From the Death of Jacob to the Death of Joseph

Continuing a chronological Bible study:

(Genesis 50:1) And Joseph fell upon his father's face, and wept upon him, and kissed him.

In the last verse of the last chapter, Jacob had died, and it appears that Joseph immediately fell upon his father's face and kissed him and wept over him.

(2) And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father; and the physicians embalmed Israel.

As they were still in Egypt, and Joseph was second in command only to Pharaoh, the physicians were seen as Joseph's servants, and he commanded them to embalm his father, which they did.  Embalming was a common practice in Egypt, and it was very necessary in Jacob's case if his body was to be taken back to Canaan which would take some time.

(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 seventy days.

It apparently took forty days for the embalming process to be completed, and Jacob's body lay in state another thirty days, where it is said, even the Egyptians mourned the loss of Jacob.

(4) And when the days of his mourning were past, Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh, saying, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, please speak in the hearing of Pharaoh, saying, (5) ‘My father made me swear, saying, “Behold, I am dying; in my grave which I dug for myself in the land of Canaan, there you shall bury me.” Now therefore, please let me go up and bury my father, and I will come back.’”

Joseph asked the principle men of Pharaoh's court to speak to Pharaoh for him, probably because he was still in mourning for his father.  The verse said that the days of mourning had passed, but Joseph was probably still in mourning attire, and it was said that no man could appear before the king in such a fashion.  He asked the men to relay to Pharaoh for him that his father had made him swear to bury him back in the land of Canaan.  He requested to be able to do that and he promised he would come back.

(6) And Pharaoh said, “Go up and bury your father, as he made you 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 brothers, and his father’s house; only their little ones, their flocks, and their herds they left in the land of Goshen.

Pharaoh agreed and fully encouraged Joseph to go bury his father as his father had asked him.  Not only all of Joseph's household and his father's household (except the little ones) went with Joseph to bury his father, but so did the servants of Pharaoh, all the elders of Pharaoh in the land of Egypt.  They must have had great honor and respect for Joseph.

(9) And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen, and it was a very great company. (10) And they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, and there they mourned with a great and very grievous lamentation; and he made a mourning for his father seven days.

What is surely described is a huge funeral procession, and then the funeral.  "Atad" meant "bramble, thorn, or buckthorn", so this place was either called Atad because of the thorns or was owned by a person so named because he was a great farmer in this area of thorns.  The threshing floor would have been a smoothed out or open area among the thorny brambles.  This place was said to have been "beyond the Jordan".  Coming from Egypt, it would seem as if the procession had made it through Canaan and was now on the east side of the Jordan.  However, I have read that Moses in his writings of the first five books of the Bible, used the term "beyond the Jordan" to mean "westward of Jordan".  "They", the members of the funeral procession, mourned with a great and grievous lamentation, but "he", Joseph, made a mourning for his father for seven days.  Since it appears that there are two distinct descriptions of mourning, it has been said that perhaps the louder mourning might have been made by the Egyptians when they first arrived, so that the inhabitants of the country would know why they came, to peacefully bury their dead, and not to invade or make war on the inhabitants.  Joseph mourned for his father for seven days, which was the time of mourning afterwards observed by the Jews.

(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"; therefore the name of it was called Abel Mizraim, which is beyond the Jordan.

Indeed the inhabitants of Canaan did see the funeral of Jacob in the threshing floor of Atad, and recognized it as a very grievous occasion.  They even gave the place a name, which literally meant "meadow of Egypt", to commemorate the time the Egyptians came into Canaan for that funeral.

(12) And his sons did to 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 from Ephron the Hittite as a possession for a burial place.

Jacob's sons did as he had asked them to and indeed took him back to Canaan and buried him where he had asked to be buried, where his fathers before him had been buried in the cave of Machpelah that Abraham had purchased as a burial place for Sarah.

(14) And Joseph returned to Egypt, he and his brothers and all who went up with him to bury his father, after he had buried his father. (15) And when Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “Perhaps Joseph will hate us, and will certainly repay us for all the evil which we did to him.”

