Genesis 50:16

New King James Version

So they sent messengers to Joseph, saying, "Before your father died he commanded, saying,

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Names Version
They sent a message to Yosef, saying, "Your father commanded before he died, saying,

King James Version
And they sent a messenger unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying,

Lexham English Bible
So they sent word to Joseph saying, "Your father commanded us before his death, saying,

New Century Version
So they sent a message to Joseph that said, "Your father gave this command before he died.

New English Translation
So they sent word to Joseph, saying, "Your father gave these instructions before he died:

Amplified Bible
So they sent word to Joseph, saying, "Your father commanded us before he died, saying,

New American Standard Bible
So they sent instructions to Joseph, saying, "Your father commanded us before he died, saying,

Geneva Bible (1587)
Therefore they sent vnto Ioseph, saying, Thy father commanded before his death, saying,

Legacy Standard Bible
So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, "Your father commanded before he died, saying,

Contemporary English Version
So they sent this message to Joseph: Before our father died,

Complete Jewish Bible
So they sent a message to Yosef which said, "Your father gave this order before he died:

Darby Translation
And they sent a messenger to Joseph, saying, Thy father commanded before he died, saying,

Easy-to-Read Version
So the brothers sent this message to Joseph: "Before your father died, he told us to give you a message.

English Standard Version
So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, "Your father gave this command before he died:

George Lamsa Translation
So they came to Joseph and said to him, Your father did command before he died, saying,

Good News Translation
So they sent a message to Joseph: "Before our father died,

Christian Standard Bible®
So they sent this message to Joseph, “Before he died your father gave a command:

Literal Translation
And they sent a message to Joseph, saying,

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
therfore let they saye vnto him: Thy father commaunded before his death, and sayde:

American Standard Version
And they sent a message unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying,

Bible in Basic English
So they sent word to Joseph, saying, Your father, before his death, gave us orders, saying,

Bishop's Bible (1568)
And they dyd sende a message vnto Ioseph, saying: Thy father dyd commaunde before he dyed, saying:

JPS Old Testament (1917)
And they sent a message unto Joseph, saying: 'Thy father did command before he died, saying:

King James Version (1611)
And they sent a messenger vnto Ioseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying,

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And they came to Joseph, and said, Thy father adjured us before his death, saying,

English Revised Version
And they sent a message unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying,

Berean Standard Bible
So they sent word to Joseph, saying, "Before he died, your father commanded,

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And thei senten to hym, and seiden, Thi fadir comaundide to vs,

Young's Literal Translation
And they give a charge for Joseph, saying, `Thy father commanded before his death, saying,

Update Bible Version
And they told Joseph the following order, Your father commanded before he died, saying,

Webster's Bible Translation
And they sent messengers to Joseph, saying, Thy father commanded before he died, saying,

World English Bible
They sent a message to Joseph, saying, "Your father commanded before he died, saying,

New Living Translation
So they sent this message to Joseph: "Before your father died, he instructed us

New Life Bible
So they sent word to Joseph, saying, "Before he died, our father told us,

New Revised Standard
So they approached Joseph, saying, "Your father gave this instruction before he died,

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
So they sent in charge unto Joseph saying, - Thy father, gave command before he died saying:

Douay-Rheims Bible
And they sent a message to him, saying: Thy father commanded us before he died,

Revised Standard Version
So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, "Your father gave this command before he died,

THE MESSAGE
So they sent Joseph a message, "Before his death, your father gave this command: 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.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, "Your father charged before he died, saying,

