Study Desk

The embalming process took the usual forty days. And the Egyptians mourned his death for seventy days.

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."

So Joseph went up to bury his father. He was accompanied by all of Pharaoh's officials, all the senior members of Pharaoh's household, and all the senior officers of Egypt.

Joseph 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 Goshen.

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

After burying Jacob, Joseph returned to Egypt with his brothers and all who had accompanied him to his father's burial.

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

Then his brothers came and threw themselves down before Joseph. "Look, we are your slaves!" they said.

So Joseph and his brothers and their families continued to live in Egypt. Joseph lived to the age of 110.

He lived to see three generations of descendants of his son Ephraim, and he lived to see the birth of the children of Manasseh's son Makir, whom he claimed as his own.

"Soon I will die," Joseph told his brothers, "but God will surely come to help you and lead you out of this land of Egypt. He will bring you back to the land he solemnly promised to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob."

So Joseph died at the age of 110. The Egyptians embalmed him, and his body was placed in a coffin in Egypt.

These are the names of the sons of Israel (that is, Jacob) who moved to Egypt with their father, each with his family:

In time, Joseph and all of his brothers died, ending that entire generation.

He said to his people, "Look, the people of Israel now outnumber us and are stronger than we are.

Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: "Throw every newborn Hebrew boy into the Nile River. But you may let the girls live."

Later, when the boy was older, his mother brought him back to Pharaoh's daughter, who adopted him as her own son. The princess named him Moses, for she explained, "I lifted him out of the water."

Many years later, when Moses had grown up, he went out to visit his own people, the Hebrews, and he saw how hard they were forced to work. During his visit, he saw an Egyptian beating one of his fellow Hebrews.

The next day, when Moses went out to visit his people again, he saw two Hebrew men fighting. "Why are you beating up your friend?" Moses said to the one who had started the fight.

Moses accepted the invitation, and he settled there with him. In time, Reuel gave Moses his daughter Zipporah to be his wife.