The episode opens with the standard introduction and begins the Genesis 49 reading with Jacob's final charge to his sons. Israel, as he is called in this passage, instructs them to bury him with his ancestors in the cave at Machpelah, near Mamre in Canaan. He identifies who is buried there: Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, and Leah. The field was purchased from the Hittites. After delivering this instruction, Jacob draws up his feet into the bed and breathes his last. Joseph's immediate response is to throw himself on his father's face, weep, and kiss him. He commands physicians to embalm the body, a process taking 40 days. The Egyptians observe 70 days of mourning. Joseph then addresses Pharaoh's household, explaining his sworn oath and requesting permission to take his father's body to Canaan. Pharaoh grants it. The funeral procession is large: all the servants of Pharaoh, elders of Egypt, Joseph's household, his brothers, and their father's household travel together. Chariots and charioteers accompany them. At the threshing floor of Atad beyond the Jordan, they hold a great and sorrowful lamentation for seven days. Canaanites observing the mourning name the place Abel Mizraim, meaning meadow of Egypt. Jacob is buried in the cave of Machpelah as instructed, and Joseph returns to Egypt with the company. The three psalms — 97, 99, and 100 — offer compact praise. Psalm 97 describes a God surrounded by clouds, fire, and lightning, before whom mountains melt. Psalm 99 praises God as king enthroned on the cherubim, names Moses, Aaron, and Samuel as those who called on God and were answered, and commands worship at his holy hill. Psalm 100 is a brief call to joyful service, acknowledging that God made us and we are his people. The 1 Corinthians reading opens with Paul explicitly not commending the Corinthians, because their communal gatherings are doing more harm than good. He describes divisions and a meal practice where some eat to excess while others go without. He then transitions to the words of institution, citing the Lord's own example from the night of his betrayal. He warns that those who eat and drink without discerning the body eat and drink judgment against themselves and asserts this has caused weakness, illness, and death in the community. He closes by instructing them to wait for one another and, if hungry, to eat at home. The Mark 8 reading presents the feeding of four thousand with seven loaves and a few fish, after which seven baskets of fragments are gathered.
