Mourning and Burial for Jacob
1 Then Joseph fell on his father’s face and wept over him and kissed him.
2 Joseph commanded his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father, and the physicians embalmed Israel. 3 They spent 40 days on him, for that is how many days it takes to embalm. The Egyptians wept for Israel for 70 days.
4 When the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph spoke to Pharaoh’s staff, saying, “If now I have found favor in your sight, please speak with Pharaoh, saying, 5 ‘My father made me swear, saying, “I am dying. Bury me in my grave which I have dug for myself in the land of Canaan.” Now therefore, please let me go up and bury my father, and I will come back.’ ”
6 Pharaoh said, “Go up and bury your father, just as he made you swear.”
7 Joseph went up to bury his father, and all of Pharaoh’s servants went up with him: the elders of his house, all the elders of the land of Egypt, 8 the entire house of Joseph, his brothers, and his father’s house. They left only their little ones, their flocks, and their herds, in the land of Goshen.
9 Both chariots and horsemen went up with him. It was an enormous cavalcade. 10 They came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, and there they lamented with loud and bitter weeping. Joseph mourned for his father for seven days.
11 When the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, they said, “This is a grievous mourning by the Egyptians.” Therefore it was called Abel Mizraim, which is beyond the Jordan.
12 His sons did to him just as he commanded them, 13 for 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, as a possession for a burial site, from Ephron the Hittite, near Mamre. 14 After he had buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt—he, and his brothers, and all that went up with him to bury his father.
Joseph Comforts his Brothers
15 When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “Joseph might hate us and fully repay us for all the evil which we did to him.”
16 They sent a message to Joseph, saying, “Your father commanded before he died, saying, 17 ‘You shall tell Joseph: Now please forgive the disobedience of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil things to you.’ So now, Joseph, please forgive the disobedience of the servants of the God of your father.”
Joseph wept when they spoke to him. 18 His brothers also went and fell down before him and said, “We are your servants.”
19 Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God? 20 As for you, you intended evil against me, but the Lord intended it for good, to save many people, as is happening today. 21 Now therefore do not be afraid. I will provide for you and your little ones.” He comforted them and spoke kindly to them.
The Death of Joseph
22 Joseph lived in Egypt, he, and his father’s family. Joseph lived 110 years. 23 He saw Ephraim’s children to the third generation. The children also of Machir, the son of Manasseh, were brought up on Joseph’s knees.
24 Joseph said to his brothers, “I am dying, but God will surely visit you and bring you up out of this land to the land which he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” 25 Joseph took an oath from the Israelites, saying, “The Lord will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.”
26 So Joseph died at 110 years old, and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.