< Genesis 50 >
1 Then Joseph hugged his father's face, and wept over him, and kissed him.
2 Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel.
3 Forty days were required for it, for that is how many the days it takes for embalming. The Egyptians mourned for him for seventy days.
4 When the days for mourning for him had passed, Joseph spoke to the house of Pharaoh, saying, "If now I have found favor in your sight, please speak in the ears of Pharaoh, saying,
5 'My father made me take an oath, saying, "Look, I am dying. Bury me in the tomb that I dug for myself in the land of Canaan." Now therefore, please let me go up and bury my father, and I will return again.'"
6 And Pharaoh said, "Go up, and bury your father, in keeping with your oath."
7 So Joseph went up to bury his father, and all the officials of Pharaoh went up with him, the elders of his household, and all the elders of the land of Egypt,
8 all the household of Joseph, his brothers, and his father's household. Only their little ones, and their flocks, and their herds, they left in the land of Goshen.
9 And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen. It was a very large company.
10 Then they came to the threshing floor of Atad which is across the Jordan, and they mourned there with a great and very bitter lamentation. And he observed seven days of mourning for his father.
11 When the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, they said, "This is a deep mourning by the Egyptians." Therefore, its name was called Abel Mizraim, which is across the Jordan.
12 So 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 near Mamre, which Abraham bought along with the field as a burial site from Ephron the Hethite.
14 Then 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.
15 When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, "It may be that Joseph will hate us, and will pay us back in full for all of the evil that we did to him."
16 So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, "Your father gave this command before he died, saying,
17 Thus you are to tell Joseph, "Now please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you."' And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father." And Joseph wept when they spoke to him.
18 Then his brothers also went and fell down in front of him, and they said, "Look, we are your slaves."
19 But Joseph said to them, "Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God?
20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God turned it into good in order to bring about this present result, to save the lives of many people.
21 So therefore, do not be afraid. I will provide for you and your little ones." And he consoled them and spoke kindly to them.
22 So Joseph lived in Egypt, he, and his father's household. And Joseph lived one hundred ten years.
23 Joseph saw Ephraim's descendants to the third generation. The children also of Makir, the son of Manasseh, were counted as Joseph's own.
24 And Joseph said to his brothers, "I am about to die, but God will surely take care of you and bring you up out of this land to the land which he promised to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob."
25 Then Joseph made the sons of Israel take an oath, saying, "God will surely take care of you. Then you must carry up my bones from here."
26 So Joseph died, being one hundred ten years old, and they embalmed him and placed him in a coffin in Egypt.