6. Pharaoh answered, “Keep your promise. Go and bury your father.”
7. So Joseph went to bury his father. All of Pharaoh’s officials, personal advisors, and all the older leaders of Egypt went with Joseph.
8. All the people in Joseph’s family, his brothers, and all the people in his father’s family went with him. Only the children and the animals stayed in the land of Goshen.
9. So there was a large crowd of people with him. There was even a group of soldiers riding in chariots and some on horses.
10. They went to Goren Atad, east of the Jordan River. There they had a long funeral service for Israel, which continued for seven days.
11. When the people who lived in Canaan saw the funeral service at Goren Atad, they said, “This is a time of great sorrow for those Egyptians.” So now that place across the Jordan River is named Abel Mizraim.
12. So Jacob’s sons did what their father told them.
13. They carried his body to Canaan and buried it in the cave at Machpelah. This was the cave near Mamre in the field that Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite. Abraham bought that cave to use as a burial place.
14. After Joseph buried his father, he and everyone in the group with him went back to Egypt.
15. After Jacob died, Joseph’s brothers were worried. They were afraid that Joseph would still be mad at them for what they had done years before. They said, “Maybe Joseph still hates us for what we did.”
16. So the brothers sent this message to Joseph: “Before your father died, he told us to give you a message.
17. He said, ‘Tell Joseph that I beg him to please forgive his brothers for the bad things they did to him.’ So now Joseph, we beg you, please forgive us for the bad things we did to you. We are the servants of God, the God of your father.” That message made Joseph very sad, and he cried.