³ They mourned for him forty days because that is the period required for embalming. Then the Egyptians mourned him for seventy days. ⁴ After the period of mourning had passed, Joseph spoke to Pharaoh’s household: “If you approve my request, give Pharaoh this message: ⁵ My father made me promise, telling me, ‘I’m about to die. You must bury me in the tomb I dug for myself in the land of Canaan.’ Now, let me leave and let me bury my father, and then I will return.”