Jacob's burial in Canaan; Joseph reassures his brothers and dies in Egypt.
Genesis 50
Genesis 50
1And Joseph fell upon his father's face, and wept upon him, and kissed him.
Joseph's immediate emotional response to his father's death.
Cross References: Genesis 46:4, 2 Kings 13:14, John 11:35
2And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father: and the physicians embalmed Israel.
Egyptian burial customs applied to Jacob.
Cross References: Genesis 50:26, 2 Chronicles 16:14, Mark 16:1
3And forty days were fulfilled for him; for so are fulfilled the days of those which are embalmed: and the Egyptians mourned for him threescore and ten days.
4And when the days of his mourning were past, Joseph spake unto the house of Pharaoh, saying, If now I have found grace in your eyes, speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh, saying,
5My 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.
6And Pharaoh said, Go up, and bury thy father, according as he made thee swear.
Pharaoh's respect for Joseph and religious oaths.
Cross References: Genesis 47:31, Matthew 5:33, Ecclesiastes 5:4
7And Joseph went up to bury his father: and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt,
Large Egyptian contingent honors Jacob.
Cross References: Genesis 14:16, 1 Samuel 25:1, Acts 8:2
8And all the house of Joseph, and his brethren, and his father's house: only their little ones, and their flocks, and their herds, they left in the land of Goshen.
10And they came to the threshingfloor of Atad, which is beyond Jordan, and there they mourned with a great and very sore lamentation: and he made a mourning for his father seven days.
Public mourning ceremony in Canaan.
Cross References: 2 Samuel 1:17, Acts 8:2, Job 2:13
11And when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning in the floor of Atad, they said, This is a grievous mourning to the Egyptians: wherefore the name of it was called Abelmizraim, which is beyond Jordan.
Local recognition of the mourning's significance.
Cross References: 1 Samuel 6:18, 2 Samuel 1:17, Ecclesiastes 12:5
12And his sons did unto him according 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 for a possession of a buryingplace of Ephron the Hittite, before Mamre.
15And when Joseph's brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him.
16And they sent a messenger unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying,
Brothers seek reconciliation through father's words.
Cross References: Genesis 49:1, Proverbs 29:25, Luke 17:3
17So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren, and their sin; for they did unto thee evil: and now, we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake unto him.
Appeal for forgiveness moves Joseph.
Cross References: Matthew 6:12, Ephesians 4:32, Colossians 3:13
18And his brethren also went and fell down before his face; and they said, Behold, we be thy servants.
24And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die: and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.