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50 Joseph threw himself upon his father’s body and wept over him and kissed him. Afterwards he commanded his morticians to embalm the body. The embalming process required forty days, with a period of national mourning of seventy days. Then, when at last the mourning was over, Joseph approached Pharaoh’s staff and requested them to speak to Pharaoh on his behalf.

“Tell His Majesty,” he requested them, “that Joseph’s father made Joseph swear to take his body back to the land of Canaan, to bury him there. Ask His Majesty to permit me to go and bury my father; assure him that I will return promptly.”

Pharaoh agreed. “Go and bury your father, as you promised,” he said.

So Joseph went, and a great number of Pharaoh’s counselors and assistants—all the senior officers of the land, as well as all of Joseph’s people—his brothers and their families. But they left their little children and flocks and herds in the land of Goshen. So a very great number of chariots, cavalry, and people accompanied Joseph.

10 When they arrived at Atad[a] (meaning “Threshing Place of Brambles”), beyond the Jordan River, they held a very great and solemn funeral service, with a seven-day period of lamentation for Joseph’s father. 11 The local residents, the Canaanites, renamed the place Abel-mizraim (meaning “Egyptian Mourners”) for they said, “It is a place of very deep mourning by these Egyptians.” 12-13 So his sons did as Israel commanded them, and carried his body into the land of Canaan and buried it there in the cave of Mach-pelah—the cave Abraham had bought in the field of Ephron the Hethite, close to Mamre.

14 Then Joseph returned to Egypt with his brothers and all who had accompanied him to the funeral of his father. 15 But now that their father was dead, Joseph’s brothers were frightened.

“Now Joseph will pay us back for all the evil we did to him,” they said. 16-17 So they sent him this message: “Before he died, your father instructed us to tell you to forgive us for the great evil we did to you. We servants of the God of your father beg you to forgive us.” When Joseph read the message, he broke down and cried.

18 Then his brothers came and fell down before him and said, “We are your slaves.”

19 But Joseph told them, “Don’t be afraid of me. Am I God, to judge and punish you? 20 As far as I am concerned, God turned into good what you meant for evil, for he brought me to this high position I have today so that I could save the lives of many people. 21 No, don’t be afraid. Indeed, I myself will take care of you and your families.” And he spoke very kindly to them, reassuring them.

22 So Joseph and his brothers and their families continued to live in Egypt. Joseph was 110 years old when he died. 23 He lived to see the birth of his son Ephraim’s children, and the children of Machir, Manasseh’s son, who played at his feet.

24 “Soon I will die,” Joseph told his brothers, “but God will surely come and get you, and bring you out of this land of Egypt and take you back to the land he promised to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” 25 Then Joseph made his brothers promise with an oath that they would take his body back with them when they returned to Canaan. 26 So Joseph died at the age of 110, and they embalmed him, and his body was placed in a coffin in Egypt.

Footnotes

  1. Genesis 50:10 Atad, located just west of the Jordan River, near Jericho.

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