Bible Commentaries
Genesis 50

Verses 1-26

Joseph's Final Days

Joseph had experienced Egyptians embalm Jacob's body, which took forty days. For seventy days, the Egyptians mourned Jacob's death. Joseph asked Pharaoh to allow him to take his father's body back to their burial place in Canaan. Permission having been granted, Joseph went, with Pharaoh's servants, the elders of Joseph's house and elders from the land of Egypt, to bury his father. Seven more days of mourning were fulfilled in Canaan. Then, Joseph and his brothers returned to Egypt.

The brothers feared Joseph would now seek revenge on them. However, he reassured them that God was working in their actions to save them all. He told them, "Now therefore, do not be afraid; I will provide for you and your little ones."

Joseph lived to be one hundred ten years old. Before his death, he made his family promise not to bury him in Egypt. Instead, he said, "God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here." When he died, the Egyptians embalmed his body and it remained in a coffin in Egypt awaiting the day of the exodus ( Gen_50:1-26 ).