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Genesis 50

Genesis closes with mourning and mercy, while Joseph’s burial instructions place his family’s future under God’s promise.

Jacob has died, and Joseph weeps over him before arranging for his body to be embalmed. With Pharaoh’s permission, Joseph and his brothers take their father to Canaan for burial, accompanied by a large Egyptian company. Back in Egypt, the brothers fear that Joseph will now punish them for their past evil. Joseph reassures them and promises to provide for their households. The account closes with Joseph’s death and his instructions about carrying his bones out of Egypt.

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1Joseph fell on his father’s face, wept on him, and kissed him.
2Joseph commanded his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father; and the physicians embalmed Israel.
3Forty days were used for him, for that is how many days it takes to embalm. The Egyptians wept for Israel for seventy days.
4When the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph spoke to Pharaoh’s staff, saying, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, please speak in the ears of Pharaoh, saying,
5‘My father made me swear, saying, “Behold, I am dying. Bury me in my grave which I have dug for myself in the land of Canaan.” Now therefore, please let me go up and bury my father, and I will come again.’”
8all the house of Joseph, his brothers, and his father’s house. Only their little ones, their flocks, and their herds, they left in the land of Goshen.
9Both chariots and horsemen went up with him. It was a very great company.
10They came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, and there they lamented with a very great and severe lamentation. He mourned for his father seven days.
11When the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning in the floor of Atad, they said, “This is a grievous mourning by the Egyptians.” Therefore its name was called Abel Mizraim, which is beyond the Jordan.
12His sons did to him just as he commanded them,
13for 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, as a possession for a burial site, from Ephron the Hittite, near Mamre.
15When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “It may be that Joseph will hate us, and will fully pay us back for all the evil which we did to him.”
17‘You shall tell Joseph, “Now please forgive the disobedience of your brothers, and their sin, because they did evil to you.”’ Now, please forgive the disobedience of the servants of the God of your father.” Joseph wept when they spoke to him.
18His brothers also went and fell down before his face; and they said, “Behold, we are your servants.”
19Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid, for am I in the place of God?
20As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to save many people alive, as is happening today.
21Now therefore don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your little ones.” He comforted them, and spoke kindly to them.
23Joseph saw Ephraim’s children to the third generation. The children also of Machir, the son of Manasseh, were born on Joseph’s knees.
24Joseph said to his brothers, “I am dying, but God will surely visit you, and bring you up out of this land to the land which he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.”
25Joseph took an oath from the children of Israel, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.”
26So Joseph died, being one hundred ten years old, and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.
World English BibleRead in NIV in Psalmlog →Highlighted verses are the most connected.
Key verses
Genesis 50:20Joseph names his brothers’ intent as evil while declaring that God intended the same events to preserve life.
Genesis 50:24Facing death in Egypt, Joseph anchors his family’s future in God’s sworn promise of land to their fathers.
Genesis 50:17The brothers’ plea for forgiveness exposes their fear after Jacob’s death, and Joseph responds with tears.
Where this chapter reaches

Exodus records the departure Joseph anticipates and Moses carrying Joseph’s bones, linking his burial instructions to the fulfillment of God’s promise. Romans shares the themes of God working for good through suffering and leaving vengeance to God, both central to Joseph’s response to his brothers.

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Notice

After reading the whole chapter

What do Joseph’s tears and the extended mourning help you notice about grief in this account?

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How does Joseph’s response hold together his brothers’ evil intent and God’s purpose to preserve life?

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Questions people ask about Genesis 50

What does Genesis 50:20 mean?

Joseph distinguishes his brothers’ evil purpose from God’s good purpose in the same events. Their actions remain evil, yet God used what happened to preserve many lives. The verse explains Joseph’s own history and his refusal to take God’s place as judge; it offers no timetable for relief from every hardship.

Did Jacob tell Joseph to forgive his brothers?

The brothers send Joseph a message claiming that Jacob commanded him to forgive them before he died. The narrator records their claim without confirming whether Jacob gave that instruction. The text does establish their fear of retaliation, their acknowledgment of wrongdoing, and Joseph’s tearful response to their plea.

Why did Joseph ask for his bones to be taken out of Egypt?

Joseph expects God to bring his people from Egypt to the land promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He makes the children of Israel swear to carry his bones with them. His coffin remains in Egypt at the close of Genesis, leaving his burial request tied to a departure still ahead.

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Genesis · 50 chapters
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What the Bible says about grief →What the Bible says about forgiveness →What the Bible says about fear →

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).