Genesis 50:4-6

"And when the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph spake unto the house of Pharaoh, saying, If now I have found favor in your eyes, speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh, saying, My father made me swear, saying, Lo, I die: in my grave which I have digged for me in the land of Canaan, there shalt thou bury me. Now therefore let me go up, I pray thee, and bury my father, and I will come again. And Pharaoh said, Go up, and bury thy father, according as he made thee swear."

The question that arises here is why Joseph approached Pharaoh through messengers, rather than personally; and the question may not be answered dogmatically. Among the suggestions made are: "He approached Pharaoh through the priests who were principals in the house of Pharaoh, and since the burial of the dead was closely connected with their religious rites."[5] Peake thought it might have been that, "Joseph was a mourner, therefore unclean."[6] "Unshaven and unadorned, because of deep mourning," he could not see Pharaoh personally (see Genesis 41:14)."[7] "Another Pharaoh, not so friendly to Joseph, had ascended the throne."[8] Kline mentioned "diplomatic considerations,"[9] which is not unreasonable since Joseph's leaving Egypt was involved. It appears to us that Kline's suggestion is the most likely.

"My grave which I have digged for me in the land of Canaan ..." This is another instance of additional information being supplied in subsequent references to an event already mentioned. Certainly there is no need for finding here some evidence of "another document"! Abraham had indeed purchased Machpelah; but, probably, upon the occasion of Leah's burial there, Jacob also prepared for himself a grave within the cave. "There is no reason to object to the idea that Jacob went into the cave and digged from the rock his own grave."[10]