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

25. And Joseph made the children of Israel swear, saying, God will certainly visit you, and you shall cause my bones to go up from here.

26. And Joseph died, a hundred and ten years old; and they embalmed him, and he was put in an ark in Egypt.

CONTENTS

Now that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who in the highest sense represent the Lord, have been dealt with, this final chapter deals in the internal sense with the Church, with the establishment by the Lord of the spiritual Church after the celestial Church had perished. The beginning and the progressive stages of that spiritual Church are described in the internal sense; and at the end of the chapter the end of that Church, when solely a representative of the Church was established among Jacob's descendants, is described.

脚注: