10.   11. And he came to the threshing floor of Atad, where it was half the Jordan, and wept over it with great weeping and strong weeping: and thou shalt weep to thy father seven days. And when the inhabitants of the land of Canaan saw weeping on the threshing floor of Athad, they said, "This is a great lament of Egypt." For this reason the name of that place was called Lamentations of Egypt, if there is half of the Jordan on it.

The funeral movement did not take a direct route to Hebron through the land of the Philistines, but a more remote and roundabout one: it went through the Arabian desert to Idumea, from there, along the eastern shore of the Dead Sea, it reached the eastern banks of the Jordan, and here it stopped at the threshing floor of Atad. In the direction of the funeral procession, it is impossible not to see a prophetic indication of the Israelites' path to Canaan after their exodus from Egypt, which took place more than 200 years later, for this path followed the same direction. On the threshing floor of Atad, all those who participated in the funeral procession remained for seven days, loudly mourning for Jacob. The custom of seven days of mourning for the dead, properly Jewish, was retained among the Jews in later times (1 Samuel 31:13, Sir 22:11).

12.13 And he did this to his sons (Israel) as they commanded them, and took his sons to the land of Canaan, and buried him in a cave where Abraham had acquired a cave for the sepulchre of Ephron the Hittite, right in Mamre.

Having paid the last funeral honors to Jacob on the border of the land of Canaan, together with the Egyptians, his sons crossed the Jordan and, having reached Hebron, laid the body of their father in the cave of Machpel, which Abraham had bought from a Canaanite for the purchase of a tomb, that is, in order to have a burial vault there. According to the translation from the Greek, this cave is called a special one, in the sense that it was either divided into two parts, one for the burial of males, the other for females, or it was represented by two compartments, the outer and the inner: the latter was among the first and was included in it. probably in order not to arouse in the natives distrust of their peacefulness and not to cause hostile clashes by their numbers and military situation.

14.15 And Joseph returned to Egypt himself, and his brethren, and all those who had come together to bury his father. And when the brethren of Joseph saw that their father was dead, they said, "Not when Joseph will remember our wickedness, and recompense us for all the evil that we have shown him."

Upon the return of Joseph and his brothers to Egypt, fear for their safety arose in the latter. They reasoned that while Jacob lived, Joseph spared them out of love for his father. Now, with the death of Jacob, there was no support for them, no hope for Joseph's former favor towards them. Now there is no one to restrain him, if he decides to take revenge on them for the evil deed against him.

16. 17. And when he came to Joseph, he said, "Thy father hath cursed before his death," saying, Thus say unto Joseph, Forgive them iniquity and their sin; For I have shown you the evil one. And now receive the iniquity of the servants of your father's God. And Joseph wept as they spake unto him.

Joseph's brothers, asking him to accept their unrighteousness, i.e. not to repay them for their guilt against him, point to two circumstances: 1) Jacob himself, before his death, instructed them to convey his request to Joseph for their forgiveness (in the previous narrative of Moses, however, this circumstance is not mentioned); (2) they, Joseph's brothers, are servants of his father's God, i.e., they worship the same God whom his father honored. Joseph must therefore be lenient with them for the sake of respect for the will of his deceased father, and for the sake of the fact that they belong to the worshippers of the true God, of whom there were very few in the whole world at that time. Joseph's tears, when he listened to the brothers' speech, testified that he was touched by it and did not think of any evil against them.

18. 19. 20. 21. And He came to him, saying, Behold, we are your servants. And Joseph said to them, "Do not be afraid, for I am God." Ye shall counsel against me, O evil one, but God hath counseled concerning me for good, that it may be as it is today, and that many people may be nourished. And he said to them, "Do not be afraid, for I will nourish you, and your houses." And comfort them, and speak to them after their hearts.