92-93 :Joseph Buries His Father
Jacob lived in the land of Egypt for seventeen years, until he became a very old man.
And when he was about to die, he called his son Joseph and said:
"If I have found grace in your sight, deal kindly and truly with me.
Do not bury me in Egypt, I pray you. Let me lie with my fathers.
Carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burying place.
"Bury me where they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife,
where they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife, and where I buried Leah."
Joseph said:"I will do as you have said."
"Swear to do as I wish," said Jacob.
Joseph swore to him, and Jacob bowed himself upon the bed's head.
Then he said to Joseph:
"Behold, I will die soon!
But God shall be with you and will bring you again to the land of your fathers."
Then Jacob called his twelve sons and said:
"Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you what will happen to you in the days to come.
Gather, and hear me, sons of Jacob, and hear Israel your father."
Jacob, who was called Israel,
told how the twelve tribes of Israel would descend from his twelve sons.
And he spoke to each of the sons in turn:
Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Benjamin, Dan, Naphthali, Gad, Joseph and Asher.
He foretold that Judah's tribe would be the one which all the others would praise,
bowing down before it.
And he blessed every son with a blessing.
Then Jacob gathered up his feet into the bed and yielded up the ghost and was united with his people.
Joseph fell upon his father's face, and wept upon him, and kissed him.
Then he commanded his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father.
The physicians embalmed Israel and then the Egyptians mourned for him threescore and ten days.
When the days of mourning were past, Joseph spoke to the house of Pharaoh, saying:
"If I have found grace in your eyes, speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh and say that my father made me swear to bury him in the grave he dug for himself in the land of Canaan.
Therefore, may Pharaoh let me go up, I pray, and bury my father and then I will come again."
Pharaoh said: "Go up and bury your father, according to his wishes."
JOSEPH BURIES HIS FATHER
So Joseph went up to bury his father, and with him went all the servants of Pharaoh,
the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, all the household.
Only the little ones, their flocks and their herds did they leave in the land of Goshen.
Also chariots and horsemen went up with him.
It was a very great caravan.
They came to the threshing-floor of Atad, which is beyond Jordan.
There they mourned with great and sorrowing cries.
For seven days Joseph mourned for his father.
Then Jacob's sons carried their father into the land of Canaan, as he had commanded.
They buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah.
After his father was buried, Joseph returned to Egypt,
he and his brothers and all that went up with him to bury his father.
Now that their father was dead,Joseph's brothers said :
"If Joseph should ever hate us, he would surely make return for all the evil we did to him."
So they sent a messenger to Joseph, saying:
"Before his death, your father spoke to us, saying: 'You shall say to Joseph:
Forgive the trespass of your brothers and the sin which they committed when they did evil to you."'
Joseph wept when they spoke to him.
And his brothers went to him and fell down before his face, and said:
"Behold, we are your servants!" "Fear not," said Joseph.
"Am I here in the place of God? You meant evil against me,
but God meant to turn it to good and to bring to pass what is today: to keep many people alive.
"Therefore have no fear. I will nourish you, you and your little ones."
Then he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.
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