Contextual Overview

¹⁵ When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, "Perhaps Joseph will hate us, and may actually repay us for all the evil which we did to him." ¹⁶ So they sent messengers to Joseph, saying, "Before your father died he commanded, saying, ¹⁷ "Thus you shall say to Joseph: "I beg you, please forgive the trespass of your brothers and their sin; for they did evil to you."' Now, please, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of your father." And Joseph wept when they spoke to him. ¹⁸ Then his brothers also went and fell down before his face, and they said, "Behold, we are your servants." ¹⁹ Joseph said to them, "Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God? ²⁰ But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive. ²¹ Now therefore, do not be afraid; I will provide for you and your little ones." And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

sent: Heb. charged, Proverbs 29:25

Reciprocal: 1 Thessalonians 2:11 - as

Cross-References

Proverbs 29:25
The fear of man brings a snare, But whoever trusts in the LORD shall be safe.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And they sent a messenger unto Joseph,.... Not Bilhah, as the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem, nor her sons, Dan and Naphtali, as Jarchi, grounding it on Genesis 37:1 though it is not improbable that some from among themselves were deputed, who were most interested in Joseph; since it is not very likely they would commit such an affair to a stranger or to a servant; and the most proper persons to be sent on such an errand seem to be Judah and Benjamin, the latter as having had no concern in the affair of selling him, and was his own brother by father and mother's side, and very dear to him; and the former, because he saved his life, when the rest, excepting Reuben, were for shedding his blood, and had endeared himself also to Joseph, by his tender concern both for his father and his brother Benjamin; however, they thought fit first to sound Joseph by a messenger, how he stood affected to them, before they appeared in a body in person, to whom they gave a charge, as the words may be rendered, "they commanded unto Joseph" t; that is, they commanded those that were deputed by them to him:

saying, thy father did command before he died; some think, this was no better than a lie, which their fear prompted them to; and that they framed the following story, the more to work upon the mind of Joseph, and dispose it in their favour; seeing it is a question whether Jacob ever knew anything of the affair of their ill usage to Joseph; since otherwise it would have been, in all likelihood, taken notice of in his last dying words, as well as the affair of Reuben, and that of Simeon and Levi; and besides, had he been apprised of it, he knew such was the clemency and generosity of Joseph, that he had nothing to fear from him, nor could he entertain any suspicion of a malevolent disposition in him towards his brethren, or that he would ever use them ill for former offences:

saying, as follows:

t ויצוו אל-יוסף "et mandaverunt ad Joseph", Montanus; "nuntio misso", Pagninus; "aliquos ad Josephum", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

- The Burial of Jacob

10. אטד 'āṭâd Atad, “the buck-thorn.”

11. מצרים אבל 'ābêl-mı̂tsrayı̂m, Abel-Mitsraim, “mourning of Mizraim,” or meadow of Mizraim.

This chapter records the burial of Jacob and the death of Joseph, and so completes the history of the chosen family, and the third bible for the instruction of man.

Genesis 50:1-3

After the natural outburst of sorrow for his deceased parent, Joseph gave orders to embalm the body, according to the custom of Egypt. “His servants, the physicians.” As the grand vizier of Egypt, he has physicians in his retinue. The classes and functions of the physicians in Egypt may be learned from Herodotus (ii. 81-86). There were special physicians for each disease; and the embalmers formed a class by themselves. “Forty days” were employed in the process of embalming; “seventy days,” including the forty, were devoted to mourning for the dead. Herodotus mentions this number as the period of embalming. Diodorus (i. 91) assigns upwards of thirty days to the process. It is probable that the actual process was continued for forty days, and that the body lay in natron for the remaining thirty days of mourning. See Hengstenberg’s B. B. Mos. u. Aeg., and Rawlinson’s Herodotus.

Genesis 50:4-6

Joseph, by means of Pharaoh’s courtiers, not in person, because he was a mourner, applies for leave to bury his father in the land of Kenaan, according to his oath. This leave is freely and fully allowed.