After they buried their father, Joseph and his brothers and all who went with him to bury his father, went back to Egypt.  Now that their father was gone, Joseph's brothers were afraid that he might retaliate against them for what they had done to him.  It's interesting that his former words to them about this matter seemed to have been forgotten; such is a guilty conscience, I suppose, never at rest.

(16) And they sent a messenger to Joseph, saying, “Before your father died he commanded, saying, (17) 'So shall you say to Joseph, “I pray you, please forgive the trespass of your brothers and their sin, for they did evil to you"', and now, we pray you, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of your father.” And Joseph wept when they spoke to him.

The brothers sent a messenger to Joseph which included a supposed message from their father.  If that conversation did happen between Jacob and Joseph's brothers, it was not made known in scripture, but I suppose it could have happened.  It seems a little suspicious, but Jacob may have indeed encouraged his sons to humbly ask Joseph's forgiveness.  The brothers didn't tell Joseph that their father commanded that he, Joseph, should forgive his brothers, but rather their father commanded them, the brothers, to beg forgiveness, and that seems reasonable enough to be truthful.  The brothers took it a step further and asked for forgiveness themselves as servants of the God of his father.  Not only did they appeal to him as all sons of their father, but as all servants of a gracious and forgiving God.  Joseph wept, probably partly because they still felt so guilty, but possibly at the thought of his father also begging for their mercy.  He was obviously very touched by their words.

(18) And his brothers also went and fell down before his face, and they said, “Behold, we are your servants.”

The brothers had previously sent a messenger to Joseph with their words.  They now went to him themselves and fell down in submission before him declaring themselves servants to him, thus fulfilling Joseph's dream of the eleven stars making obeisance to him.

(19) And Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God? (20) But as for you, you thought evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save many people alive. (21) Now therefore, do not be afraid; I will nourish you and your little ones.” And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.

Joseph's question about being in the place of God could be taken two ways, and maybe both were meant.  First of all, it was not up to him to judge their previous actions.  He had forgiven them and he certainly wouldn't take it upon himself to judge them further.  He went on to tell them that what they might have intended for evil, God intended for good to save many people from starvation, so the implied question would be how could he question God and do anything differently.  Joseph may have also meant that his brothers should not bow before him, a man, but that glory should belong to God alone.  He comforted his brothers and told them that he would continue to provide for them and their children.

(22) And Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he and his father’s household; and Joseph lived one 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 on Joseph’s knees.

Joseph and his family, including his father's household, remained in Egypt, and Joseph lived to 110 years of age.  He lived to see the third generation of Ephraim's children, which I would assume would be his great-great-grandchildren.  The second generation of Manasseh's children, or at least the children of Manasseh's son Machir, were also brought up under Joseph's guidance.

(24) And Joseph said to his brothers, “I am dying; but God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land to the land of which He swore 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 you shall carry up my bones from here.”

Surely some of Joseph's older brothers had gone before them, but to those who remained and maybe to some of their sons who stood in their stead, Joseph comforted them with the same assurance his father had given him, that God would be with them and bring them back to the promised land.  Perhaps Joseph spoke first to his brothers and then to the broader group of all the children of Israel, which would have been the descendants of Jacob.  He "took an oath", showing unwavering confidence about the return of the sons of Israel to the promised land.  It is interesting to note that Joseph was so sure of this fact even though he had not seen it in his lifetime, and that is probably because he spoke under the spirit of prophecy through faith in God's promise.  As a matter of fact, Joseph is one of the "heroes of faith" later mentioned in Hebrews, specifically Hebrews 11:22, "By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his bones."

(26) So Joseph died, being one hundred and ten years old; and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.

Joseph did die at the age of 110, and his body was embalmed and put in a coffin, but apparently not buried until the children of Israel had received their inheritance in Canaan:

"And the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, they buried at Shechem, in a parcel of ground which Jacob had bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for one hundred pieces of silver, and which had become an inheritance of the children of Joseph." - Joshua 24:32