1Joseph threw himself on his father, wept over him and kissed him. 2Then as Joseph had instructed them, his physicians embalmed Israel his father. 3This took a full forty days, the length of time required for embalming. The Egyptians mourned him for seventy days.
4When the days of mourning were over, Joseph spoke to Pharaoh’s household, “If you wish to show me kindness, please let Pharaoh know 5that when my father was dying he made me swear that I would bury him in the tomb he had made ready for himself in Canaan. Ask him to let me go up and bury my father. I will come back again.” 6Pharaoh said, “Go and bury your father as he made you swear to do.”
7Joseph went up to bury his father and with him went all Pharaoh’s officials, the elders of his household and all the elders of Egypt, 8as well as all belonging to the household of Joseph, his brothers and his father’s household. Only their children, their flocks and herds were left in the land of Goshen. 9With the chariots and horsemen that went up with him it was a very imposing caravan. 10When they came to the threshing floor of Atad, near the Jordan, they carried out a solemn and long lamentation and there Joseph mourned his father for seven days. 11When the Canaanites witnessed this mourning they said, “This is a solemn mourning ceremony of the Egyptians.” That is why this place which is east of the Jordan was called Abel Mizraim.
12Jacob’s sons did as he had ordered them. 13They carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave in the field of Machpelah near Mamre that Abraham had bought from Ephron the Hittite for a burial place.
14After he had buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt with his brothers and all those who had gone up with him for the burial.
The last years of Joseph
15 ① When Joseph’s brothers realized that their father was dead they said, “What if Joseph turns against us in hate because of the evil we did him?” 16So they sent word to Joseph saying, “Before he died your father told us to say this to you: 17Please forgive the crime and the sin of your brothers in doing evil to you. Forgive the crime of the servants of your father’s God.” When he was given the message, Joseph wept. 18His brothers went and threw themselves down before him. “We are your slaves,” they said. 19But Joseph reassured them, “Don’t be afraid! Am I in the place of God? 20You intended to do me harm, but God intended to turn it to good in order to bring about what is happening today — the survival of many people. 21So have no fear! I will provide for you and your little ones.” In this way he touched their hearts and consoled them.
22Joseph remained in Egypt together with all his father’s family. He lived for a hundred and ten years, 23long enough to see Ephraim’s great-grandchildren, and also to have the children of Machir, the son of Manasseh, placed on his knees after their birth.
24Then Joseph said to his brothers, “I am going to die, but God will surely remember you and take you from this country to the land he promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” 25Joseph then made the sons of Israel swear, saying, “When God comes to bring you out from here, carry my bones with you.” 26Joseph died at the age of one hundred and ten; they embalmed him and laid him in a coffin in Egypt.
- Gen 50,15 Note how Jacob and Joseph die: believers of ancient times were still ignorant of the resurrection of the dead. They lived the lives God gave them on this earth to the fullest; they were guided by the conviction that in their faithfulness to their mission, they were laboring for a better world which their children would see. The long and happy years that God had given them after their trials led them to understand that God was just and generous with all people. Yet, while they did not hope for a life beyond, they were lacking a great deal to be fulfilled persons. They thought that when a person died, part of the spirit went to live below the earth next to his fathers in a place from which God was absent as were the cares of the living. They thought God their friend and faithful defender would allow them to be lost forever! They must have had to repress their longing and silence their doubts to convince themselves that such a thing was just and good. Their efforts to be resigned made them serious, conscientious people, subject to the mysterious will of God: but in exchange they were not given the happiness and spontaneity of children and a passionate love for their Savior. In that, they were not very different from good atheists or people of good faith though poorly informed, who live without faith in the resurrection.