Genesis 50:7-14

The funeral procession is now described. “All the servants of Pharaoh.” The highest honor is conferred on Jacob for Joseph’s sake. “The elders of Pharaoh, and all the elders of the land of Mizraim.” The court and state officials are here separately specified. “All the house.” Not only the heads, but all the sons and servants that are able to go. Chariots and horsemen accompany them as a guard on the way. “The threshing-floor of Atari, or of the buck-thorn.” This is said to be beyond Jordan. Deterred, probably, by some difficulty in the direct route, they seem to have gone round by the east side of the Salt Sea. “A mourning of seven days.” This is a last sad farewell to the departed patriarch. Abel-Mizraim. This name, like many in the East, has a double meaning. The word Abel no doubt at first meant mourning, though the name would be used by many, ignorant of its origin, in the sense of a meadow. “His sons carried him.” The main body of the procession seems to have halted beyond the Jordan, and awaited the return of the immediate relatives, who conveyed the body to its last resting-place. The whole company then returned together to Egypt.

Genesis 50:15-21

His brethren supplicate Joseph for forgiveness. “They sent unto Joseph,” commissioned one of their number to speak to him. now that our common father has given us this command. “And Joseph wept” at the distress and doubt of his brothers. He no doubt summons them before him, when they fall down before him entreating his forgiveness. Joseph removes their fears. “Am I in God’s stead?” that I should take the law into my own hands, and take revenge. God has already judged them, and moreover turned their sinful deed into a blessing. He assures them of his brotherly kindness toward them.

Genesis 50:22-26

The biography of Joseph is now completed. “The children of the third generation” - the grandsons of grandsons in the line of Ephraim. We have here an explicit proof that an interval of about twenty years between the births of the father and that of his first-born was not unusual during the lifetime of Joseph. “And Joseph took an oath.” He thus expressed his unwavering confidence in the return of the sons of Israel to the land of promise. “God will surely visit.” He was embalmed and put in a coffin, and so kept by his descendants, as was not unusual in Egypt. And on the return of the sons of Israel from Egypt they kept their oath to Joseph Exodus 13:19, and buried his bones in Shekem Joshua 24:32.

The sacred writer here takes leave of the chosen family, and closes the bible of the sons of Israel. It is truly a wonderful book. It lifts the veil of mystery that hangs over the present condition of the human race. It records the origin and fall of man, and thus explains the co-existence of moral evil and a moral sense, and the hereditary memory of God and judgment in the soul of man. It records the cause and mode of the confusion of tongues, and thus explains the concomitance of the unity of the race and the specific diversity of mode or form in human speech. It records the call of Abraham, and thus accounts for the preservation of the knowledge of God and his mercy in one section of the human race, and the corruption or loss of it in all the rest. We need scarcely remark that the six days’ creation accounts for the present state of nature. It thus solves the fundamental questions of physics, ethics, philology, and theology for the race of Adam. It notes the primitive relation of man to God, and marks the three great stages of human development that came in with Adam, Noah, and Abraham. It points out the three forms of sin that usher in these stages - the fall of Adam, the intermarriage of the sons of God with the daughters of men, and the building of the tower of Babel. It gradually unfolds the purpose and method of grace to the returning penitent through a Deliverer who is successively announced as the seed of the woman, of Shem, of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Judah. This is the second Adam, who, when the covenant of works was about to fall to the ground through the failure of the first Adam, undertook to uphold it by fulfilling all its conditions on behalf of those who are the objects of the divine grace.

Hence, the Lord establishes his covenant successively with Adam, Noah, and Abraham; with Adam after the fall tacitly, with Noah expressly, and with both generally as the representatives of the race descending from them; with Abraham especially and instrumentally as the channel through which the blessings of salvation might be at length extended to all the families of the earth. So much of this plan of mercy is revealed from time to time to the human race as comports with the progress they have made in the education of the intellectual, moral, and active faculties. This only authentic epitome of primeval history is worthy of the constant study of intelligent and responsible man.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Genesis 50:16. Thy father did command — Whether he did or not we cannot tell. Some think they had feigned this story, but that is not so likely. Jacob might have had suspicions too, and might have thought that the best way to prevent evil was to humble themselves before their brother, and get a fresh assurance of his forgiveness.