Genesis 50
The Death of Jacob and Joseph
1Joseph fell on his father’s face, wept on him, and kissed him.
2Joseph commanded his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father; and the physicians embalmed Israel.
3Forty days were used for him, for that is how many days it takes to embalm. The Egyptians wept for Israel for seventy days.
4When 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.’”
6Pharaoh said, “Go up, and bury your father, just like he made you swear.”
7Joseph 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,
8all 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.
9Both chariots and horsemen went up with him. It was a very great company.
10They 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.
11When 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.
12His sons did to him just as he commanded them,
13for 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.
14Joseph returned into Egypt—he, and his brothers, and all that went up with him to bury his father, after he had buried his father.
15When 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.”
16They 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.
18His brothers also went and fell down before his face; and they said, “Behold, we are your servants.”
19Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid, for am I in the place of God?
20As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to save many people alive, as is happening today.
21Now therefore don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your little ones.” He comforted them, and spoke kindly to them.
22Joseph lived in Egypt, he, and his father’s house. Joseph lived one hundred ten years.
23Joseph saw Ephraim’s children to the third generation. The children also of Machir, the son of Manasseh, were born on Joseph’s knees.
24Joseph 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.”
25Joseph took an oath from the children of Israel, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.”
26So Joseph died, being one hundred ten years old, and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.
Genesis 50 concludes the book with Jacob's burial and Joseph's final years. After Jacob's death, Joseph honors his father with Egyptian embalming and a grand funeral procession to Canaan, where Jacob is buried in the family tomb at Machpelah. When Joseph's brothers fear retribution after their father's death, Joseph reassures them with his famous declaration that God transformed their evil intentions into good for the preservation of many lives.
Context
This chapter brings Genesis full circle, ending where it began with God's promise to Abraham about the land, while setting up the eventual exodus from Egypt.
Key Themes
Outline
- 1-3Jacob's Death and EmbalmingJoseph grieves his father's death and arranges for Egyptian embalming, with seventy days of mourning.
- 4-6Request to Bury Jacob in CanaanJoseph asks Pharaoh's permission to fulfill his oath to bury Jacob in the promised land.
- 7-14The Funeral Procession and BurialA great company accompanies Jacob's body to Canaan, where he is buried in the cave of Machpelah.
- 15-21Joseph Forgives His BrothersJoseph reassures his fearful brothers, declaring that God used their evil for good to save many lives.
- 22-26Joseph's Final Years and DeathJoseph lives to 110 years, sees his great-grandchildren, and makes his brothers swear to carry his bones to Canaan.
The Death of Jacob and Joseph
50:1–50:26Joseph mourns his father Jacob's death, embalms him according to Egyptian custom, and fulfills his oath by burying Jacob in the promised land of Canaan alongside Abraham.
person_contrast
Joseph's elaborate Egyptian embalming of Jacob creates a striking paradox—using foreign burial practices to preserve the patriarch for burial in the covenant land of promise.
Genesis 50:1
1 Samuel 20:41lexicalAs soon as the boy was gone, David arose out of the south, and fell on his face to the ground, and bowed himself three t…
Genesis 33:4lexicalEsau ran to meet him, embraced him, fell on his neck, kissed him, and they wept.
Genesis 46:29lexicalJoseph prepared his chariot, and went up to meet Israel, his father, in Goshen. He presented himself to him, and fell on…
Genesis 50:4
Genesis 47:29lexicalThe time came near that Israel must die, and he called his son Joseph, and said to him, “If now I have found favor in yo…
Genesis 39:4lexicalJoseph found favor in his sight. He ministered to him, and Potiphar made him overseer over his house, and all that he ha…
Genesis 47:25lexicalThey said, “You have saved our lives! Let us find favor in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh’s servants.”
