1Then Joseph fell upon his father’s face, and he wept over him and kissed him.
2And Joseph commanded his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father; so the physicians embalmed Israel.
3And forty days were completed for him, for so are completed the days of embalming; and the Egyptians wept for him seventy days.
4When the days of weeping for him had passed, Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh, saying, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, speak, please, in the ears of Pharaoh, saying:
5‘My father made me swear, saying, “Behold, I am about to die; in my tomb that I dug for myself in the land of Canaan, there you shall bury me.” Now therefore let me go up, please, and bury my father, and I will return.’”
6And Pharaoh said, “Go up and bury your father, as he made you swear.”
7So Joseph went up to bury his father, and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his household, and all the elders of the land of Egypt,
8and all the household of Joseph and his brothers and his father’s household. Only their little ones and their flocks and their herds they left in the land of Goshen.
9There went up with him both chariots and horsemen, and the company was very great.
10And they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, and there they lamented with a very great and heavy lament; and he made a mourning for his father of seven days.
11When the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, they said, “This is a heavy mourning for the Egyptians.” Therefore its name was called Abel-mizraim, which is beyond the Jordan.
12So his sons did for him just as he had commanded them.
13His sons carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which Abraham had bought, along with the field, as a burial possession from Ephron the Hittite, facing Mamre.
14After he had buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt, he and his brothers and all who had gone up with him to bury his father.
15When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “What if Joseph should hold a grudge against us and pay us back in full for all the evil that we did to him?”
16So they sent word to Joseph, saying, “Your father commanded before his death, saying:
17‘Thus you shall say to Joseph: “Please, forgive, I beg you, the transgression of your brothers and their sin, for they did evil to you.”’ And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.” And Joseph wept as they spoke to him.
18Then his brothers also went and fell down before him, and they said, “Here we are, your servants.”
19But Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God?”
20As for you, you devised evil against me, but God devised it for good, in order to accomplish, as it is this day, the keeping alive of a numerous people.
21So now, do not be afraid; I myself will sustain you and your little ones.” And he comforted them and spoke to their heart.
22And Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he and his father’s household; and Joseph lived one hundred and ten years.
23Joseph saw Ephraim’s children to the third generation; the children of Machir son of Manasseh were also born on Joseph’s knees.
24And Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die, but God will surely visit you and bring you up from this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.”
25And Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.”
26So Joseph died, being one hundred and ten years old; and they embalmed him, and he was placed in a coffin in Egypt.
Open in the interactive reader →Where this passage connects across Scripture — each link typed and reasoned, part of the AIT Bible Nexus Chart.