Genesis 50:18

New King James Version

Then his brothers also went and fell down before his face, and they said, "Behold, we are your servants."

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Names Version
His brothers also went and fell down before his face; and they said, "Behold, we are your servants."

King James Version
And his brethren also went and fell down before his face; and they said, Behold, we be thy servants.

Lexham English Bible
Then his brothers went also and fell before him and said, "Behold, we are your servants."

New Century Version
And his brothers went to him and bowed low before him and said, "We are your slaves."

New English Translation
Then his brothers also came and threw themselves down before him; they said, "Here we are; we are your slaves."

Amplified Bible
Then his brothers went and fell down before him [in confession]; then they said, "Behold, we are your servants (slaves)."

New American Standard Bible
Then his brothers also came and fell down before him and said, "Behold, we are your servants."

Geneva Bible (1587)
Also his brethren came vnto him, and fell downe before his face, and sayde, Beholde, we be thy seruants.

Legacy Standard Bible
Then his brothers also came and fell down before him and said, "Behold, we are your slaves."

Contemporary English Version
Right then, Joseph's brothers came and bowed down to the ground in front of him and said, "We are your slaves."

Complete Jewish Bible
and his brothers too came, prostrated themselves before him and said, "Here, we are your slaves."

Darby Translation
And his brethren also went and fell down before his face, and said, Behold, we are thy bondmen.

Easy-to-Read Version
His brothers went to him and bowed down in front of him. They said, "We will be your servants."

English Standard Version
His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, "Behold, we are your servants."

George Lamsa Translation
And his brothers also went and fell down before him; and they said, Behold, we are your servants.

Good News Translation
Then his brothers themselves came and bowed down before him. "Here we are before you as your slaves," they said.

Christian Standard Bible®
His brothers also came to him, bowed down before him, and said, “We are your slaves!”

Literal Translation
His brothers also went and fell down before his face. And they said, Behold, we are your servants.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
And his brethren wente, and fell downe before him, and sayde: Beholde, here are we thy seruauntes.

American Standard Version
And his brethren also went and fell down before his face; and they said, Behold, we are thy servants.

Bible in Basic English
Then his brothers went, and falling at his feet, said, Truly, we are your servants.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Also his brethren came vnto hym, and fell flat before his face, saying: beholde, we be thy seruauntes.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
And his brethren also went and fell down before his face; and they said: 'Behold, we are thy bondmen.'

King James Version (1611)
And his brethren also went and fell downe before his face, and they said, Behold, we be thy seruants.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And they came to him and said, We, these persons, are thy servants.

English Revised Version
And his brethren also went and fell down before his face; and they said, Behold, we be thy servants.

Berean Standard Bible
His brothers also came to him, bowed down before him, and said, "We are your slaves!"

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And hise britheren camen to hym, and worschipiden lowe to erthe, and seiden, We ben thi seruauntis.

Young's Literal Translation
And his brethren also go and fall before him, and say, `Lo, we [are] to thee for servants.'

Update Bible Version
And his brothers also went and fell down before his face; and they said, Look, we are your slaves.

Webster's Bible Translation
And his brethren also went and fell down before his face: and they said, Behold, we [are] thy servants.

World English Bible
His brothers also went and fell down before his face; and they said, "Behold, we are your servants."

New Living Translation
Then his brothers came and threw themselves down before Joseph. "Look, we are your slaves!" they said.

New Life Bible
Then his brothers came and fell down in front of him and said, "See, we are your servants."

New Revised Standard
Then his brothers also wept, fell down before him, and said, "We are here as your slaves."

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Then went his brethren also, and fell down before him, - and said, Behold us! thine for servants.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And his brethren came to him; and worshipping prostrate on the ground, they said: We are thy servants.

Revised Standard Version
His brothers also came and fell down before him, and said, "Behold, we are your servants."

THE MESSAGE
Then the brothers went in person to him, threw themselves on the ground before him and said, "We'll be your slaves."

New American Standard Bible (1995)
Then his brothers also came and fell down before him and said, "Behold, we are your servants."

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

fell: Genesis 27:29, Genesis 37:7-11, Genesis 42:6, Genesis 44:14, Genesis 45:3

Reciprocal: Genesis 45:4 - I am Joseph 2 Samuel 9:7 - Fear not 1 Kings 18:7 - fell on Romans 3:7 - if the truth Ephesians 4:32 - forgiving

Cross-References

Genesis 27:29
Let peoples serve you, And nations bow down to you. Be master over your brethren, And let your mother's sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, And blessed be those who bless you!"

Genesis 42:6
Now Joseph was governor over the land; and it was he who sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph's brothers came and bowed down before him with their faces to the earth.

Genesis 44:14
So Judah and his brothers came to Joseph's house, and he was still there; and they fell before him on the ground.

Genesis 45:3
Then Joseph said to his brothers, "I am Joseph; does my father still live?" But his brothers could not answer him, for they were dismayed in his presence.

Genesis 50:7
So 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,

Genesis 50:11
And when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, they said, "This is a deep mourning of the Egyptians." Therefore its name was called Abel Mizraim, [fn] which is beyond the Jordan.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And his brethren also went,.... The messengers being returned to them, and acquainting them with what Joseph had said, they took courage and went from Goshen to Joseph's house or palace, be it where it may:

and fell down before his face; in an humble suppliant manner:

and they said, behold, we be thy servants; they were content to be so, would he but forgive their sin, and not resent their ill behaviour to him; thus they further fulfilled his dream of the eleven stars making obeisance to him, Genesis 37:9.

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.