ed to
bury him in the land of Canaan. To whom Pharaoh said: Go and bury thy
father like as thou hast sworn. Which then took his father's body and
went, and with him were accompanied all the aged men of Pharaoh's house,
and the noblest men of birth of all the land of Egypt, the house of
Joseph with his brethren, without the young children, flocks and beasts,
which they left in the land of Goshen. He had in his fellowship
chariots, carts and horsemen, and was a great tourbe and company, and
came over Jordan where as they hallowed the exequies by great wailing
seven days long. And when they of the country saw this plaint and
sorrowing they said: This is a great sorrow to the Egyptians. And that
same place is named yet the bewailing of Egypt. The children of Israel
did as they were commanded, and bare him into the land of Canaan, and
buried him in the double spelunke which Abraham had bought. Then when
Jacob the father was buried, Joseph with all his fellowship returned
into Egypt. Then his brethren after the death of their father spake
together privily, and dreading that Joseph would avenge the wrong and
evil that they had done to him, came to him and said: Thy father
commanded us ere he died that we should say thus to thee: We pray thee
that thou wilt forget, and not remember the sin and trespass of thy
brethren, ne the malice that they executed in thee. We beseech thee
that thou wilt forgive to thy father, servant of God, this wickedness.
Which when Joseph heard he wept bitterly, and his brethren came to him
kneeling low to the ground and worshipped him, and said, We be thy
servants. To whom he answered: Be ye nothing afeard ne dread you not,
ween ye that ye may resist God's will? Ye thought to have done to me
evil, but God hath turned it into good, and hath exalted me as ye see
and know, that he should save much people. Be ye nothing afeard, I shall
feed you and your children. And comforted them with fair words, and
spake friendly and joyously to them. And he abode and dwelled still in
Egypt with all the house of his father, and lived an hundred and ten
years, and saw the sons of Ephraim in to the third generation. After
these things he said to his brethren: After my death, God shall visit
you and shall do you depart from this land unto the land that he
promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. When that time shall come, take
my bones and lead them with you from this place, and then died. Whose
body was embalmed with sweet