Jacob’s body was taken to Canaan and buried there

1Joseph leaned close to his father’s face and cried over him and kissed him.

2Joseph commanded his servants who were morticians to ◄embalm his father’s body/put spices on his father’s body► to ◄preserve it/keep it from decaying►, and then wrap it with strips of cloth.

3So the morticians did that. It took 40 days to embalm Jacob’s body, because that is the amount of time that was always required for them to embalm a body. And the people of Egypt mourned for 70 days because of Jacob’s death.

4When the time of mourning was finished, Joseph said to the king’s officials, “If you are pleased with me, please take this message to the king:

5‘When my father was about to die, he told me to solemnly promise that I would bury his body in Canaan, in the tomb that he himself had prepared. So please let me go up to Canaan and bury my father’s body. Then I will return.’”

6After they gave the king the message, he replied, “Tell Joseph, ‘Go up and bury your father’s body, as you ◄swore/solemnly promised► that you would do.’”

7So Joseph went up to Canaan to bury his father’s body. All of the king’s officials, all the king’s advisors, and all the elders in Egypt went with him.

8His own family’s small children and their sheep and goats and their cattle stayed in the Goshen region. But all the rest of Joseph’s family and his older brothers and younger brother and his father’s family went with him.

9Men riding in chariots [MTY] and on horses also went along. It was a huge group.

10They went to the east side of the Jordan River and arrived at Atad. There was a place there where people ◄threshed/beat the grain to separate the wheat from the chaff.► There they mourned loudly for Jacob for a long time. Joseph performed mourning ceremonies for his father for seven days.

11When the Canaan people-group who lived there saw them mourning like that, they said, “This is a sad mourning place for the people of Egypt!” So they named the place Abel-Mizraim, which sounds like the Hebrew words that mean ‘mourning of the Egyptians.’

12Then Jacob’s sons did for him what their father had commanded.

13They crossed the Jordan River and carried Jacob’s body to Canaan. They buried it in the cave in the field at Machpelah, east of Mamre town. That was the field that Abraham had bought from Ephron, who was one of the Heth people-group, to use as a burial place.

14After he had buried his father, Joseph and his older brothers and younger brother and all the others who had gone up to Canaan with him for the funeral returned to Egypt.

Joseph told his brothers that he would not get revenge for what they did to him

15After Jacob died, Joseph’s brothers became worried. They realized what might happen. They said, “Suppose Joseph hates us and tries to get revenge for all the evil things that we did to him many years ago?”

16So they sent someone to tell this to Joseph for them: “Before our father died, he told us this:

17‘Say to Joseph, “Please forgive your older brothers for the evil thing that they did to you, for their terrible sin against you, because what they did to you was very wrong.”’ So now we, who are servants of your father’s God, ask you, please forgive us for what we did to you.” But Joseph just cried when he received their message.

18Then his older brothers themselves came and threw themselves on the ground in front of Joseph, and one of them said, “Please listen. We will just be your servants.”

19But Joseph replied to them, “Do not be afraid! God is the one who punishes people; ◄am I God?/I am not God!► [RHQ]

20As for you, yes, you wanted to do something very evil to me. But God caused something good to come from it! He wanted to save many people from dying of hunger, and that is what happened! Today they are alive!

21So I say again, do not be afraid! I will make sure that you and your children have enough to eat.” In that way he reassured them and made made them feel much better.

Joseph died in Egypt

22Joseph lived with his father’s family in Egypt until he was 110 years old.

23He lived long enough to see Ephraim’s children and grandchildren. The children of Joseph’s grandson Machir, who was Manasseh’s son, were born before Joseph died, and were adopted by Joseph to be his own children [IDM].

24One day Joseph said to his older brothers, “I am about to die. But God will certainly ◄help/take care of► you. And some day he will lead your descendants up out of this land and take them to Canaan, the land that he solemnly promised to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

25Then Joseph said, “When God enables you to do that, you must take my body back to Canaan.” He made his older brothers solemnly promise to do that.

26So Joseph died in Egypt when he was 110 years old. His body was embalmed and put in a coffin there.