Genesis 50
Big idea: Genesis closes with two funerals and one sentence that explains the whole book. Egypt mourns Jacob for seventy days, and a state procession of chariots and horsemen carries him to Canaan to a cave bought for four hundred shekels. Then the brothers, with their father gone, send Joseph a message and fall down before him, offering themselves as slaves — the fear never left them. His answer is the book's thesis: don't be afraid; am I in the place of God? You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to save many people alive. And at the end, dying at a hundred and ten, he refuses an Egyptian grave: God will surely visit you and bring you up out of this land. Carry my bones up from here. Genesis ends in a coffin in Egypt with an unfinished promise inside it.
Genesis ends with Joseph's bones waiting in Egypt for a deliverance that has been promised but not seen. Exodus opens with the same names, four hundred years later, and a new king who did not know Joseph.
50:1–14 — Carried up to Canaan
Joseph falls on his father's face, weeps and kisses him, then has the physicians embalm him — forty days for the embalming, and Egypt weeps for seventy. He asks Pharaoh's household for leave to keep his oath, and Pharaoh grants it: go up and bury your father as he made you swear. The procession is enormous — all Pharaoh's servants, the elders of Egypt, Joseph's whole household, chariots and horsemen. At the threshing floor of Atad they mourn seven days more, and the Canaanites name the place Abel Mizraim, the mourning of Egypt. His sons carry him into Canaan and bury him in the cave at Machpelah, and everyone returns to Egypt.
1 Joseph fell on his father’s face, wept on him, and kissed him. 2 Joseph commanded his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father; and the physicians embalmed Israel. 3 Forty days were used for him, for that is how many days it takes to embalm. The Egyptians wept for Israel for seventy days. 4 When the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph spoke to Pharaoh’s staff, saying, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, please speak in the ears of Pharaoh, saying, 5 ‘My father made me swear, saying, “Behold, I am dying. Bury me in my grave which I have dug for myself in the land of Canaan.” Now therefore, please let me go up and bury my father, and I will come again.’” 6 Pharaoh said, “Go up, and bury your father, just like he made you swear.” 7 Joseph went up to bury his father; and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, all the elders of the land of Egypt, 8 all the house of Joseph, his brothers, and his father’s house. Only their little ones, their flocks, and their herds, they left in the land of Goshen. 9 Both chariots and horsemen went up with him. It was a very great company. 10 They came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, and there they lamented with a very great and severe lamentation. He mourned for his father seven days. 11 When the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning in the floor of Atad, they said, “This is a grievous mourning by the Egyptians.” Therefore its name was called Abel Mizraim, which is beyond the Jordan. 12 His sons did to him just as he commanded them, 13 for his sons carried him into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which Abraham bought with the field, as a possession for a burial site, from Ephron the Hittite, near Mamre. 14 Joseph returned into Egypt—he, and his brothers, and all that went up with him to bury his father, after he had buried his father.
50:15–21 — You meant evil; God meant it for good
With their father dead, the brothers panic: what if Joseph hates us and pays us back for all the evil we did? They send a message claiming their father commanded him to forgive them, and Joseph weeps when it reaches him. Then they come and fall down before him: behold, we are your servants. His answer is the summit of the book: don't be afraid, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring about that many people should be kept alive. Now don't be afraid — I will provide for you and your little ones. And he comforts them and speaks kindly to them.
15 When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “It may be that Joseph will hate us, and will fully pay us back for all the evil which we did to him.” 16 They sent a message to Joseph, saying, “Your father commanded before he died, saying, 17 ‘You shall tell Joseph, “Now please forgive the disobedience of your brothers, and their sin, because they did evil to you.”’ Now, please forgive the disobedience of the servants of the God of your father.” Joseph wept when they spoke to him. 18 His brothers also went and fell down before his face; and they said, “Behold, we are your servants.” 19 Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid, for am I in the place of God? 20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to save many people alive, as is happening today. 21 Now therefore don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your little ones.” He comforted them, and spoke kindly to them.
50:22–26 — Carry my bones up from here
Joseph lives a hundred and ten years in Egypt and sees Ephraim's children to the third generation, and Machir's children born on his knees. Then he tells his brothers: I am dying, but God will surely visit you and bring you up out of this land to the land he swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He takes an oath from the children of Israel — God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here. So Joseph dies at a hundred and ten, and they embalm him, and he is put in a coffin in Egypt.
22 Joseph lived in Egypt, he, and his father’s house. Joseph lived one hundred ten years. 23 Joseph saw Ephraim’s children to the third generation. The children also of Machir, the son of Manasseh, were born on Joseph’s knees. 24 Joseph said to his brothers, “I am dying, but God will surely visit you, and bring you up out of this land to the land which he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” 25 Joseph took an oath from the children of Israel, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.” 26 So Joseph died, being one hundred ten years old, and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.
Scripture text: World English Bible (public domain).