The Torah describes Jacob's burial as a solemn procession to Canaan. Targum Jonathan turns it into an epic confrontation complete with a golden deathbed, a eulogy comparing Jacob to a cosmic tree, a seventy-day mourning that credited his righteousness with ending the famine, and a violent showdown at the cave of Machpelah.
Joseph laid his father "upon a couch of ivory framed with pure gold, inlaid with precious stones, and secured with cords of fine linen." There they poured fervent wines and burned costly perfumes. The chiefs of Esau's house and the chiefs of Ishmael's house stood present. Then Judah—called "the Lion of Judah, the strength of his brethren"—delivered a eulogy unlike anything in the Torah: "Come, let us raise up to our father a tall cedar whose head shall reach to the top of heaven, and its branches overshadow all the inhabitants of the earth, and its roots extend to the depths of the abyss. From it have arisen the twelve tribes, and from it will arise kings, princes, and priests."
The Egyptians mourned Jacob for seventy days, and the Targum gives their reason: "Come, let us lament over Jacob the Holy, whose righteousness turned away the famine from the land of Egypt. For it had been decreed that there should be forty-two years of famine, but through the righteousness of Jacob forty years are withheld from Egypt, and there came famine but for two years only." Jacob's mere presence had reduced a forty-two-year catastrophe to just two years.
The burial journey proceeds normally until the procession reaches Hebron. Then everything falls apart. When Jacob's sons arrive at the Cave of Machpelah, "Esau the Wicked journeyed from the mountain of Seir with many legions and came to Hebron, and would not suffer Joseph to bury his father in the Double Cave." Esau showed up with an army and blocked the burial.
Naphtali—the fastest runner among the brothers—sprinted all the way to Egypt and back in a single day to retrieve the legal document proving Esau had sold his share of the cave. But the crisis was not resolved by paperwork. The Targum says Joseph "beckoned to Hushim the son of Dan, who unsheathed the sword and struck off the head of the Wicked Esau." Hushim, according to rabbinic tradition, was deaf and could not understand why the burial was being delayed. When he learned Esau was obstructing his grandfather's funeral, he simply cut off Esau's head. The head "rolled into the midst of the cave and rested upon the bosom of Isaac his father." Esau's body was buried separately in the field.
After the burial, Joseph's brothers feared retaliation because Joseph "did not return to eat together with them." They sent Bilhah—not a messenger, but their father's concubine—to plead their case. Joseph's response in the Targum is more theological than the Torah's version: "The Word of the Lord thought on me for good." He explains that his father had seated him at the head of the table, and it was Jacob's honor—not resentment—that kept him separate.
Joseph's final prophecy contains a remarkable detail. He makes his brothers swear to tell their children: "You shall not presume to go up out of Egypt until the time that two Deliverers shall come, and say to you, Remembering, remember ye the Lord." Two redeemers, not one—traditionally identified as Moses and Aaron. And when Joseph died, "they embalmed him with perfumes, laid him in an ark, and submerged him in the midst of the Nile." His coffin was sunk in the river itself, where it would remain hidden for generations.
And Joseph laid his father upon a couch of ivory which was framed with pure gold, and inlaid with precious stones, and secured with cords of byssus. There they poured out fervid wines, and there burned they most costly perfumes: there stood the chiefs of the house of Esau and the chiefs of the house of Ishmael; there stood the Lion of Jehuda, the strength of his brethren. He answered and said to his brethren, Come, and let as raise up to our father a tall cedar whose head shall reach to the top of heaven, and its branches overshadow all the inhabitants of the earth, and its roots extend to the depths of the abyss: from it have arisen the twelve tribes, and from it will arise kings, princes, and priests in their divisions, to offer oblations, and from it the Levites in their appointments for singing. Then, behold, Joseph bowed himself upon his father's face, and wept over him, and kissed him.
And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father; and the physicians embalmed Israel.
And the forty days of embalming were completed to him; for so fulfil they the days of embalming; and the Mizraee lamented him seventy days; saying one to another, Come, let us lament over Jakob the Holy, whose righteousness turned away the famine from the land of Mizraim. For it had been decreed that there should be forty and two years of famine, but through the righteousness of Jakob forty years are withheld from Mizraim, and there came famine but for two years only.
