Genesis
Chapter 50
Jacob’s Funeral
Joseph threw himself on his father, wept over him, and kissed him.
Then, as Joseph had instructed them, his physicians embalmed Israel, his father.
This process took a full forty days, the time required for embalming. The Egyptians mourned him for seventy days.
When the days of mourning were over, Joseph spoke to Pharaoh’s household: “If you wish to show me kindness, please let Pharaoh know
that when my father was dying, he made me swear that I would bury him in the tomb he had made ready for himself in Canaan. Ask him to let me go up and bury my father. I will come back again.”
Pharaoh said: “Go and bury your father as he made you swear to do.”
Joseph went up to bury his father, accompanied by all Pharaoh’s officials, the elders of his household, and all the elders of Egypt.
Along with them were all who belonged to Joseph’s household, his brothers, and his father’s household. Only their children, flocks, and herds remained in the land of Goshen.
With the chariots and horsemen that accompanied him, it was a very impressive caravan.
When they arrived at the threshing floor of Goren-ha-atad, near the Jordan, they executed a solemn and lengthy lamentation, where Joseph mourned for his father for seven days.
When the Canaanites observed this mourning, they said: “This is a solemn mourning ceremony of the Egyptians.” That is why this place east of the Jordan was called Abel-mizraim.
Jacob’s sons followed his instructions.
They transported him to Canaan and interred him in the cave located in the field of Machpelah near Mamre, which Abraham had purchased from Ephron the Hittite as a burial site.
After burying his father, Joseph returned to Egypt with his brothers and all those who had accompanied him for the burial.
When Joseph’s brothers realized that their father was dead, they said: “What if Joseph turns against us in hate because of the evil we did him?”
So they sent word to Joseph saying, “Before he died, your father told us to say this to you:
Please forgive the crime and the sin of your brothers in doing evil to you. Forgive the crime of the servants of your father’s God.” When he received the message, Joseph wept.
His brothers went and threw themselves down before him. “We are your slaves,” they said.
But Joseph reassured them: “Don’t be afraid! Am I in the place of God?
You intended to do me harm, but God intended to turn it to good to bring about what is happening today—the survival of many people.
Joseph’s Death
Joseph stayed in Egypt with all his father’s family. He lived to be a hundred and ten years old,
long enough to see Ephraim’s great-grandchildren and also to have Machir, the son of Manasseh, place his children on his knees after their birth.
Then Joseph said to his brothers: “I am going to die, but God will surely remember you and take you from this country to the land he promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”
Joseph then made the sons of Israel swear, saying, “When God comes to bring you out from here, carry my bones with you.”
Joseph died at the age of one hundred and ten; they embalmed him and laid him in a coffin in Egypt.
Commentaries
Jacob’s Funeral – Joseph’s Death.
With this chapter, we arrive at the end of a story that attempts to show the ancestral roots of a people, intertwined with good and evil, blessings and curses, and that prepares to enter a new era, no longer centered around a patriarchal figure, but around a significant historical juncture in the land of Egypt. It could be said that the deaths of Jacob and Joseph mark the end of one era and pave the way for the beginning of another. The chapter can be divided into three distinct sections:
1. Jacob’s death and burial: Joseph faithfully keeps his promise to bury his father in Canaan, near Hebron, across from his own burial site; the emphasis is placed on the fact that Joseph returns to Egypt after the funeral (5b.14).
2. The repentance of Joseph’s brothers and their formal request for forgiveness for the actions committed against him: although in 45:4-8 Joseph has declared his brothers to be free of any guilt, they remember the incident. They fear some reprisal from him. For the first time, they confess their guilt and once again express their submission to Joseph (17.18). Repentance and absolution can also be interpreted as a literary device through which the Israelite redactor aims to illustrate that the change of fortune for the people descended from this group has nothing to do with their sin; that slavery in Egypt is not a punishment or retribution for it. Above all, it is the extreme injustice of Pharaonic selfishness and greed that will allow God to manifest his power by revealing himself and establishing himself as the God who liberates. Joseph declares his forgiveness and forgetfulness while emphasizing that he is part of the mysterious divine plan, which uses even the negative actions of his brothers to fulfill his intentions.
3. Conclusion of the book: Joseph dies old and full of years, a description encompassing all his ancestors, indicating that he dies exceedingly blessed. He does not ask for his lifeless body to be taken immediately to Canaan as Jacob did; as if he knew the fate awaiting his people in Egypt, he only requests that when God takes care of them and frees them from this country, they take his bones with them.