Joseph, when he saw this, threw himself down at his father’s side, weeping and covering his face with kisses.

And now he would have the doctors who were in his service embalm his father with spices.

Forty days went by, and they were still at their task; that is the custom of the embalmers in Egypt; and for seventy days the whole of Egypt mourned him.

Then, when the time of mourning was over, Joseph said to Pharao’s courtiers, Do me a favour, and prefer this request of mine to Pharao.

My father has left me bound by an oath; I am dying, said he, and I charge thee to bury me in the tomb I dug for myself in Chanaan. I would go back there to bury my father, and so return.

And Pharao told him, Go back, and bury thy father in fulfilment of thy oath.

So he went, and with him went all Pharao’s senators and all the elders of Egypt;

Joseph’s brethren too and all his household, except the children and the flocks and herds; these were left behind in the land of Gessen.

He had chariots and horsemen with him, so it was a great retinue that accompanied him.

When they reached Atad’s Threshing-floor, on the further side of Jordan, they spent seven days over the funeral rites, mourning long and bitterly;

till the Chanaanites, watching it, said This is great lamentation the men of Egypt are making, and the place came to be called, The Lament of the Egyptians.

Thus Jacob’s sons carried out his command,

by taking his body to Chanaan, and burying it in the double cave opposite Mambre, that Abraham bought, with the ground it stands in, from Ephron the Hethite, to be his burial-place.

And Joseph, when the funeral rites were done, went back to Egypt with his brethren and all his retinue.

His brethren, now that their father was dead, grew afraid of Joseph; what if he should remember his wrongs, they asked one another, and punish us for our ill deeds?

So they sent a message to him, Our father, before he died, laid a charge on us.

We were to say to thee in his name, Forget, I pray thee, the crime which thy brethren committed, the cruel wrong they did thee. And it is our prayer too that thou wouldst grant forgiveness to us, the servants of the God thy father served. Joseph wept upon hearing it;

and when his brethren came and bowed to the ground before him, owning themselves his servants,

his answer was, Do not be afraid; who am I, that I should oppose my will to God’s will?

You thought to do me harm, but God turned it all to good account; I was to be raised up to greatness, as you see, for the saving of a multitude of people.

Do not be afraid; both you and your children shall still have maintenance from me. With such kindly words he comforted them.

So, with all his father’s household, he continued to dwell in Egypt, and reached the age of a hundred and ten. He lived to see Ephraim a grandfather, and Machir, son of Manasses, had children whom he took on his knees.✻

After this he said to his kindred, When I am dead, God will have mercy on you, and enable you to return from this country to the home which he promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

And he bound them by an oath, When God shews you this mercy, you must take my bones out of this land with you.

So he died, a hundred and ten years old, and they embalmed him with spices, and laid him to rest in a coffin, there in Egypt.