Bereisheet (Genesis): Vayechi > Ch 50

Joseph goes to Canaan to bury his father

  • Joseph commanded physicians to embalm his father. Egyptians wept over him for 70 days. When the days of his weeping had passed, Joseph went to Canaan to bury his father, and all Pharaoh's servants, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt went up with him, and Joseph's entire household and his brothers and his father's household; only their young children and their flocks and cattle did they leave in the land of Goshen. And chariots and horsemen also went up with him, and the camp was very numerous.
  • They came to the threshing floor of the thornbushes, on the other side of the Jordan, and there they conducted a very great and impressive eulogy. The Canaanites who lived there said, "This is an intense mourning for the Egyptians." Therefore, they named it Abel Mizraim (Egypt mourns)
  • Joseph’s sons buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which field Abraham had bought for burial property from Ephron the Hittite before Mamre.
  • Everyone returned to Egypt. Joseph’s brothers feared Joseph and told him that Jacob commanded him to forgive them. Joseph said, "Don't be afraid, for am I instead of G-d? Indeed, you intended evil against me, [but] G-d designed it for good, in order to bring about what is at present to keep a great populace alive. So now do not fear. I will sustain you and your small children." And he comforted them and spoke to their hearts.


Joseph dies at the age of 110

  • So Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he and his father's household, and Joseph lived a hundred and ten years. Joseph saw children of a third generation [born] to Ephraim; also the sons of Machir the son of Manasseh were born on Joseph's knees. Joseph said to his brothers, "I am going to die; G-d will surely remember you and take you up out of this land to the land that He swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob." And Joseph adjured the children of Israel, saying, "G-d will surely remember you, and you shall take up my bones out of here." And Joseph died at the age of one hundred ten years, and they embalmed him and he was placed into the coffin in Egypt.


 
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