First Reading: Genesis 49:29-32; 50:15-26

²⁹ Then he charged them, and said to them, “I am to be gathered to my people; bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite,
³⁰ in the cave that is in the field at Mach-pe’lah, to the east of Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite to possess as a burying place.
³¹ There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah —
³² the field and the cave that is in it were purchased from the Hittites.”
¹⁵ When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil which we did to him.”
¹⁶ So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, “Your father gave this command before he died,
¹⁷ `Say to Joseph, Forgive, I pray you, the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you.’ And now, we pray you, forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.” Joseph wept when they spoke to him.
¹⁸ His brothers also came and fell down before him, and said, “Behold, we are your servants.”
¹⁹ But Joseph said to them, “Fear not, for am I in the place of God?
²⁰ As for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.
²¹ So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.” Thus he reassured them and comforted them.
²² So Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he and his father’s house; and Joseph lived a hundred and ten years.
²³ And Joseph saw E’phraim’s children of the third generation; the children also of Machir the son of Manas’seh were born upon Joseph’s knees.
²⁴ And Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die; but God will visit you, and bring you up out of this land to the land which he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.”
²⁵ Then Joseph took an oath of the sons of Israel, saying, “God will visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.”
²⁶ So Joseph died, being a hundred and ten years old; and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.