GenesisChapter 50
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1Then Joseph threw himself on his father's face. He wept over him and kissed him. 2Joseph told the doctors who served him to embalm his father Israel. So they embalmed him.a 3It took them 40 days, which is the time needed to embalm a body. The Egyptians mourned for him for 70 days. 4When the days of mourning were over, Joseph spoke to Pharaoh's officials. He said, "If you are pleased with me, please tell Pharaoh this: 5'My father made me swear a promise. He said, "I am about to die. You must bury me in the tomb I dug for myself in the land of Canaan." So please let me go up and bury my father. Then I will come back.'" 6Pharaoh answered, "Go up and bury your father, just as he made you promise." 7So Joseph went up to bury his father. All of Pharaoh's servants went with him. The leaders of Pharaoh's household went. All the leaders of the land of Egypt went too. 8All of Joseph's household went, along with his brothers and his father's household. Only their children and their flocks and herds stayed in Goshen. 9Chariots and horsemen went up with him too. It was a very large crowd. 10They came to the threshing floor of Atad, across the Jordan River. There they cried and wailed loudly. Joseph mourned for his father for seven days. 11The Canaanites who lived there saw the mourning at the threshing floor of Atad. They said, "The Egyptians are having a very sad time of mourning." That is why the place across the Jordan is called Abel-mizraim.b 12So Jacob's sons did what he had told them to do. 13They carried him to the land of Canaan. They buried him in the cave at Machpelah, in the field near Mamre. Abraham had bought this field from Ephron the Hittite as a place to bury the dead. 14After Joseph buried his father, he went back to Egypt. His brothers went back with him. So did everyone who had gone with him to bury his father. 15Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead. They said, "What if Joseph is still angry with us? Then he will surely pay us back for all the evil we did to him." 16So they sent a message to Joseph. It said, "Before your father died, he gave us an order. 17He said, 'This is what you must say to Joseph: Please, I beg you, forgive your brothers for their wrong and their sin. They did evil to you.' So now, Joseph, please forgive the wrong done by the servants of your father's God." When Joseph got their message, he wept. 18Then his brothers came and bowed down in front of him. They said, "We are your slaves!" 19But Joseph said to them, "Don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God? 20You planned evil against me. But God planned it for good. He did it to bring about what is happening today. He did it to save the lives of many people. 21So don't be afraid. I will take care of you and your little ones." So Joseph comforted his brothers and spoke kindly to them. 22Joseph and his father's family stayed in Egypt. Joseph lived to be 110 years old. 23He saw three generations of Ephraim's children. The sons of Machir, Manasseh's son, were also raised on Joseph's knees. 24Then Joseph said to his brothers, "I am about to die. But God will surely come to help you. He will bring you up out of this land. He will take you to the land he promised with an oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." 25Joseph made the sons of Israel swear a promise. He said, "God will surely come to help you. When he does, you must carry my bones up from this place." 26So Joseph died when he was 110 years old. They embalmed his body and put it in a coffin in Egypt.