Mourning and Burial for Jacob

1Joseph, realizing this, fell upon his father’s face, weeping and kissing him. 2And he instructed his servant physicians to embalm his father with aromatics. 3And while they were fulfilling his orders, forty days passed. For this was the method of embalming dead bodies. And Egypt wept for him for seventy days.

4And when the time for mourning was fulfilled, Joseph spoke to the family of Pharaoh: “If I have found favor in your sight, speak to the ears of Pharaoh. 5For my father made me swear, saying: ‘See, I am dying. You shall bury me in my sepulcher which I dug for myself in the land of Canaan.’ Therefore, I shall go up and bury my father, and then return.” 6And Pharaoh said to him, “Go up and bury your father, just as he made you swear.”

7So as he went up, all the elders of the house of Pharaoh went with him, along with every patriarch in the land of Egypt, 8and the house of Joseph with his brothers, except their little ones and flocks and also the herds, which they left behind in the land of Goshen. 9Likewise, he had in his company chariots and horsemen. And it became a crowd without restraint. 10And they arrived at the threshing place of Atad, which is situated beyond the Jordan. There they spent seven full days celebrating the funeral rites with a great and vehement lamentation. 11And when the inhabitants of the land of Canaan had seen this, they said, “This is a great Lamentation for the Egyptians.” And for this reason, the name of that place was called, “The Lamentation of Egypt.”

12And so, the sons of Jacob did just as he had instructed them. 13And carrying him into the land of Canaan, they buried him in the double cave, which Abraham had bought along with its field, from Ephron the Hittite, as a possession for burial, opposite Mamre. 14And Joseph returned into Egypt with his brothers and all those of his company, having buried his father.

Joseph Comforts His Brothers

15Now that he was dead, his brothers were afraid, and they said to one another: “Perhaps now he may remember the injury that he suffered and requite us for all the evil that we did to him.” 16So they sent a message to him, saying: “Your father instructed us before he died, 17that we should say these words to you from him: ‘I beg you to forget the wickedness of your brothers, and the sin and malice that they practiced against you.’ Likewise, we petition you to release the servants of the God of your father from this iniquity.” Hearing this, Joseph wept. 18And his brothers went to him. And reverencing prostrate on the ground, they said, “We are your servants.” 19And he answered them: “Do not be afraid. Are we able to resist the will of God? 20You devised evil against me. But God turned it into good, so that he might exalt me, just as you presently discern, and so that he might bring about the salvation of many peoples. 21Do not be afraid. I will pasture you and your little ones.” And he consoled them, and he spoke mildly and leniently.

The Death of Joseph

22And he lived in Egypt with all his father’s house; and he survived for one hundred and ten years. 23And he saw the sons of Ephraim to the third generation. Likewise, the sons of Machir, the son of Manasseh, were born onto Joseph’s knees. 24After these things happened, he said to his brothers: “God will visit you after my death, and he will make you ascend from this land into the land which he swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” 25And when he had made them swear and had said, “God will visit you; carry my bones with you from this place,” 26he died, having completed one hundred and ten years of his life. And having been embalmed with aromatics, he was laid to rest in a coffin in Egypt.