Barashyt(Genesis) — 50

1 Ya'asaf threw himself on his father and wept over him and kissed him. 

2 Then Ya'asaf told the physicians who served him to embalm his father’s body; so Ya'aqub was embalmed. 

3 The embalming process took the usual forty days. And the Mitzraym mourned Ya'aqub‘s death for seventy days.

4 When the period of mourning was over, Ya'asaf approached Phar'uh’s advisers and said, “Please do me this favor and speak to Phar'uh on my behalf. 

5 Tell him that my father made me swear an oath. He said to me, ‘Listen, I am 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 will return without delay.”

6 Phar'uh agreed to Ya'asaf’s request. “Go and bury your father, as he made you promise,” Phar'uh said. 

7 So Ya'asaf went up to bury his father. He was accompanied by all of Phar'uh’s officials, all the senior members of Phar'uh’s household, and all the senior officers of Mitzraym. 

8 Ya'asaf also took his entire household and his brothers and their households. But they left their little children and flocks and herds in the land of Gushan. 

9 A great number of chariots and charioteers accompanied Ya'asaf.

10 When they arrived at the threshing floor of Atad, near the Yurdan River, they held a very great and solemn memorial service, with a seven-day period of mourning for Ya'asaf’s father. 

11 The local residents, the Canaanites, watched them mourning at the threshing floor of Atad. Then they renamed that place (which is near the Yurdan) Abal-mitzraym, for they said, “This is a place of deep mourning for these Mitzraym.”

12 So Ya'aqub’s sons did as he had commanded them. 

13 They carried his body to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave in the field of Machpalah, near Mamra. This is the cave that Abraham had bought as a permanent burial site from Aphrun the Hittite.

Ya'asaf Reassures His Brothers

14 After burying Ya'aqub, Ya'asaf returned to Mitzraym with his brothers and all who had accompanied him to his father’s burial. 

15 But now that their father was dead, Ya'asaf’s brothers became fearful. “Now Ya'asaf will show his anger and pay us back for all the wrong we did to him,” they said.

16 So they sent this message to Ya'asaf: “Before your father died, he instructed us 

17 to say to you: ‘Please forgive your brothers for the great wrong they did to you—for their sin in treating you so cruelly.’ So we, the servants of the 𐤀𐤋𐤅𐤄_ALUAH of your father, beg you to forgive our sin.” When Ya'asaf received the message, he broke down and wept. 

18 Then his brothers came and threw themselves down before Ya'asaf. “Look, we are your slaves!” they said.

19 But Ya'asaf replied, “Don’t be afraid of me. Am I 𐤀𐤋𐤅𐤄_ALUAH, that I can punish you? 

20 You intended to harm me, but 𐤀𐤋𐤅𐤄_ALUAH intended it all for good. 𐤀𐤋𐤅𐤄_ALUAH brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people. 

21 No, don’t be afraid. I will continue to take care of you and your children.” So Ya'asaf reassured his brothers by speaking kindly to them.

The Death of Ya'asaf 

22 So Ya'asaf and his brothers and their families continued to live in Mitzraym. Ya'asaf lived to the age of one hundred and ten years. 

23 He lived to see three generations of descendants of his son Alphraim, and he lived to see the birth of the children of Manassah’s son Makir, whom he claimed as his own.

24 “Soon I will die,” Ya'asaf told his brothers, “but 𐤀𐤋𐤅𐤄_ALUAH will surely come to help you and lead you out of this land of Mitzraym. 𐤀𐤋𐤅𐤄_ALUAH will bring you back to the land He solemnly promised to give to Abraham, to Yachaq, and to Ya'aqub.”

25 Then Ya'asaf made the sons of YASHAR'AL swear an oath, and he said, “When 𐤀𐤋𐤅𐤄_ALUAH comes to help you and lead you back, you must take my bones with you.” 

26 So Ya'asaf died at the age of 110 years. The Mitzraym embalmed him, and his body was placed in a coffin in Mitzraym.