Jacob Dies and Is Buried

49:29-50:14

29 Then Jacob instructed his sons by saying to them, “I am about to die and join my ancestors who have already died. Bury my body next to their bodies inside the cave that is in the field that Ephron the Hittite used to own. 30 That cave and field are in the Machpelah area that is near the city of Mamre in the region of Canaan. That is the cave that my grandfather Abraham bought, along with the field, from Ephron the Hittite, in order to have a place to bury his dead relatives. 31 That is where the bodies of Abraham and his wife Sarah are buried, and where the bodies of Isaac and his wife Rebekah are buried, and that is where I buried the body of my wife Leah. 32 Abraham bought that field and cave from the Hittites.” 33 When Jacob had finished giving those instructions to his sons, he lay down and pulled his feet up into his bed. Then he took his last breath and died and joined his ancestors who had died before him.

50 Then Joseph hugged his father in sorrow, and he cried over him and kissed him goodbye on the cheek. 2 Then he ordered his doctors who served him to prepare his father‘s body for burial. So they did that. 3 The process took forty days, which is how long it normally takes to prepare a body. The people in Egypt mourned for Israel for seventy days.

4 After that time of mourning Israel’s death, Joseph said to Pharaoh’s officials, “Please do this favor for me: please take a message to King Pharaoh for me and tell him 5 that when my father was about to die, he had me vow to him that I would bury his body in the region of Canaan, in a tomb that he had prepared for himself there. So ask the king to please let me go to Canaan and bury my father‘s body there. After that, I will come back here.” 6 When Pharaoh heard Joseph’s message, he replied, “Tell Joseph that he may go to Canaan and bury his father’s body just as his father made him vow that he would do.”

7 So Joseph started the trip to Canaan to bury his father’s body, and all Pharaoh’s officials escorted him, including the important leaders from Pharaoh’s court and all the other important leaders in the country of Egypt. 8 All of Joseph’s family also went with him, including his brothers and the rest of his father’s family. They only left behind their children and their livestock in Goshen Province. 9 Many soldiers also escorted Joseph, including those who were riding chariots and those who were riding horses, so that the entire group was very large.

10 They traveled to the other side of the Jordan River and stopped at a grain threshing place owned by a man named Atad. There Joseph and the others mourned for his father very loudly and sorrowfully for seven days. 11 When the Canaanites who lived in the area saw them mourning like that at Atad’s threshing place, they exclaimed to each other, “Wow! Those people from Egypt are mourning very sorrowfully for someone who died!” That is why the name of that place on the other side of the Jordan River is Abel Mizraim, which means “Egyptians’ mourning place.”

12 Jacob’s sons did everything for him just as he had instructed them to do: 13 They took his body to the region of Canaan and buried it in the cave that is in the field in the Machpelah area, near the city of Mamre. It was the field and cave that Abraham had bought from Ephron the Hittite as a place to bury his dead relatives. 14 After Joseph buried his father’s body, he returned to the country of Egypt, along with his brothers and everyone else who had accompanied him to his father’s funeral.