1 Joseph threw himself on his father, crying and kissing his face. 2 Then Joseph gave orders to embalm his father's body. 3 It took forty days, the normal time for embalming. The Egyptians mourned for him seventy days.
4 When the time of mourning was over, Joseph said to the king's officials, “Please take this message to the king: 5 ‘When my father was about to die, he made me promise him that I would bury him in the tomb which he had prepared in the land of Canaan. So please let me go and bury my father, and then I will come back.’”
6 The king answered, “Go and bury your father, as you promised you would.”
7 So Joseph went to bury his father. All the king's officials, the senior men of his court, and all the leading men of Egypt went with Joseph. 8 His family, his brothers, and the rest of his father's family all went with him. Only their small children and their sheep, goats, and cattle stayed in the region of Goshen. 9 Men in chariots and men on horseback also went with him; it was a huge group.
10 When they came to the threshing place at Atad east of the Jordan, they mourned loudly for a long time, and Joseph performed mourning ceremonies for seven days. 11 When the citizens of Canaan saw those people mourning at Atad, they said, “What a solemn ceremony of mourning the Egyptians are holding!” That is why the place was named Abel Mizraim.
12 So Jacob's sons did as he had commanded them; 13 they carried his body to Canaan and buried it in the cave at Machpelah east of Mamre in the field which Abraham had bought from Ephron the Hittite for a burial ground. 14 After Joseph had buried his father, he returned to Egypt with his brothers and all who had gone with him for the funeral.
Joseph Reassures His Brothers
15 After the death of their father, Joseph's brothers said, “What if Joseph still hates us and plans to pay us back for all the harm we did to him?” 16 So they sent a message to Joseph: “Before our father died, 17 he told us to ask you, ‘Please forgive the crime your brothers committed when they wronged you.’ Now please forgive us the wrong that we, the servants of your father's God, have done.” Joseph cried when he received this message.
18 Then his brothers themselves came and bowed down before him. “Here we are before you as your slaves,” they said.
19 But Joseph said to them, “Don't be afraid; I can't put myself in the place of God. 20 You plotted evil against me, but God turned it into good, in order to preserve the lives of many people who are alive today because of what happened. 21 You have nothing to fear. I will take care of you and your children.” So he reassured them with kind words that touched their hearts.
The Death of Joseph
22 Joseph continued to live in Egypt with his father's family; he was a hundred and ten years old when he died. 23 He lived to see Ephraim's children and grandchildren. He also lived to receive the children of Machir son of Manasseh into the family. 24 He said to his brothers, “I am about to die, but God will certainly take care of you and lead you out of this land to the land he solemnly promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” 25 Then Joseph asked his people to make a vow. “Promise me,” he said, “that when God leads you to that land, you will take my body with you.” 26 So Joseph died in Egypt at the age of a hundred and ten. They embalmed his body and put it in a coffin.
1 Then Ioseph fell vpon his fathers face and wept vpon him, and kissed him. 2 And Ioseph commanded his seruantes the physicions, to enbaume his father, and the physicions enbaumed Israel. 3 So fourtie dayes were accomplished (for so long did the dayes of them that were enbaumed last) and the Egyptians bewayled him seuentie dayes. 4 And when the dayes of his mourning were past, Ioseph spake to the house of Pharaoh, saying, If I haue nowe found fauour in your eyes, speake, I pray you, in the eares of Pharaoh, and say, 5 My father made me sweare, saying, Loe, I die, bury me in my graue, which I haue made me in the land of Canaan: now therefore let me go, I pray thee, and bury my father, and I wil come againe. 6 Then Pharaoh said, Goe vp and bury thy father, as he made thee to sweare. 7 So Ioseph went vp to bury his father, and with him went all the seruants of Pharaoh, both the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt. 8 Likewise all the house of Ioseph, and his brethren, and his fathers house: onely their children, and their sheepe, and their cattell left they in the land of Goshen. 9 And there went vp with him both charets and horsemen: and they were an exceeding great company. 10 And they came to Goren Atad, which is beyond Iorden, and there they made a great and exceeding sore lamentation: and he mourned for his father seuen dayes. 11 And when the Canaanites the inhabitants of the lande sawe the mourning in Goren Atad, they sayde, This is a great mourning vnto the Egyptians: wherefore the name thereof was called Abel Mizraim, which is beyond Iorden. 12 So his sonnes did vnto him, according as he had commanded them: 13 For his sonnes caried him into the lande of Canaan, and buried him in the caue of the fielde of Machpelah, which caue Abraham bought with the fielde, to be a place to bury in, of Ephron the Hittite besides Mamre. 14 Then Ioseph returned into Egypt, he and his brethren, and al that went vp with him to bury his father, after that he had buried his father. 15 And when Iosephs brethren saw that their father was dead, they sayde, It may be that Ioseph will hate vs, and will pay vs againe all the euill, which we did vnto him. 16 Therefore they sent vnto Ioseph, saying, Thy father commanded before his death, saying, 17 Thus shall ye say vnto Ioseph, Forgiue now, I pray thee, the trespasse of thy brethren, and their sinne: for they rewarded thee euil. And nowe, we pray thee, forgiue the trespasse of the seruants of thy fathers God. And Ioseph wept, when they spake vnto him. 18 Also his brethren came vnto him, and fell downe before his face, and sayde, Beholde, we be thy seruants. 19 To whome Ioseph sayde, Feare not: for am not I vnder God? 20 When ye thought euill against mee, God disposed it to good, that he might bring to passe, as it is this day, and saue much people aliue. 21 Feare not nowe therefore, I will nourish you, and your children: and hee comforted them, and spake kindly vnto them. 22 So Ioseph dwelt in Egypt, he, and his fathers house: and Ioseph liued an hundreth and tenne yeere. 23 And Ioseph saw Ephraims children, euen vnto the third generation: also the sonnes of Machir the sonne of Manasseh were brought vp on Iosephs knees. 24 And Ioseph sayd vnto his brethren, I am ready to dye, and God will surely visite you, and bring you out of this land, vnto ye land which hee sware vnto Abraham, vnto Izhak, and vnto Iaakob. 25 And Ioseph tooke an othe of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visite you, and ye shall cary my bones hence. 26 So Ioseph died, when he was an hundreth and ten yere olde: and they enbaumed him and put him in a chest in Egypt.