Chap. L

And Joseph fell upon his father’s face,
And did with tears his lifeless lips embrace:
And sends for his physicians and advises
Them to embalm his father’s corpse with spices.
And they did so, and forty days did pass.
(For so the manner of embalming was)
And the Egyptians mourned for the space
Of three score and ten days, which being expired
He spake to Pharaoh’s servants and desired,
That they would please to speak in Pharaoh’s ear,
And tell him that my father made me swear,
That I should bury him in Canaan, where
He hath provided his own sepulchre.
I therefore pray thee that I may obtain
Thy leave, and I will soon return again.
And Pharaoh said, Since thou hast sworn, fulfil
Thy oath, according to thy father’s will.
And Joseph went up to accompany
His father’s corpse with great solemnity.
And with him went up Pharaoh’s servants, and
The prime nobility of all the land,
And Joseph’s household, and his brethren all,
Only their flocks, and herds, and children small
Were left behind. Moreover there went up
Chariots and horsemen, ev’n a mighty troop.
And they came up to Atad’s threshing floor
Beyond the river Jordan, where full sore
They mourned for him till seven days were past,
So long their mourning in that place did last.
Which when the Canaanites beheld they said,
Surely some eminent Egyptian’s dead.
Wherefore they call’d it Abel-mizraim.
Thus did his sons as he commanded them.
For to the land of Canaan they convey’d
Him, and in Machpelah near Mamre, laid
His body in the cave which Ephron sold
To Abraham, for him and his to hold.
And thus when Joseph fully had perform’d
His father’s will, to Egypt he return’d,
Together with his brethren, and with all
Them that came with him to the funeral.
Now Joseph’s brethren being well aware
That they were fatherless, began to fear
That he would hate them, and requite them all
The evil they had treated him withal.
Wherefore to him they sent a messenger
And said, Behold our father did declare
Before he died, that we should come and say,
Forgive thy brethren’s trespasses, I pray;
And their misdeeds, for they have been unkind.
And now we humbly pray thee be inclin’d
To pardon our offences, and the rather
For that we serve the God e’en of thy father.
And Joseph wept when they thus spake, and they
Came nearer, and before him prostrate lay,
And said, We are thy servants all this day.
And Joseph bad them not to be afraid,
For in the place of God am I he said:
For though you meant me ill, God meant it good,
And sent me hither to provide you food.
Now therefore trouble not yourselves, for I
Will nourish you, and all your family.
After this manner did he satisfy,
And treat them with extreme civility.
And Joseph and his father’s house remain’d
In Egypt, and he liv’d till he attain’d
An hundred and ten years, and liv’d to see
Of Ephraim’s children to the third degree.
And Macher’s children of Manasseh’s tribe
Were also born some time before he died.
Then Joseph said, My brethren, lo! I die,
But God will visit you undoubtedly;
And to that land again whereof he spake
Unto our ancestors, will bring you back.
And Joseph also made his brethren swear,
That they would not inter his body there.
And thus he ended his life’s pilgrimage,
Being an hundred and ten years of age;
And was embalm’d, and in a coffin laid,
In Egypt, till he could be thence convey’d.