1Joseph threw himself on his father's face. He wept over him and kissed him.
2Then Joseph told his servants the physicians to embalm his father, and the physicians embalmed Israel.
3This took forty days, for that is how long it takes to embalm a body. And the Egyptians mourned for him seventy days.
4When the days of mourning for him were over, Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh. He said, "If I have found grace in your eyes, please speak to Pharaoh for me. Say to him,"
5"'My father made me swear an oath. He said, Look, I am dying. You must bury me in the grave I dug for myself in the land of Canaan. So now let me go up and bury my father, and then I will come back.'"
6Pharaoh said, "Go up and bury your father, just as he made you swear."
7So Joseph went up to bury his father. All Pharaoh's servants went with him, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt,
8and all of Joseph's household, his brothers, and his father's household. Only their little ones, their flocks and their herds were left behind in the land of Goshen.
9Chariots and horsemen also went up with him. It was a very great company.
10They came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan. There they mourned with a great and bitter sound of grief. Joseph mourned for his father for seven days.
11When the people who lived in the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning at the floor of Atad, they said, "This is a deep mourning for the Egyptians." That is why the place beyond the Jordan was named Abelmizraim.
12So his sons did for him just as he had commanded them.
13His sons carried him into the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave in the field of Machpelah. Abraham had bought that field from Ephron the Hittite to own it as a burial place. It lies in front of Mamre.
14After he had buried his father, Joseph went back to Egypt, he and his brothers and everyone who had gone up with him to bury his father.
15When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, "Perhaps Joseph will hate us. He may pay us back for all the evil we did to him."
16So they sent a messenger to Joseph, saying, "Your father gave a command before he died. He said,"
17"'This is what you are to say to Joseph: Please forgive the wrong your brothers did and their sin, for they treated you badly.' So now please forgive the wrong done by the servants of the God of your father." And Joseph wept when they spoke to him.
18His brothers also came and fell down in front of him. They said, "Look, we are your servants."
19Joseph said to them, "Do not be afraid. Am I in the place of God?"
20You planned evil against me, but God meant it for good. He did it to bring about what is happening today, so that many people would be kept alive.
21"So do not be afraid. I will provide food for you and for your little ones." And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.
23Joseph saw Ephraim's children to the third generation. The children of Machir, the son of Manasseh, were also brought up on Joseph's knees.
24Joseph said to his brothers, "I am dying. But God will surely come to you and bring you out of this land, to the land he promised with an oath to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob."
25Then Joseph made the children of Israel swear an oath. He said, "God will surely come to you, and you must carry my bones up from here."