[1] Then Joseph fell on his father's face, and wept over him, and kissed
him. [2] And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his
father. So the physicians embalmed Israel; [3] forty days were required for
it, for so many are required for embalming. And the Egyptians wept for him
seventy days. [4] And when the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph
spoke to the household of Pharaoh, saying, "If now I have found favor in
your eyes, speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh, saying, [5] My father
made me swear, saying, `I am about to die: in my tomb which I hewed out for
myself in the land of Canaan, there shall you bury me.' Now therefore let
me go up, I pray you, and bury my father; then I will return." [6] And
Pharaoh answered, "Go up, and bury your father, as he made you swear." [7]
So Joseph went up to bury his father; and with him went up all the servants
of Pharaoh, the elders of his household, and all the elders of the land of
Egypt, [8] as 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. [9] And there went up with him both chariots
and horsemen; it was a very great company. [10] When they came to the
threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, they lamented there
with a very great and sorrowful lamentation; and he made a mourning for his
father seven days. [11] When the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites,
saw the mourning on the threshing floor of Atad, they said, "This is a
grievous mourning to the Egyptians." Therefore the place was named
A'bel-mizraim; it is beyond the Jordan. [12] Thus his sons did for him as
he had commanded them; [13] for his sons carried him to the land of Canaan,
and buried him in the cave of the field at Mach-pe'lah, to the east of
Mamre, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite, to
possess as a burying place. [14] After he had buried his father, Joseph
returned to Egypt with his brothers and all who had gone up with him to
bury his father. [15] When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was
dead, they said, "It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for
all the evil which we did to him." [16] So they sent a message to Joseph,
saying, "Your father gave this command before he died, [17] `Say to Joseph,
Forgive, I pray you, the transgression of your brothers and their sin,
because they did evil to you.' And now, we pray you, forgive the
transgression of the servants of the God of your father." Joseph wept when
they spoke to him. [18] His brothers also came and fell down before him,
and said, "Behold, we are your servants." [19] But Joseph said to them,
"Fear not, for am I in the place of God? [20] As for you, you meant evil
against me; but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people
should be kept alive, as they are today. [21] So do not fear; I will
provide for you and your little ones." Thus he reassured them and comforted
them. [22] So Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he and his father's house; and Joseph
lived a hundred and ten years. [23] And Joseph saw E'phraim's children of
the third generation; the children also of Machir the son of Manas'seh were
born upon Joseph's knees. [24] And Joseph said to his brothers, "I am about
to die; but God will visit you, and bring you up out of this land to the
land which he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob." [25] Then Joseph
took an oath of the sons of Israel, saying, "God will visit you, and you
shall carry up my bones from here." [26] So Joseph died, being a hundred
and ten years old; and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in
Egypt.
