Genesis 50

Translator Notes

1. Joseph's grief is immediate and physical — he falls on his father's face, weeps, and kisses him. The three verbs (fell, wept, kissed) form a cascade of mourning that is both dignified and deeply emotional. This is the son who was separated from his father for over twenty years, who wept at their reunion (46:29), and who now weeps at the final parting.
2. The intimacy of 'falling on his face' (al-penei aviv) contrasts with Joseph's public role as Egypt's vizier. In this moment he is not the powerful governor but simply a bereaved son. Throughout the Joseph narrative, private grief punctuates public authority — Joseph has wept more than any other figure in Genesis.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. 'The physicians' (haro'fe'im) — Joseph uses court physicians rather than Egyptian embalmers (who were priestly functionaries). This may reflect a desire to keep Jacob's body within a medical rather than pagan religious context. Embalming was typically a priestly ritual in Egypt, associated with Osiris worship; Joseph's use of physicians suggests he distanced the process from its idolatrous associations.
2. 'The physicians embalmed Israel' — the narrator uses the covenant name 'Israel' (not 'Jacob') at this moment. Even in death, the body being prepared is that of the covenant bearer. The embalming preserves the body for the journey to Canaan — it is a practical necessity for transport, not an Egyptian theological statement about the afterlife.

Translator Notes

1. 'Forty days' for embalming — this aligns with what is known of Egyptian mummification practices, which ancient sources (Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus) describe as taking approximately 40 days for the treatment of the body, with the full mourning period extending to 70 days.
2. 'The Egyptians wept for him seventy days' (vayyivku oto Mitsrayim shiv'im yom) — the 70-day mourning period for Jacob nearly equals the 72 days of mourning prescribed for a pharaoh. This extraordinary honor reflects both Joseph's status and Jacob's importance as the father of Egypt's savior. The entire nation mourns a foreign patriarch — a remarkable testimony to the esteem in which Joseph's family was held.

Translator Notes

1. Joseph does not speak directly to Pharaoh but through intermediaries — Pharaoh's household. This may reflect mourning protocol: a person in mourning may have been ritually restricted from appearing before the king, or Joseph's disheveled, grief-stricken appearance may have made a direct audience inappropriate in Egyptian court etiquette.
2. 'If I have found favor in your eyes' (im-na matsati chen be'eineikhem) — the language of courteous petition. Despite his enormous power, Joseph approaches with humility and deference. He asks others to intercede on his behalf. The phrase echoes the courteous speech patterns seen throughout Genesis when characters seek a significant request (cf. 18:3; 33:10; 47:29).

Translator Notes

1. 'My father made me swear' (avi hishbi'ani) — Joseph invokes the binding oath Jacob extracted from him (47:29-31). The oath provides diplomatic cover: Joseph is not requesting to leave Egypt on a whim but fulfilling a solemn obligation that transcends political loyalties. Pharaoh cannot easily refuse a deathbed oath.
2. 'In my grave which I dug for myself' (beqivri asher kariti li) — this detail is not recorded elsewhere in Genesis. It may refer to Jacob's having prepared or purchased a burial place within the cave of Machpelah, or it may refer to the general family claim to the site. The verb karah ('to dig') suggests personal effort in preparing the tomb.
3. 'I will return' (ve'ashuvah) — Joseph assures Pharaoh (through intermediaries) that this is not an escape or a relocation. He will come back to Egypt. This promise both honors his obligation to Pharaoh and foreshadows the larger pattern: Israel will return from Canaan burial to Egyptian residence, awaiting the future exodus.

Translator Notes

1. Pharaoh's response is brief and gracious. He grants permission unconditionally, acknowledging the binding nature of the oath ('as he made you swear'). The verb 'go up' (aleh) reflects the geographical reality — Canaan is at a higher elevation than Egypt — but also carries theological resonance: to go to the Promised Land is always to 'go up' (aliyah).
2. Pharaoh's willingness to release Joseph and his entire family for the journey demonstrates the extraordinary trust Joseph had earned. The fact that he also sends his own officials and chariots (vv. 7-9) elevates Jacob's funeral to a state affair.

