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Genesis 50:20

“But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.”

Genesis 50:20, King James Version (KJV)

“As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to save many people alive, as is happening today.”

World English Bible (WEB)

Read Genesis 50:20 in the NIV, ESV and 13 more Bibles, with study notes and the original Hebrew, in the Path & Light app.

Genesis 50 (KJV)

  1. 1And Joseph fell upon his father’s face, and wept upon him, and kissed him.
  2. 2And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father: and the physicians embalmed Israel.
  3. 3And forty days were fulfilled for him; for so are fulfilled the days of those which are embalmed: and the Egyptians mourned for him threescore and ten days.
  4. 4And when the days of his mourning were past, Joseph spake unto the house of Pharaoh, saying, If now I have found grace in your eyes, speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh, saying,
  5. 5My father made me swear, saying, Lo, I die: in my grave which I have digged for me in the land of Canaan, there shalt thou bury me. Now therefore let me go up, I pray thee, and bury my father, and I will come again.
  6. 6And Pharaoh said, Go up, and bury thy father, according as he made thee swear.
  7. 7And 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,
  8. 8And all the house of Joseph, and his brethren, and his father’s house: only their little ones, and their flocks, and their herds, they left in the land of Goshen.
  9. 9And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen: and it was a very great company.
  10. 10And they came to the threshingfloor of Atad, which is beyond Jordan, and there they mourned with a great and very sore lamentation: and he made a mourning for his father seven days.
  11. 11And when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning in the floor of Atad, they said, This is a grievous mourning to the Egyptians: wherefore the name of it was called Abel-mizraim, which is beyond Jordan.
  12. 12And his sons did unto him according as he commanded them:
  13. 13For his sons carried him into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which Abraham bought with the field for a possession of a buryingplace of Ephron the Hittite, before Mamre.
  14. 14And Joseph returned into Egypt, he, and his brethren, and all that went up with him to bury his father, after he had buried his father.
  15. 15And when Joseph’s brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him.
  16. 16And they sent a messenger unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying,
  17. 17So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren, and their sin; for they did unto thee evil: and now, we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake unto him.
  18. 18And his brethren also went and fell down before his face; and they said, Behold, we be thy servants.
  19. 19And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God?
  20. 20But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.
  21. 21Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them.
  22. 22And Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he, and his father’s house: and Joseph lived an hundred and ten years.
  23. 23And Joseph saw Ephraim’s children of the third generation: the children also of Machir the son of Manasseh were brought up upon Joseph’s knees.
  24. 24And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die: and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
  25. 25And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence.
  26. 26So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years old: and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.

Related verses

Passages that readers often connect with Genesis 50:20, in the King James Version.

  • Romans 8:28

    And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

  • Psalm 119:71

    It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.

  • Genesis 45:5–8

    Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life. …

  • Genesis 37:18–20

    And when they saw him afar off, even before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him. …

  • Acts 2:23

    Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:

  • Psalm 105:16–17

    Moreover he called for a famine upon the land: he brake the whole staff of bread. …

More verses about purpose

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1769 standardized text (eBible.org eng-kjv). Public domain outside the United Kingdom. Text courtesy of the Crosswire Bible Society and eBible.org. World English Bible Protestant Edition (eBible engwebp, 2026-09-15 snapshot). Public domain. World English Bible is a trademark of eBible.org. Text unmodified; footnotes and formatting omitted. Related verses: OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0), from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.