When the days of mourning had passed, Joseph said to Pharaoh’s court, “If I have found favor in your eyes, speak to Pharaoh for me. Tell him,
He said, “If I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, do not pass your servant by.
taking a full forty days, for that was the time required for embalming. And the Egyptians mourned for him seventy days.
‘My father made me swear an oath and said, “I am about to die; bury me in the tomb I dug for myself in the land of Canaan.” Now let me go up and bury my father; then I will return.’ ”
But he went only as far as the king’s gate, because no one clothed in sackcloth was allowed to enter it.