Translator Notes

1. The funeral procession is described with escalating grandeur. Three groups accompany Joseph: (1) 'all the servants of Pharaoh' — the royal court officials; (2) 'the elders of his household' — Pharaoh's personal household administrators; (3) 'all the elders of the land of Egypt' — the senior statesmen of the entire nation. This is a full state funeral, an honor almost without precedent for a foreign resident.
2. The repeated verb 'went up' (vayyaal, vayyaalu) emphasizes the ascent to Canaan — both literal (geographic) and figurative (spiritual). This procession prefigures the exodus: all Egypt witnesses Israel going up to the land of promise.

Translator Notes

1. The detail that little children, flocks, and herds remained in Goshen serves two purposes narratively. Practically, it explains the logistics: young children and livestock would slow the long journey. But it also functions as a guarantee of return — their families and livelihoods remain in Egypt, assuring Pharaoh that the Israelites will come back.
2. This detail anticipates the exodus negotiations, where Pharaoh will demand that women, children, and livestock stay behind as insurance (Exodus 10:10-11, 24). Here the arrangement is voluntary and trust-based; later it will become a point of bitter contention.

Translator Notes

1. 'Chariots and horsemen' (rekhev gam parashim) — a military escort befitting a state funeral. The chariots and horsemen represent Egyptian military power accompanying the patriarch's body to its resting place. The irony is rich: Egypt's military might serves as an honor guard for the ancestor of the nation that will one day flee from Egypt's chariots at the Red Sea.
2. 'The company was very great' (vayyehi hammachaneh kaved me'od) — the word machaneh ('company, camp') is the same word Jacob used when he divided his family into 'camps' before meeting Esau (32:7-8). The word kaved ('heavy, great, weighty') is loaded with significance — it is the same root as kavod ('glory'). This funeral procession carries weight, dignity, and glory.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. 'The threshing floor of Atad' (goren ha'atad) — the word atad means 'thorn bush' or 'bramble.' The threshing floor was a flat, open space used for processing grain — a natural gathering place. Its location 'beyond the Jordan' (be'ever hayYarden) is geographically ambiguous and debated, depending on the narrator's perspective.
2. 'A very great and sorrowful lamentation' (misped gadol vekhaved me'od) — the word misped denotes loud, demonstrative mourning — wailing, beating the breast, tearing garments. The adjectives gadol ('great') and khaved ('heavy, grievous') intensify the description. This is mourning of extraordinary intensity, matching the extraordinary honor of the procession.
3. 'Seven days of mourning' (evel shiv'at yamim) — the seven-day mourning period (shiv'ah) later became the standard mourning practice in Judaism. While the formal institution of shiv'ah is post-biblical, this passage provides its narrative foundation. The number seven signifies completeness — a full measure of grief.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. 'A grievous mourning for the Egyptians' (evel-kaved zeh leMitsrayim) — the Canaanites identify the mourners as Egyptians, not as Israelites. The procession was so dominated by Egyptian officials, chariots, and horsemen that the local population saw it as an Egyptian state funeral. The irony is profound: Jacob, the patriarch of Israel, is mourned as if he were Egyptian royalty.
2. 'Abel-mizraim' — the name involves a wordplay that works on two levels. The word avel means 'mourning,' so Abel-mizraim means 'Mourning of Egypt.' But the similar-sounding word abel means 'meadow' or 'stream,' so the place name could also mean 'Meadow of Egypt.' The narrator exploits this homophony to embed the story of Egyptian mourning permanently in the landscape of Canaan.

Translator Notes

1. The simple statement 'his sons did for him just as he had commanded them' marks the faithful execution of Jacob's dying wishes. The brevity is powerful — no elaboration is needed. The sons obeyed. After all the dysfunction, betrayal, and conflict that has characterized this family throughout Genesis, the sons finally act in complete unity and obedience. Jacob's command (49:29-32) is fulfilled to the letter.

