Knowing The Word in Genesis 50:1-14, Joseph Weeps

1 Then Joseph fell on his father's face and wept over him and kissed him. [The great bond between father and son is finally broken, and a new history will begin.] 2 And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel. 3 Forty days were required for it, for that is how many are required for embalming. And the Egyptians wept for him seventy days.

4 And when the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh [indirectly because he was in mourning], saying, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, please speak in the ears of Pharaoh, saying, 5 ‘My father made me swear, saying, “I am about to die: in my tomb that I hewed out for myself in the land of Canaan, there shall you bury me.” Now therefore, let me please go up and bury my father. Then I will return.’” [Joseph appropriately leaves out Jacob’s comments about not wanting to be buried in Egypt. The burial procession of Jacob going up to Canaan prefigures the exodus.] 6 And Pharaoh answered, “Go up, and bury your father, as he made you swear.” 7 So Joseph went up to bury his father. With him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his household, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, 8 as well as all the household of Joseph, his brothers, and his father's household. Only their children, their flocks, and their herds were left in the land of Goshen. 9 And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen. It was a very great company. [It was a rather grand funeral procession.] 10 When they came to the threshing floor of Atad [exact location unknown], which is beyond the Jordan, they lamented there with a very great and grievous lamentation, and he made a mourning for his father seven days [which included fasting and rendering of their garments]. 11 When the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning on the threshing floor of Atad, they said, “This is a grievous mourning by the Egyptians.” Therefore the place was named Abel-mizraim [or Abel-Egypt]; it is beyond the Jordan. 12 Thus his sons did for him as he had commanded them, 13 for his sons carried him to the land of Canaan [leaving the Egptians behind at Abel-mizrain] and buried him in the cave of the field at Machpelah, to the east of Mamre, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite to possess as a burying place. 14 After he had buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt [fulfilling his promise to Pharaoh] with his brothers and all who had gone up with him to bury his father.