Jacob’s death and burial bring his family’s history in Canaan to a close while affirming the ancestral burial place as their enduring point of belonging. His sons carry out his specific request to be laid in the Cave of Machpelah, and Joseph’s return to Egypt afterward sets the burial alongside the continuing life of the family there.

Jacob’s Final Request

Before his death, Jacob charges his sons to bury him in the cave in the field of Machpelah, before Mamre in the land of Canaan. He identifies it as the property Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite for a burial place, and names those already interred there: Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, and Leah. The request places Jacob’s own burial within a family lineage anchored in Canaan.

Jacob dies after completing his charge to his sons: he gathers his feet onto the bed, expires, and is gathered to his people. Joseph weeps over him and kisses him, then orders the physicians in his service to embalm him. The Egyptians mourn for seventy days; the embalming period itself lasts forty days.

The Funeral Procession

When the mourning period ends, Joseph seeks permission from Pharaoh to fulfill the oath Jacob had made him swear: to carry his father to Canaan for burial and then return. Pharaoh grants the request. Joseph travels with Pharaoh’s servants and household elders, the elders of Egypt, his brothers, and the rest of his father’s household; the young children, flocks, and herds remain in Goshen. Chariots and horsemen accompany the very great company.

At the threshing-floor of Atad, beyond the Jordan, the company mourns with a great lament, and Joseph observes seven days of mourning for his father. The Canaanites who see it call it a grievous mourning by the Egyptians; the place is consequently named Abel-mizraim.

Burial and Aftermath

Jacob’s sons carry out his instructions and bury him in the Cave of Machpelah, in the field Abraham bought from Ephron, in front of Mamre. The burial brings Jacob back to the family burial place in Canaan, while the rest of his household’s life remains centered in Egypt: after the burial, Joseph and his brothers return there with the others who had accompanied them.

The funeral also forms a hinge in the family story. After their father’s death, Joseph’s brothers fear he may repay them for the harm they did him, and they ask his forgiveness. The narrative thus follows the burial not with the end of the family’s conflict, but with its renewed confrontation and Joseph’s reassurance.