Translator Notes

1. 'His sons carried him' (vayyis'u oto vanav) — the sons personally carry their father's body to its resting place. This is not delegated to servants or Egyptian officials. The twelve sons bear Jacob's embalmed body from Egypt to the cave of Machpelah — a journey of hundreds of miles. This filial act of devotion fulfills Jacob's command and expresses the family's unity at last.
2. The description of Machpelah repeats the legal language of Abraham's original purchase (chapter 23), reinforcing the legitimate ownership claim. The detail 'facing Mamre' (al-penei Mamre) locates the cave precisely — near the oaks of Mamre where Abraham first received God's covenant promises (13:18; 18:1). Jacob now rests where the covenant began.

Translator Notes

1. The return to Egypt is noted with simple finality. Joseph fulfilled his promise to Pharaoh ('I will return,' v. 5). The entire company — Israelites and Egyptians alike — goes back to Egypt. The Promised Land holds only the dead; the living remain in exile. This painful irony will persist for four hundred years until the exodus.
2. The repetition of 'his father' (aviv) twice in one verse — 'to bury his father... after he had buried his father' — emphasizes the centrality of this event. Everything in these verses revolves around filial duty to the patriarch.

Translator Notes

1. 'What if Joseph holds a grudge' (lu yistemenu Yosef) — the particle lu introduces a fearful hypothetical. The verb satam means 'to bear a grudge, to harbor enmity' (the same root used of Esau's hatred toward Jacob, 27:41). The brothers fear that Jacob's death has removed the last restraint on Joseph's vengeance. Their father was the buffer; now he is gone.
2. 'Pays us back for all the evil' (hashev yashiv lanu et kol-hara'ah) — the infinitive absolute construction (hashev yashiv) intensifies the verb: 'he will certainly, completely pay us back.' The brothers know exactly what they did — they call it hara'ah ('the evil') without euphemism. Their guilt has never been fully resolved, despite Joseph's earlier reassurance (45:5-8). Guilt unresolved by genuine repentance continues to torment.
3. The brothers' fear reveals that they never fully believed Joseph's forgiveness. Twenty years of comfortable coexistence in Egypt did not erase the deep suspicion that Joseph was merely restraining himself for their father's sake. This psychological realism is one of the most penetrating aspects of the narrative.

Translator Notes

1. 'They sent word to Joseph' (vaytsavvu el-Yosef) — the brothers do not approach Joseph directly. Whether from fear, shame, or diplomatic caution, they send a message. The verb tsavah here means 'to send a command/message.' The indirectness of their approach underscores their anxiety — they cannot face Joseph as equals.
2. 'Your father gave a command before he died' — the brothers claim that Jacob left instructions concerning their reconciliation. Whether Jacob actually said these words or the brothers fabricated the message is one of the great interpretive questions of Genesis. Some scholars see a pious deception — the brothers invent a deathbed command to secure their safety. Others believe Jacob did indeed give such a charge, recognizing that the brothers' guilt might resurface. The text does not resolve the question, leaving the reader to weigh the brothers' reliability.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. 'Please forgive the transgression' (anna sa na pesha) — two different words for forgiveness and sin pile up. The verb nasa' ('to lift, carry, bear away') is the primary Hebrew word for forgiveness — it means to lift the burden of guilt off someone. The word pesha ('transgression') denotes willful rebellion, the most serious category of sin. The brothers also use chatta'tam ('their sin'), the general term for missing the mark. They hold nothing back — they name their actions as both rebellion and sin.
2. 'The servants of the God of your father' (avdei Elohei avikha) — the brothers appeal to their shared faith. They are not merely Joseph's relatives but fellow servants of the God of their father. This theological appeal transcends family dynamics — if Joseph shares their God, he must share that God's character of mercy and forgiveness.
3. 'Joseph wept when they spoke to him' (vayyevk Yosef bedabberam elav) — Joseph weeps yet again. His tears here seem to express grief that his brothers still do not trust him, sorrow that decades of gracious treatment have not healed their fear, and perhaps compassion for the depth of guilt they still carry. Joseph's weeping is one of the great emotional motifs of Genesis.

