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Psalm 59

1  Rescue me from my enemies, O my God; ♦︎
   set me high above those that rise up against me.
2  Save me from the evildoers ♦︎
   and from murderous foes deliver me.
3  For see how they lie in wait for my soul ♦︎
   and the mighty stir up trouble against me.
4  Not for any fault or sin of mine, O Lord; ♦︎
   for no offence, they run and prepare themselves for war.
5  Rouse yourself, come to my aid and see; ♦︎
   for you are the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel.
6  Awake, and judge all the nations; ♦︎
   show no mercy to the evil traitors.
7  They return at nightfall and snarl like dogs ♦︎
   and prowl about the city.
8  They pour out evil words with their mouths;
      swords are on their lips; ♦︎
   ‘For who’, they say, ‘can hear us?’
9  But you laugh at them, O Lord; ♦︎
   you hold all the nations in derision.
10  For you, O my strength, will I watch; ♦︎
   you, O God, are my strong tower.
11  My God in his steadfast love will come to me; ♦︎
   he will let me behold the downfall of my enemies.
12  Slay them not, lest my people forget; ♦︎
   send them reeling by your might
      and bring them down, O Lord our shield.
13  For the sins of their mouth, for the words of their lips, ♦︎
   let them be taken in their pride.
14  For the cursing and falsehood they have uttered, ♦︎
   consume them in wrath, consume them till they are no more.
15  And they shall know that God rules in Jacob, ♦︎
   and to the ends of the earth.
16  And still they return at nightfall and snarl like dogs ♦︎
   and prowl about the city.
17  Though they forage for something to devour, ♦︎
   and howl if they are not filled,
18  Yet will I sing of your strength ♦︎
   and every morning praise your steadfast love;
19  For you have been my stronghold, ♦︎
   my refuge in the day of my trouble.
20  To you, O my strength, will I sing; ♦︎
   for you, O God, are my refuge,
      my God of steadfast love.

³³When Jacob ended his charge to his sons, he drew up his feet into the bed, breathed his last, and was gathered to his people.

50Then Joseph threw himself on his father’s face and wept over him and kissed him. ²Joseph commanded the physicians in his service to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel; ³they spent forty days in doing this, for that is the time required for embalming. And the Egyptians wept for him for seventy days.

4 When the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph addressed the household of Pharaoh, ‘If now I have found favour with you, please speak to Pharaoh as follows: ⁵My father made me swear an oath; he said, “I am about to die. In the tomb that I hewed out for myself in the land of Canaan, there you shall bury me.” Now therefore let me go up, so that I may bury my father; then I will return.’ ⁶Pharaoh answered, ‘Go up, and bury your father, as he made you swear to do.’

7 So Joseph went up to bury his father. With him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his household, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, ⁸as well as all the household of Joseph, his brothers, and his father’s household. Only their children, their flocks, and their herds were left in the land of Goshen. ⁹Both chariots and charioteers went up with him. It was a very great company. ¹⁰When they came to the threshing-floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, they held there a very great and sorrowful lamentation; and he observed a time of mourning for his father for seven days. ¹¹When the Canaanite inhabitants of the land saw the mourning on the threshing-floor of Atad, they said, ‘This is a grievous mourning on the part of the Egyptians.’ Therefore the place was named Abel-mizraim;^* it is beyond the Jordan. ¹²Thus his sons did for him as he had instructed them. ¹³They carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field at Machpelah, the field near Mamre, which Abraham bought as a burial site from Ephron the Hittite. ¹⁴After he had buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt with his brothers and all who had gone up with him to bury his father.

Joseph Forgives His Brothers

15 Realizing that their father was dead, Joseph’s brothers said, ‘What if Joseph still bears a grudge against us and pays us back in full for all the wrong that we did to him?’ ¹⁶So they approached^* Joseph, saying, ‘Your father gave this instruction before he died, ¹⁷“Say to Joseph: I beg you, forgive the crime of your brothers and the wrong they did in harming you.” Now therefore please forgive the crime of the servants of the God of your father.’ Joseph wept when they spoke to him. ¹⁸Then his brothers also wept,^* fell down before him, and said, ‘We are here as your slaves.’ ¹⁹But Joseph said to them, ‘Do not be afraid! Am I in the place of God? ²⁰Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people, as he is doing today. ²¹So have no fear; I myself will provide for you and your little ones.’ In this way he reassured them, speaking kindly to them.

Joseph’s Last Days and Death

22 So Joseph remained in Egypt, he and his father’s household; and Joseph lived for one hundred and ten years. ²³Joseph saw Ephraim’s children of the third generation; the children of Machir son of Manasseh were also born on Joseph’s knees.

24 Then Joseph said to his brothers, ‘I am about to die; but God will surely come to you, and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.’ ²⁵So Joseph made the Israelites swear, saying, ‘When God comes to you, you shall carry up my bones from here.’ ²⁶And Joseph died, being one hundred and ten years old; he was embalmed and placed in a coffin in Egypt.

The Priestly Order of Melchizedek

7This ‘King Melchizedek of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abraham as he was returning from defeating the kings and blessed him’; ²and to him Abraham apportioned ‘one-tenth of everything’. His name, in the first place, means ‘king of righteousness’; next he is also king of Salem, that is, ‘king of peace’. ³Without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God, he remains a priest for ever.

4 See how great he is! Even^* Abraham the patriarch gave him a tenth of the spoils. ⁵And those descendants of Levi who receive the priestly office have a commandment in the law to collect tithes^* from the people, that is, from their kindred,^* though these also are descended from Abraham. ⁶But this man, who does not belong to their ancestry, collected tithes^* from Abraham and blessed him who had received the promises. ⁷It is beyond dispute that the inferior is blessed by the superior. ⁸In the one case, tithes are received by those who are mortal; in the other, by one of whom it is testified that he lives. ⁹One might even say that Levi himself, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, ¹⁰for he was still in the loins of his ancestor when Melchizedek met him.