33 Jacob finished instructing his sons, pulled his feet into bed, breathed his last, and was gathered to his people.
Genesis 50
1 Joseph threw himself on his father, wept over him, and kissed him.
2-3
Joseph then instructed the physicians in his employ to embalm his
father. The physicians embalmed Israel. The embalming took forty days,
the period required for embalming. There was public mourning by the
Egyptians for seventy days.
4-5
When the period of mourning was completed, Joseph petitioned Pharaoh's
court: "If you have reason to think kindly of me, present Pharaoh with
my request: My father made me swear, saying, 'I am ready to die. Bury me
in the grave plot that I prepared for myself in the land of Canaan.'
Please give me leave to go up and bury my father. Then I'll come back."
6 Pharaoh said, "Certainly. Go and bury your father as he made you promise under oath."
7-9
So Joseph left to bury his father. And all the high-ranking officials
from Pharaoh's court went with him, all the dignitaries of Egypt,
joining Joseph's family—his brothers and his father's family. Their
children and flocks and herds were left in Goshen. Chariots and horsemen
accompanied them. It was a huge funeral procession.
10
Arriving at the Atad Threshing Floor just across the Jordan River, they
stopped for a period of mourning, letting their grief out in loud and
lengthy lament. For seven days, Joseph engaged in these funeral rites
for his father.
11
When the Canaanites who lived in that area saw the grief being poured
out at the Atad Threshing Floor, they said, "Look how deeply the
Egyptians are mourning." That is how the site at the Jordan got the name
Abel Mizraim (Egyptian Lament).
12-13
Jacob's sons continued to carry out his instructions to the letter.
They took him on into Canaan and buried him in the cave in the field of
Machpelah facing Mamre, the field that Abraham had bought as a burial
plot from Ephron the Hittite.
14-15
After burying his father, Joseph went back to Egypt. All his brothers
who had come with him to bury his father returned with him. After the
funeral, Joseph's brothers talked among themselves: "What if Joseph is
carrying a grudge and decides to pay us back for all the wrong we did
him?"
16-17 So they
sent Joseph a message, "Before his death, your father gave this command:
Tell Joseph, 'Forgive your brothers' sin—all that wrongdoing. They did
treat you very badly.' Will you do it? Will you forgive the sins of the
servants of your father's God?"
When Joseph received their message, he wept.
18 Then the brothers went in person to him, threw themselves on the ground before him and said, "We'll be your slaves."
19-21
Joseph replied, "Don't be afraid. Do I act for God? Don't you see, you
planned evil against me but God used those same plans for my good, as
you see all around you right now—life for many people. Easy now, you
have nothing to fear; I'll take care of you and your children." He
reassured them, speaking with them heart-to-heart.
22-23
Joseph continued to live in Egypt with his father's family. Joseph
lived 110 years. He lived to see Ephraim's sons into the third
generation. The sons of Makir, Manasseh's son, were also recognized as
Joseph's.
24 At the
end, Joseph said to his brothers, "I am ready to die. God will most
certainly pay you a visit and take you out of this land and back to the
land he so solemnly promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob."
25
Then Joseph made the sons of Israel promise under oath, "When God makes
his visitation, make sure you take my bones with you as you leave
here."
26 Joseph died at the age of 110 years. They embalmed him and placed him in a coffin in Egypt.