Translator Notes

1. 'They fell down before him' (vayyippelu lefanav) — the brothers prostrate themselves before Joseph, fulfilling the dreams of chapter 37 one final time. The sheaves bowing (37:7) and the stars bowing (37:9) find their ultimate realization not in triumph but in terrified supplication. The dreamscame true — but not in the way anyone expected.
2. 'We are your servants' (hinnenu lekha la'avadim) — the brothers offer themselves as slaves, the ultimate surrender. This echoes what Joseph himself became when they sold him — a slave (eved) in Egypt. The reversal is complete: those who sold their brother into slavery now offer themselves as slaves to him. Yet Joseph will refuse this offer, pointing to a reality higher than human power dynamics.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. 'Do not be afraid' (al-tira'u) — the same words God speaks to the patriarchs at moments of crisis (15:1; 21:17; 26:24; 46:3). Joseph speaks with the authority and compassion of one who has learned to see his life through God's eyes.
2. 'Am I in the place of God?' (hatachat Elohim ani) — this rhetorical question is the theological key to the entire Joseph narrative. Joseph refuses the role of judge or avenger. He recognizes that vengeance belongs to God alone. The question implies: 'God is the one who judges and the one who directs the course of history. I am not God. I cannot presume to punish what God has sovereignly used for good.' This is not weakness but profound theological maturity — Joseph subordinates his personal rights to God's larger purposes.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. This verse is the theological climax of Genesis, perhaps of the entire Pentateuch. It articulates the doctrine of divine providence with crystalline clarity. The same verb chashav ('to intend, to plan, to devise') is used for both human and divine action: 'you intended (chashavtem) evil... God intended (chashavah) it for good.' The brothers had a plan; God had a plan. The brothers' plan was evil; God's plan was good. And God's plan encompassed, absorbed, and transformed the brothers' evil into the means of salvation.
2. 'To preserve alive a great people' (lehachayot am-rav) — the verb hechayah ('to preserve alive, to give life') echoes the creation language of Genesis and the preservation language of the flood narrative. Joseph — sold, enslaved, imprisoned — became the instrument through which God kept an entire people alive. The word am-rav ('a great people') looks forward: the small family of seventy (46:27) is already becoming the multitude promised to Abraham.
3. This verse does not say that evil was actually good, or that suffering doesn't matter, or that the brothers' actions were justified. It says that God's sovereignty is so comprehensive that even human evil is woven into His redemptive purposes. The evil remains evil — 'you intended evil' is not retracted. But God is greater than evil, and His intentions prevail.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. 'I will provide for you and your little ones' (anokhi akhalkel etkhem ve'et-tappekhem) — the verb kilkel ('to provide, sustain, nourish') denotes ongoing, complete provision. Joseph pledges not a one-time gift but continued sustenance — for them and their taf (little children, dependents). This promise transforms Joseph from judge to provider, from potential avenger to sustaining brother.
2. 'He spoke to their hearts' (vaydabber al-libbam) — this beautiful Hebrew idiom means more than 'he spoke kindly.' To speak 'to the heart' (al-lev) is to address someone's deepest fears and needs, to speak words of comfort that reach the innermost being (cf. Isaiah 40:2, where God commands, 'Speak to the heart of Jerusalem'). Joseph's words do not merely inform — they heal. The phrase also echoes the tender persuasion of a lover (Hosea 2:14; Ruth 2:13), suggesting Joseph's speech carried emotional warmth and personal tenderness.

Translator Notes

1. 'Joseph lived one hundred and ten years' (vayechi Yosef me'ah va'eser shanim) — the number 110 is highly significant in Egyptian culture. It was considered the ideal lifespan — the perfect number of years for a blessed life. Egyptian wisdom literature (such as the Teaching of Ptahhotep) identifies 110 years as the mark of divine favor. By noting Joseph's age at death in Egyptian terms, the narrator signals that Joseph was blessed by God even within the categories of Egyptian culture. He lived a complete, ideal Egyptian life while remaining a son of Israel.

