Genesis 50
1 And Joseph fell upon his father's face, and wept upon him, and kissed him.
2 And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father: and the physicians embalmed Israel.
3 And 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.
4 And 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,
5 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.
6 And Pharaoh said, Go up, and bury thy father, according as he made thee swear.
7 And 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,
8 And 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.
9 And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen: and it was a very great company.
10 And 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.
11 And 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 Abel-mizraim, which is beyond Jordan.
12 And his sons did unto him according 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 for a possession of a buryingplace of Ephron the Hittite, before Mamre.
14 And Joseph returned into Egypt, he, and his brethren, and all that went up with him to bury his father, after he had buried his father.
15 And 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.
16 And they sent a messenger unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying,
17 So 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.
18 And his brethren also went and fell down before his face; and they said, Behold, we be thy servants.
19 And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God?
20 But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.
21 Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them.
22 And Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he, and his father's house: and Joseph lived an hundred and ten years.
23 And Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third generation: the children also of Machir the son of Manasseh were brought up upon Joseph's knees.
24 And 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.
25 And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence.
26 So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years old: and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.
World Behind This Chapter
Explore the people, places, language, history, and material world connected to Genesis 50.
What does embalming tell us about the Egyptian setting?
Genesis describes physicians embalming Jacob over forty days and an extended mourning period. Egyptian mummification practices provide strong cultural context, though the details do not identify a precise historical period.
Why does Genesis give forty days for embalming?
Genesis gives forty days for Jacob’s embalming, while later descriptions of Egyptian mummification use different time spans. Egyptian practice changed across periods, and the precise relationship between Genesis’s forty days and known embalming procedures remains unresolved.
What route did the funeral procession take to Canaan?
The place called Abel-mizraim and the phrase “beyond the Jordan” have produced competing route reconstructions. The geography is not clear enough to draw one certain funeral itinerary.
Why do Joseph’s brothers fear him again after Jacob dies?
Jacob’s death removes the person they may have thought restrained Joseph. Their fear allows the narrative to revisit guilt, forgiveness, and Joseph’s interpretation of the family’s history.
Why is Joseph’s age at death 110 significant?
Egyptian texts sometimes present 110 years as an ideal lifespan. Joseph’s age creates a noteworthy cultural connection, but scholars debate what—if anything—it can tell us about the story’s historical or literary setting.
Sources to ExploreCurated research paths for this chapter 6
History & Daily Life2
- MummificationWorld History Encyclopedia
Accessible background on Egyptian mummification, useful for Jacob’s embalming and Joseph’s death at the close of Genesis.
- Our Mummified Patriarchs: Jacob and JosephTheTorah.com
Directly relevant to Genesis 50; explains Egyptian mummification and why Jacob and Joseph’s bodies are treated according to Egyptian burial practice.
Maps & Timeline1
- The Route of the ExodusBible Mapper
Forward-looking map resource for Joseph’s bones and the later movement from Egypt toward the promised land; use if you want Genesis 50 to point readers toward Exodus.
Language & Literature1
- Genesis 50:20 Hebrew InterlinearBible Hub
Verse-specific Hebrew study for Joseph’s famous statement: “you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.”
Artifacts & Manuscripts2
- Mummy Mask of a ManThe Metropolitan Museum of Art
Egyptian mummy mask; useful visual support for embalming, burial, and Egyptian funerary practice at the end of Genesis.
- Tales of the Prophets in Islamic TraditionLibrary of Congress
Fully digitized Arabic Qisas al-Anbiya, or Tales of the Prophets, attributed to al-Kisa’i. The work begins with creation and Adam and continues through Noah, Abraham, Hagar, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and later prophets, demonstrating how Pentateuchal figures were retold and expanded in medieval Islamic literature.
WORTH A CLOSER LOOK
A Middle Kingdom canopic jar
This Dynasty 12 canopic jar was made to hold an internal organ removed during mummification. Middle Kingdom jars commonly had human-headed lids. The object helps place Genesis 50’s references to embalming within a real Egyptian funerary world while avoiding the assumption that Egyptian practice remained unchanged across centuries.
View the objectThe close of Genesis
Genesis 50 closes both Jacob’s burial narrative and the Joseph story while leaving the family in Egypt, setting up the opening of Exodus.
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