1
Joseph fell on his father’s face and he cried over him and kissed him.
2
Joseph commanded his servants who prepared the dead for burial to embalm his father’s body.
3
It took forty days to embalm Jacob’s body, because that is the amount of time that was always required for them to embalm a body. The people of Egypt cried for seventy days because of Jacob’s death.
4
When the time of mourning was finished, Joseph said to the king’s officials, “If you are pleased with me, please take this message to the king:
5
‘When my father was about to die, he told me to solemnly promise that I would bury his body in Canaan land, in the tomb that he himself had prepared. So please let me go up to Canaan and bury my father’s body. Then I will return.’”
6
After they gave the king the message, he replied, “Tell Joseph, ‘Go up and bury your father’s body, as you swore that you would do.’”
7
So Joseph went up to Canaan to bury his father’s body. All of the king’s officials, all the king’s advisors, and all the elders in Egypt went with him.
8
His family’s small children and their sheep and goats and their cattle stayed in the region of Goshen. But all the rest of Joseph’s family and his brothers and his father’s family went with him.
9
Men riding in chariots and on horses also went along. It was a huge group.
10
They went to the east side of the Jordan River and arrived at Atad. There was a place there where people threshed the grain to separate the wheat from the chaff. There they mourned loudly for Jacob for a long time. Joseph performed mourning ceremonies for his father for seven days.
11
When the Canaan people group who lived there saw them mourning like that, they said, “This is a sad mourning place for the people of Egypt!” So they named the place Abel Mizraim, which sounds like the Hebrew words that mean “mourning of the Egyptians.”
12
Then Jacob’s sons did for him what their father had commanded.
13
They crossed the Jordan River and carried Jacob’s body into Canaan land. They buried it in the cave in the field at Machpelah, east of Mamre town. That was the field that Abraham had bought from Ephron, who was one of the Heth people group, to use as a burial place.
14
After he had buried his father, Joseph and his brothers and all the others who had gone up to Canaan with him for the funeral returned to Egypt.
Joseph Comforts His Brothers
15
After Jacob died, Joseph’s brothers became worried. They realized what might happen. They said, “What will happen if Joseph is carrying hatred for us and wants to take revenge on us, because of all the evil things we did to him many years ago?”
16
So they sent someone to tell this to Joseph for them: “Before our father died, he told us this:
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‘Say to Joseph, Please forgive your older brothers for the evil thing that they did to you, for their terrible sin against you, because what they did to you was very wrong.’ So now we, who are servants of your father’s God, ask you, please forgive us for what we did to you.” Joseph cried when he received their message.
18
Then his older brothers themselves came and threw themselves on the ground in front of Joseph, and one of them said, “Please listen. We will be your servants.”
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But Joseph replied to them, “Do not be afraid! God is the one who punishes people; am I God?
20
As for you, yes, you wanted to do something very evil to me. But God caused something good to come from it! He wanted to save many people from dying of hunger, and that is what happened! Today they are alive!
21
So I say again, do not be afraid! I will make sure that you and your children have enough to eat.” In this way he reassured them as he spoke to them.
The Death of Joseph
22
Joseph lived with his father’s family in Egypt until he was 110 years old.
23
He lived long enough to see Ephraim’s children and grandchildren. The children of Joseph’s grandson Machir, who was Manasseh’s son, were born before Joseph died, and they were recognized as being his descendants.
24
One day Joseph said to his older brothers, “I am about to die. But God will certainly help you. Some day he will lead your descendants up out of this land and take them to Canaan, the land that he solemnly promised to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”
25
Then Joseph said, “When God enables you to do that, you must take my body up from here to Canaan.” He made his older brothers solemnly promise to do that.
26
So Joseph died in Egypt when he was 110 years old. His body was embalmed and put in a coffin there.
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