But before agreeing to this change of home Jacob asked God if he should go to Egypt. God told him to go, and on the way his long-lost son Joseph met him and took him to Pharaoh, who received him very kindly.
Jacob and his sons lived peaceably in Egypt for seventeen years, and then Jacob died at the age of a hundred and forty-seven years. But before he died he blessed Joseph's two sons and made him promise to bury him in the family sepulchre, the cave of Machpelah.
As the end approached, Jacob blessed all his twelve sons and foretold what their lives would be, bestowing a peculiar blessing upon his third son, Judah, from whose descendants should be born the Saviour of his people.
Jacob's body was embalmed and carried to the land of Canaan, attended by his twelve sons, and a great company of Pharaoh's household, and buried in the cave of Machpelah as he had directed.