Translator Notes

1. 'Ephraim's children to the third generation' (le'Efrayim benei shilleshim) — Joseph lived long enough to see great-great-grandchildren through Ephraim's line. This abundance of descendants fulfills the blessing of fruitfulness that has been the hallmark of Joseph's story. To see one's descendants to the third generation was considered the ultimate sign of divine blessing (cf. Job 42:16, where Job sees four generations after his restoration).
2. 'Born upon Joseph's knees' (yulledu al-birkei Yosef) — the phrase 'born on someone's knees' is a formal gesture of adoption or recognition (cf. 30:3, where Rachel uses the same expression). By receiving Machir's children on his knees, Joseph officially acknowledges them as his own — they are incorporated into the patriarchal line. This gesture ensures that Manasseh's descendants through Machir have full standing in the family.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. 'I am about to die' (anokhi met) — Joseph faces death with the same faith and clarity that marked his father's death. He does not fear the end but uses it as an occasion to reaffirm the covenant promises.
2. 'God will surely visit you' (paqod yifqod etkhem) — the infinitive absolute construction (paqod yifqod) expresses absolute certainty: God will without fail visit you. The verb paqad means 'to visit, attend to, take note of, intervene.' It implies that God, who may seem absent during the Egyptian sojourn, will intervene decisively at the appointed time. This phrase becomes the watchword of the exodus: when Moses comes to deliver Israel, he echoes Joseph's exact words — 'God has surely visited you' (Exodus 3:16; 4:31; 13:19).
3. 'Bring you up out of this land' (vehe'elah etkhem min-ha'arets hazzot) — Joseph's faith looks beyond his own lifetime to the exodus. He knows that Egypt, for all its safety and prosperity, is not the destination. The Promised Land — sworn to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob — remains the goal. Joseph's dying words thus become a bridge between Genesis and Exodus, pointing forward to the liberation that God has promised.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. 'Joseph made the sons of Israel swear' (vayyashba Yosef et-benei Yisra'el) — like his father Jacob (47:29-31), Joseph extracts a solemn oath before death. But where Jacob required burial in Canaan immediately, Joseph asks only that his bones be carried up when God visits Israel in the future. Joseph's faith is even more far-reaching: he trusts not only in God's promise but in God's timing, knowing the fulfillment may be generations away.
2. 'You shall carry up my bones from here' (veha'alitem et-atsmotai mizzeh) — this oath was faithfully kept. Exodus 13:19 records: 'Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for Joseph had made the sons of Israel solemnly swear, saying, "God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here with you."' Joshua 24:32 records the final fulfillment: Joseph's bones were buried at Shechem, in the plot of land Jacob had purchased (33:19). Joseph's bones made the entire journey — Egypt to Sinai to wilderness to Promised Land — a silent witness to covenant faithfulness across centuries.
3. The word atsamot ('bones') becomes a powerful symbol. Joseph does not ask for his body to be preserved intact (though he is embalmed); he asks for his bones — the last, most enduring part of a human being — to be brought home. His bones are a testament of faith, a physical pledge that the covenant will be fulfilled.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. The final verse of Genesis is one of the most deliberately crafted sentences in the Hebrew Bible. It ends not with triumph, not with arrival, not with fulfillment — but with a coffin in Egypt. The book that began with 'In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth' ends with 'he was placed in a coffin in Egypt.' The contrast is staggering and intentional. Genesis closes on a note of incompletion — the story is not over. The promises to Abraham remain unfulfilled. The people are in the wrong land. The narrative demands continuation.
2. 'A coffin' (aron) — the Hebrew word aron is the same word used for the Ark of the Covenant (aron haberit). This cannot be coincidental. Joseph's aron in Egypt anticipates the aron of God's presence that will accompany Israel through the wilderness. Both are containers of testimony: one holds the bones of a faithful man; the other will hold the tablets of God's law. The verbal link binds Joseph's death to the covenant's future.
3. 'In Egypt' (beMitsrayim) — these are the last two words of Genesis. The patriarch is embalmed, coffined, and stored in Egypt. The Promised Land remains a promise. The four-hundred-year sojourn is about to begin. Genesis ends with an open wound — a story suspended in anticipation of the exodus that only the next book will begin to tell.
4. The death of Joseph closes the patriarchal era. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph — four generations of covenant bearers — have lived, believed, struggled, and died. The promises remain. God remains. And the story, like Joseph's bones, waits to be carried forward.