Genesis - The Old Testament

¹ At this Joseph threw himself on his father's face, covering it with tears and kisses.

² Then Joseph ordered the doctors in his service to embalm his father. The doctors embalmed Israel,

³ and it took them forty days, for embalming takes forty days to complete. The Egyptians mourned him for seventy days.

⁴ When the period of mourning for him was over, Joseph said to Pharaoh's household, 'If you have any affection for me, see that this message reaches Pharaoh's ears,

⁵ "My father put me under oath, saying: I am about to die. In the tomb which I dug for myself in Canaan, that is where you are to bury me. So may I have leave to go up and bury my father, and then come back?" '

⁶ Pharaoh replied, 'Go up and bury your father, as he made you swear to do.'

⁷ Joseph went up to bury his father, and with him went all Pharaoh's officials, the dignitaries of his palace and all the dignitaries of Egypt,

⁸ as well as all Joseph's family, his brothers and his father's family. The only people they left behind in Goshen were those unfit to travel, and their flocks and cattle.

⁹ Chariots and horsemen went up with him too; it was a very large retinue.

¹⁰ On arriving at Goren-ha-Atad, which is across the Jordan, they there held a long and solemn lamentation, and Joseph observed seven days' mourning for his father.

¹¹ When the Canaanites, the local inhabitants, witnessed the mourning at Goren-ha-Atad, they said, 'This is a solemn act of mourning by the Egyptians,' which is why the place was given the name Abel-Mizraim-it is across the Jordan.

¹² His sons did what he had ordered them to do for him.

¹³ His sons carried him to Canaan and buried him in the cave in the field at Machpelah, facing Mamre, which Abraham had bought from Ephron the Hittite as a burial site of his own.

¹⁴ Then Joseph returned to Egypt with his brothers and all those who had come up with him to bury his father.

¹⁵ Seeing that their father was dead, Joseph's brothers said, 'What if Joseph intends to treat us as enemies and pay us back for all the wrong we did him?'

¹⁶ So they sent this message to Joseph: 'Before your father died, he gave us this order:

¹⁷ "You are to say to Joseph: Now please forgive the crime and faults of your brothers and all the wrong they did you." So now please forgive the crime of the servants of your father's God.' Joseph wept at the message they sent to him.

¹⁸ Then his brothers went to him themselves and, throwing themselves at his feet, said, 'Take us as your slaves!'

¹⁹ But Joseph replied, 'Do not be afraid; is it for me to put myself in God's place?

²⁰ The evil you planned to do me has by God's design been turned to good, to bring about the present result: the survival of a numerous people.

²¹ So there is no need to be afraid; I shall provide for you and your dependants.' In this way he reassured them by speaking affectionately to them.

²² So Joseph stayed in Egypt with his father's family; and Joseph lived a hundred and ten years.

²³ Joseph saw the third generation of Ephraim's line, as also the children of Machir son of Manasseh, who were born on Joseph's lap.

²⁴ At length Joseph said to his brothers, 'I am about to die; but God will be sure to remember you kindly and take you out of this country to the country which he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.'

²⁵ And Joseph put Israel's sons on oath, saying, 'When God remembers you with kindness, be sure to take my bones away from here.'

²⁶ Joseph died at the age of a hundred and ten; he was embalmed and laid in a coffin in Egypt.