Mourning and Burial for Jacob

¹Then Joseph fell upon his father’s face, wept over him, and kissed him.

²And Joseph directed the physicians in his service to embalm his father Israel. So they embalmed him,

³taking the forty days required to complete the embalming. And the Egyptians mourned for him seventy days.

⁴When the days of mourning had passed, Joseph 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 Canaan.’ 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 Joseph 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 Egypt—

⁸along with all of Joseph’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 Jordan, they lamented and wailed loudly, and Joseph mourned for his father seven days.

¹¹When the Canaanites of the land saw the mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, they said, “This is a solemn ceremony of mourning by the Egyptians.” Thus the place across the Jordan is called Abel-mizraim.

¹²So Jacob’s sons did as he had charged them.

¹³They carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave at Machpelah in the field near Mamre, which Abraham had purchased from Ephron the Hittite as a burial site.

¹⁴After Joseph had buried his father, he returned to Egypt with his brothers and all who had gone with him to bury his father.

Joseph Comforts His Brothers

¹⁵When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “What if Joseph bears a grudge? Then he will surely repay us for all the evil that we did to him.”

¹⁶So they sent word to Joseph, saying, “Before he died, your father commanded,

¹⁷‘This is what you are to say to Joseph: I beg you, please forgive the transgression and sin of your brothers, for they did you wrong.’ So now, Joseph, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.”When their message came to him, Joseph wept.

¹⁸His brothers also came to him, bowed down before him, and said, “We are your slaves!”

¹⁹But Joseph 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 Joseph reassured his brothers and spoke kindly to them.

The Death of Joseph

²²Now Joseph and his father’s household remained in Egypt, and Joseph lived to the age of 110.

²³He saw Ephraim’s sons to the third generation, and indeed the sons of Machir son of Manasseh were brought upon Joseph’s knees.

²⁴Then Joseph 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 Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

²⁵And Joseph made the sons of Israel take an oath and said, “God will surely attend to you, and then you must carry my bones up from this place.”

²⁶So Joseph died at the age of 110. And they embalmed his body and placed it in a coffin in Egypt.

The Ark Rests on Ararat

¹But God remembered Noah and all the animals and livestock that were with him in the ark. And God sent a wind over the earth, and the waters began to subside.

²The springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens were closed, and the rain from the sky was restrained.

³The waters receded steadily from the earth, and after 150 days the waters had gone down.

⁴On the seventeenth day of the seventh month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.

⁵And the waters continued to recede until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains became visible.

Noah Sends a Raven and a Dove

⁶After forty days Noah opened the window he had made in the ark

⁷and sent out a raven. It kept flying back and forth until the waters had dried up from the earth.

⁸Then Noah sent outa dove to see if the waters had receded from the surface of the ground.

⁹But the dove found no place to rest her foot, and she returned to him in the ark, because the waters were still covering the surface of all the earth. So he reached out his hand and brought her back inside the ark.

¹⁰Noah waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark.

¹¹And behold, the dove returned to him in the evening with a freshly plucked olive leaf in her beak. So Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth.

¹²And Noah waited seven more days and sent out the dove again, but this time she did not return to him.

Exiting the Ark

¹³In Noah’s six hundred and first year, on the first day of the first month, the waters had dried up from the earth. So Noah removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry.

¹⁴By the twenty-seventh day of the second month, the earth was fully dry.

¹⁵Then God said to Noah,

¹⁶“Come out of the ark, you and your wife, along with your sons and their wives.

¹⁷Bring out all the living creatures that are with you—birds, livestock, and everything that crawls upon the ground—so that they can spread out over the earth and be fruitful and multiply upon it.”

¹⁸So Noah came out, along with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives.

¹⁹Every living creature, every creeping thing, and every bird—everything that moves upon the earth—came out of the ark, kind by kind.

Noah Builds an Altar

²⁰Then Noah built an altar to the LORD. And taking from every kind of clean animal and clean bird, he offered burnt offerings on the altar.

²¹When the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, He said in His heart, “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from his youth. And never again will I destroy all living creatures as I have done.

²²As long as the earth endures,seedtime and harvest,cold and heat,summer and winter,day and nightshall never cease.”

The Great Flood

¹Then the LORD said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your family, because I have found you righteous in this generation.

²You are to take with you seven pairs ofevery kind of clean animal, a male and its mate; a pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate;

³and seven pairs of every kind of bird of the air, male and female, to preserve their offspring on the face of all the earth.

⁴For seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living thing I have made.”

⁵And Noah did all that the LORD had commanded him.

⁶Now Noah was 600 years old when the floodwaters came upon the earth.

⁷And Noah and his wife, with his sons and their wives, entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood.

⁸The clean and unclean animals, the birds, and everything that crawls along the ground

⁹came to Noah to enter the ark, two by two, male and female, as God had commanded Noah.

¹⁰And after seven days the floodwaters came upon the earth.

¹¹In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month, all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened.

¹²And the rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights.

¹³On that very day Noah entered the ark, along with his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and his wife, and the three wives of his sons—

¹⁴they and every kind of wild animal, livestock, crawling creature, bird, and winged creature.

¹⁵They came to Noah to enter the ark, two by two of every creaturewith the breath of life.

¹⁶And they entered, the male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then the LORD shut him in.

¹⁷For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and the waters rose and lifted the ark high above the earth.

¹⁸So the waters continued to surge and rise greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the waters.

¹⁹Finally, the waters completely prevailed upon the earth, so that all the high mountains under all the heavens were covered.

²⁰The waters rose and covered the mountaintops to a depth of fifteen cubits.

²¹And every living thing that moved upon the earth perished—birds, livestock, animals, every creature that swarms upon the earth, and all mankind.

²²Of all that was on dry land, everything that had the breath of life in its nostrils died.

²³And every living thing on the face of the earth was destroyed—man and livestock, crawling creatures and birds of the air; they were blotted out from the earth, and only Noah and those with him in the ark remained.

²⁴And the waters prevailed upon the earth for 150 days.

Praise the LORD from the Heavens

¹Hallelujah!Praise the LORD from the heavens;praise Him in the highest places.

²Praise Him, all His angels;praise Him, all His heavenly hosts.

³Praise Him, O sun and moon;praise Him, all you shining stars.

⁴Praise Him, O highest heavens,and you waters above the skies.

⁵Let them praise the name of the LORD,for He gave the command and they were created.

⁶He established them forever and ever;He issued a decree that will never pass away.

⁷Praise the LORD from the earth,all great sea creatures and ocean depths,

⁸lightning and hail, snow and clouds,powerful wind fulfilling His word,

⁹mountains and all hills,fruit trees and all cedars,

¹⁰wild animals and all cattle,crawling creatures and flying birds,

¹¹kings of the earth and all peoples,princes and all rulers of the earth,

¹²young men and maidens,old and young together.

¹³Let them praise the name of the LORD,for His name alone is exalted;His splendor is above the earth and the heavens.

¹⁴He has raised up a horn for His people,the praise of all His saints,of Israel, a people near to Him.Hallelujah!