1 Kings 11:19lexicalHadad found great favor in the sight of Pharaoh, so that he gave him as wife the sister of his own wife, the sister of T…
Genesis 50:5
2 Chronicles 16:14lexicalThey buried him in his own tomb, which he had dug out for himself in David’s city, and laid him in the bed which was fil…
Genesis 23:4lexical“I am a stranger and a foreigner living with you. Give me a possession of a burying-place with you, that I may bury my d…
Genesis 50:8
Genesis 47:1lexicalThen Joseph went in and told Pharaoh, and said, “My father and my brothers, with their flocks, their herds, and all that…
Exodus 10:24lexicalPharaoh called to Moses, and said, “Go, serve the LORD. Only let your flocks and your herds stay behind. Let your little…
Genesis 45:10lexicalYou shall dwell in the land of Goshen, and you will be near to me, you, your children, your children’s children, your fl…
Genesis 47:17lexicalThey brought their livestock to Joseph, and Joseph gave them bread in exchange for the horses, and for the flocks, and f…
Genesis 50:9
2 Chronicles 16:8lexicalWeren’t the Ethiopians and the Lubim a huge army, with chariots and exceedingly many horsemen? Yet, because you relied o…
Isaiah 31:1lexicalWoe to those who go down to Egypt for help, and rely on horses, and trust in chariots because they are many, and in hors…
Exodus 19:16lexicalOn the third day, when it was morning, there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mountain, and the so…
Joshua 11:4lexicalThey went out, they and all their armies with them, many people, even as the sand that is on the seashore in multitude,…
Genesis 50:10
Micah 1:8lexicalFor this I will lament and wail. I will go stripped and naked. I will howl like the jackals and mourn like the ostriches…
1 Chronicles 26:30lexicalOf the Hebronites, Hashabiah and his brothers, one thousand seven hundred men of valor, had the oversight of Israel beyo…
Genesis 50:11
Joshua 9:1lexicalWhen all the kings who were beyond the Jordan, in the hill country, and in the lowland, and on all the shore of the grea…
Deuteronomy 11:30lexicalAren’t they beyond the Jordan, behind the way of the going down of the sun, in the land of the Canaanites who dwell in t…
Joshua 5:1lexicalWhen all the kings of the Amorites, who were beyond the Jordan westward, and all the kings of the Canaanites, who were b…
Genesis 50:13
Genesis 49:30lexicalin the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with t…
Genesis 25:9lexicalIsaac and Ishmael, his sons, buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron, the son of Zohar the Hittite,…
Genesis 23:19lexicalAfter this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre (that is, Hebron), in the l…
Genesis 23:17lexicalSo the field of Ephron, which was in Machpelah, which was before Mamre, the field, the cave which was in it, and all the…
Genesis 23:9lexicalthat he may sell me the cave of Machpelah, which he has, which is in the end of his field. For the full price let him se…
Genesis 50:17
Isaiah 38:3lexicaland said, “Remember now, LORD, I beg you, how I have walked before you in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done…
2 Kings 20:3lexical“Remember now, LORD, I beg you, how I have walked before you in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which…
Genesis 50:23
Genesis 46:20lexicalTo Joseph in the land of Egypt were born Manasseh and Ephraim, whom Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, bo…
Joshua 17:1lexicalThis was the lot for the tribe of Manasseh, for he was the firstborn of Joseph. As for Machir the firstborn of Manasseh,…
Numbers 36:1lexicalThe heads of the fathers’ households of the family of the children of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, of…
Numbers 27:1lexicalThen the daughters of Zelophehad, the son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, of the f…
Numbers 26:29lexicalThe sons of Manasseh: of Machir, the family of the Machirites; and Machir became the father of Gilead; of Gilead, the fa…
Genesis 50:24
Genesis 31:53lexicalThe God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us.” Then Jacob swore by the fear of hi…
Deuteronomy 30:20lexicalto love the LORD your God, to obey his voice, and to cling to him; for he is your life, and the length of your days, tha…
Deuteronomy 1:8lexicalBehold, I have set the land before you. Go in and possess the land which the LORD swore to your fathers—to Abraham, to I…
Exodus 33:1lexicalThe LORD spoke to Moses, “Depart, go up from here, you and the people that you have brought up out of the land of Egypt,…
Deuteronomy 9:5lexicalNot for your righteousness or for the uprightness of your heart do you go in to possess their land; but for the wickedne…
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