And the days of his mourning passed. And Joseph spake with the lords of the house of Pharoh, saying If I may find favour in your eyes, speak now in the hearing of Pharoh, saying,
My father made me swear, saying, Behold, I die, in the sepulchre which I have prepared for me in the land of Kenaan there shalt thou bury me. And now let me go up and bury my father, and I will return.
And Pharoh said, Go up, and bury thy father, according as he made thee swear.
And Joseph went up to bury his father; and all the servants of Pharoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Mizraim, went up with him.
And all the men of Joseph's house, and his brethren, and his father's household: only their children, and their sheep and oxen, left they in the land of Goshen.
And there went up with him chariots and horsemen and a very great host.
And they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jardena, and there they lamented with a great and mighty lamentation. And he made there a mourning for his father seven days.
And the inhabitants of the land of Kenaan beheld the mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, and they loosed the girdles of their loins in honour of Jakob, and spread forth their hands, and said, This is a mighty mourning of the Mizraee. Therefore he called the name of the, place Abel Mizraim, which is on the other side of Jardena.
And his sons did for him as he had commanded them.
But when his sons had brought him into the land of Kenaan, and the thing was heard by Esau the Wicked, he journeyed from the mountain of Gebala with many legions, and came to Hebron, and would not suffer Joseph to bury his father in the Double Cave. Then forthwith went Naphtali and ran, and went down to Mizraim, and came in that day, and brought the Instrument that Esau had written for Jakob his brother in the controversy of the Double Cave. And immediately he beckoned to Hushim the son of Dan, who unsheathed the sword and struck off the head of the Wicked Esau, and the head of Esau rolled into the midst of the cave, and rested upon the bosom of Izhak his father; and the sons of Esau buried his body in the double field, and afterward the sons of Jakob buried him in the cave of the double field; in the field which Abraham bought for an inheritance--sepulchre, of Ephron the Hitah, over against Mamre.
And Joseph returned to Mizraim, he and his brethren, and all who went up with him to bury his father, after they had buried his father.
And Joseph's brethren saw that their father was dead, and that he (Joseph) did not return to eat together with them, and they said, Perhaps Joseph ill bring upon us all retaineth enmity against us, and will bring upon us all the evil that we did him.
And they instructed Bilhah to say to Joseph, Thy father commanded before his death to speak to thee,
Thus shall you say to Joseph, Forgive now the guilt of thy brethren and their sin, for they committed evil against thee; but forgive, I beseech thee, the guilt of the servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake with him.
And his brethren came also, and bowed themselves before him, and said, Behold, we are thy servants.
And Joseph said to them, Fear not, for I will not do you evil, but good; for I fear and humble myself before the Lord.
You indeed imagined against me evil thoughts, that when I did not recline with you to eat it was because I retained enmity against you. But the Word of the Lord thought on me for good; for my father hath caused me to sit at the head, and on account of his honour I received; but now not for the sake of my (own) righteousness or merit was it given me to work out for you deliverance this day for the preservation of much people of the house of Jakob.
And now fear not; I will sustain you and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake consolation to their heart.
And Joseph dwelt in Mizraim, he and his father's house. And Joseph lived a hundred and ten years.
And Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third generation; also the sons of Makir the son of Menasheh, when they were born, were circumcised by Joseph.
And Joseph said to his Brethren Behold, I die; but the Lord remembering will remember you and will bring you up from this land, into the land which He sware to Abraham, to Izhak, and to Jakob.
And Joseph adjured the sons of Israel to say to their sons Behold, you will be brought into servitude in Mizraim; but you shall not presume to go up out of Mizraim until the time that two Deliverers shall come, and say to you, Remembering, remember ye the Lord. And at the time when ye go up ye shall carry up my bones from hence.
And Joseph died, the son of a hundred and ten years. And they embalmed him with perfumes, and laid him in an ark, and submerged him in the midst of the Nilos of Mizraim.
