Read the Bible

¹ Yosef fell on his father's face, wept on him, and kissed him. ² Yosef commanded his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father; and the physicians embalmed Yisra'el. ³ Forty days were fulfilled for him, for that is how many the days it takes to embalm. The Mitzrim wept for him for seventy days. ⁴ When the days of weeping for him were past, Yosef spoke to the house of Par`oh, saying, "If now I have found favor in your eyes, please speak in the ears of Par`oh, saying, ⁵ 'My father made me swear, saying, "Behold, I am dying. Bury me in my grave which I have dug for myself in the land of Kana`an." Now therefore, please let me go up and bury my father, and I will come again.'" <sup>6</sup> Par`oh said, "Go up, and bury your father, just like he made you swear."

⁷ Yosef went up to bury his father; and with him went up all the servants of Par`oh, the Zakenim of his house, all the Zakenim of the land of Mitzrayim, <sup>8</sup> all the house of Yosef, his brothers, and his father's house. Only their little ones, their flocks, and their herds, they left in the land of Goshen. <sup>9</sup> There went up with him both chariots and horsemen. It was a very great company. <sup>10</sup> They came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Yarden, and there they lamented with a very great and sore lamentation. He mourned for his father seven days. <sup>11</sup> When the inhabitants of the land, the Kana`anim, saw the mourning in the floor of Atad, they said, "This is a grievous mourning by the Mitzrim." Therefore, the name of it was called Avel-Mitzrayim, which is beyond the Yarden. ¹² His sons did to him just as he commanded them, ¹³ for his sons carried him into the land of Kana`an, and buried him in the cave of the field of Makhpelah, which Avraham bought with the field, for a possession of a burying-place, from `Efron the Hittite, before Mamre. ¹⁴ Yosef returned into Mitzrayim - he, and his brothers, and all that went up with him to bury his father, after he had buried his father.

¹⁵ When Yosef's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, "It may be that Yosef will hate us, and will fully pay us back for all of the evil which we did to him. ¹⁶ They sent a message to Yosef, saying, "Your father commanded before he died, saying, ¹⁷ "So will you tell Yosef, 'Now please forgive the disobedience of your brothers, and their sin, because they did evil to you.' Now, please forgive the disobedience of the servants of the God of your father." Yosef wept when they spoke to him. ¹⁸ His brothers also went and fell down before his face; and they said, "Behold, we are your servants." ¹⁹ Yosef said to them, "Don't be afraid, for am I in the place of God? ²⁰ As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save many people alive. ²¹ Now therefore don't be afraid. I will nourish you and your little ones." He comforted them, and spoke kindly to them.

²² Yosef lived in Mitzrayim, he, and his father's house. Yosef lived one hundred ten years. ²³ Yosef saw Efrayim's children to the third generation. The children also of Makhir, the son of Menashsheh, were born on Yosef's knees. ²⁴ Yosef said to his brothers, "I am dying, but God will surely visit you, and bring you up out of this land to the land which he swore to Avraham, to Yitzchak, and to Ya`akov." ²⁵ Yosef took an oath of the children of Yisra'el, saying, "God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here." ²⁶ So Yosef died, being one hundred ten years old, and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Mitzrayim.