Embalmed for the long trip to Canaan
1Joseph fell on his father’s body, crying as he kissed him. 2Joseph told the physicians who worked under his authority to embalm his father. They embalmed Israel. [1] 3It took 40 days to finish the embalming. Egyptians mourned him for 70 days.4When the usual time of mourning was over, Joseph told Pharaoh’s household servants, “If you don’t mind, please deliver this message to Pharaoh for me. 5‘My father made me promise him something under oath. He said, “Look, I’m about to die. I want you to bury me in the tomb I prepared for myself in the land of Canaan.” [2] This is why I’m asking you to please let me go up there and bury my father. When that is done I’ll come back.’” 6Pharaoh said, “Go bury your father, and keep the promise he had you make.”
7Joseph went up to bury his father. All of Pharaoh’s top officials went with him. This included the palace officials and all the most respected leaders in Egypt. 8All of Joseph’s household went, too, along with Joseph’s brothers and the household of his father. The only ones who stayed behind in Goshen were the kids and the critters. 9Chariots and cavalry escorted the large funeral procession. 10The mourners arrived at the plug of land used to thresh grain—the threshing floor of Atad—on the far side of the Jordan River. [3] They stopped and mourned, expressing deep sorrow. Joseph observed another seven days of mourning for his father.
11When local Canaanites saw the people mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, they said, “This is a place of painful mourning for the Egyptians.” So they named the place the Mourning Meadow of Egypt. [4] It’s on the other side of the Jordan River. 12Jacob’s sons did what he asked them to do for him. 13They carried his body into the land of Canaan. They buried him in the cave at the field of Machpelah, near the city of Mamre. [5] Abraham had bought this cave for a burial site from Ephron the Hittite. [6]
Joseph's brothers afraid he'll kill them now that dad is dead
14After Joseph buried his father, he went back to Egypt, along with his brothers and everyone else who had gone to the burial. 15Joseph’s brothers got worried after their father died. They said, “What are we going to do if Joseph holds a grudge against us and decides to pay us back for all the terrible things we did to him?”16They sent this message to Joseph: “Before your father died, he had a message for you. 17He said, ‘I want you to tell Joseph this: “I am begging you to please forgive your brothers for the terrible thing they did to you. It was wrong of them.”’ We are servants of your father’s God. Please forgive us.” Joseph began to cry as he listened to these words. 18Later his brothers came down to meet with him. They knelt in front of him and said, “We are your servants.”
19Joseph said, “Don’t be afraid of me. Do I look like God to you? 20You wanted to hurt me. I know that. But you need to know something, too. God wanted to help me and many others as well. He turned the bad thing you did into something good. He used it to save many people, just as he is doing today. 21So stop being afraid of me. I will personally take care of you and your children.” This is how Joseph reassured his brothers with kind words.
22Joseph stayed in Egypt, along with his brothers and their families. Joseph lived to the age of 110. 23That was long enough for Joseph to see Ephraim’s children three generations deep: grandchildren, great-grandchildren, great-great-grandchildren. He also lived to see the birth of Manasseh’s son Makir and of Makir’s children, whom he adopted as this own. [7]
