THE DEATH OF JACOB & JOSEPH (GEN 50)
And when Yisharal had finished blessing and instructing his sons, he drew his feet into the bed, breathed his last, and died. And Joseph threw himself on his father and wept over him and kissed him. Then he told the physicians who served him (not the pagan-temple priests) to embalm his father’s body in order to preserve it for the long journey back to Canaan (they didn’t want to carry a stinking corpse through the hot desert).
So Yisharal was embalmed (this process took the usual forty days and the Egyptians mourned his death for seventy). When the period of mourning was over, Joseph went up to the Pharaoh’s advisers and said, “Please speak to the Pharaoh for me and tell him that my father made me swear an oath saying, ‘Listen, I‘m about to die. Take my body back to the land of Canaan and bury me in the tomb I prepared for myself.’ So please allow me to go and bury my father. After his burial, I promise I will return straight away.”
And the Pharaoh agreed to Joseph’s request. “Go and bury your father, as he made you promise,” he said.
So Joseph went up to bury his father. He was accompanied by all of the Pharaoh’s officials, all the senior members of the Pharaoh’s household, and all the senior officers of Egypt (PROBABLY TO MAKE SURE HE RETURNED TO EGYPT AND DIDN’T DO A RUNNER!)
And Joseph also took his entire household and his brothers and their households too. But they left their little children and flocks and herds in the land of Goshen. A great number of chariots and horsemen accompanied Joseph. When they arrived at the threshing floor of Atad, near the Jordan River, they mourned seven-days for Yisharal. The local residents, (the Canaanites) watched them mourning and renamed the place ‘Abel Mitsrim’, for they said, “This is a place of grievous mourning for these Egyptians.”
So Yisharal ’s sons did as he had instructed them, carrying his body to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave in the field of Makpelah, near Mamre. This is the cave that Abraham had bought as a permanent burial site from Efron the Kittite. And after burying Yisharal, Joseph returned to Egypt with his brothers and all who had accompanied him to his father’s burial.
But now that their father was dead, Joseph’s brothers became fearful. “Now Joseph will show his anger and seek revenge for all the wrong we did to him,” they said.
So they sent this message to Joseph, “Before our father died, he instructed us to tell you: ‘Please forgive your brothers for the horrible sins they did to you and for their evil in treating you so cruelly.’ So we, servants of the Alahim of our father, beg you to forgive us of our wickedness.”
And when Joseph received the message, he broke down and wept. Then his brothers came and threw themselves down before him. “Look, we are your slaves!” they said.
But Joseph replied, “Please don’t be afraid of me. Am I Yahuah, that can punish you? You wanted to get rid of me, and I don’t blame you, for I was a little turd back then. But Yahuah brought something amazing out of it all. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people. So please don’t be afraid of me. I will continue to take care of you and your children.” And he reassured them.
THE DEATH OF JOSEPH
So Joseph and his brothers and their families continued to live in Egypt and Joseph lived to the age of 110, seeing three generations of descendants from his own son Ephraim, and he also lived to see the birth of the children of Menassah’s son Makir, whom he claimed as his own.
“I’m about to die,” Joseph told his brothers, “but Yahuah will surely come to help you and lead you out of this land of Egypt. He will bring you back to the land he solemnly promised to give to our fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”
Then Joseph made the sons of Yisharal swear an oath, and he said, “When Yahuah comes to help you and lead you back to His promised land of Canaan, you must take my bones with you.” So Joseph died at the age of 110 and the Egyptians embalmed him and his body was put in a coffin in Egypt.
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