Genesis 50:4-5

Joseph did not speak to *Pharaoh but he sent a message. We do not know why he did not speak to *Pharaoh himself. Perhaps he did not approach *Pharaoh because he had touched Jacob’s dead body.

‘After I do that, I will return.’ Jacob promised to *Pharaoh that he would return to Egypt. He would not take the opportunity to move his home back to *Canaan.

v7 So Joseph went to bury his father. And all *Pharaoh’s servants went with Joseph. The leaders of *Pharaoh’s court went and all the important inhabitants of Egypt went. v8 Joseph’s brothers went. Joseph’s servants and his father’s servants went. Only the children and the sheep and the cows stayed in *Goshen. v9 And *chariots and horsemen also went with Joseph. Very many people went together.

v10 They came to the farm of Atad, which was near the river Jordan. They stopped there and they wept loudly and bitterly. There Joseph wept for his father for 7 days. v11 The *Canaanites, who lived in the region, saw the weeping at the farm of Atad. They said, ‘The inhabitants of Egypt weep bitterly.’ Therefore, they called the place Abel-mizraim. It is near the river Jordan.

v12 And so Jacob’s sons did for him as he had *commanded them. v13 They carried him to his own country, *Canaan. And they buried him in the cave that is at Machpelah. It is east of Mamre. The cave is in the field that Abraham bought from Ephron the *Hittite. He bought it so as to use it as a grave. v14 When Joseph had buried his father, he returned to Egypt with his brothers. And all those people who had gone with him returned to Egypt.