Verses 1-3 And Joseph fell upon his father’s face, and wept upon him, and kissed him. 2 And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father: and the physicians embalmed Israel. 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 threescore and ten days.
The embalming process in Egypt involved removing the brain and internal organs of the body which were coated with a resin material and then stored in containers to be kept safe for the passage to the next life. Often the heart was left in as it was considered the center of emotions and the source of life. The body was then filled with a substance that would dry it out, after which it was wrapped with massive amounts of fabric and coated with more resin. This process took at least 40 days to complete which may account for the fulfillment of the 40 days in verse 3 above. Meanwhile, the mourning process totaled 70 days. It is interesting to see that the Egyptians respected Joseph and his father enough to participate in the official mourning process.
Verses 4-5 And when the days of his mourning were past, Joseph spake unto the house of Pharaoh, saying, If now I have found grace in your eyes, speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh, saying, 5 My father made me swear, saying, Lo, I die: in my grave which I have digged for me in the land of Canaan, there shalt thou bury me. Now therefore let me go up, I pray thee, and bury my father, and I will come again.
Joseph was going to fulfill his father’s wish and request to be buried in the family cemetery in Canaan. Because the burial process was such an important ritual to the Egyptians, his request was granted to leave Egypt for the land of Canaan.
Verses 6-10 And Pharaoh said, Go up, and bury thy father, according as he made thee 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 brethren, and his father’s house: only their little ones, and their flocks, and their herds, they left in the land of Goshen. 9 And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen: and it was a very great company. 10 And they came to the threshingfloor of Atad, which is beyond Jordan, and there they mourned with a great and very sore lamentation: and he made a mourning for his father seven days.
The reader will have to use his/her imagination to picture what this procession would have been like. All the members of Jacob’s family went and all the politicians of the Egyptian government went also. The presence of chariots indicates that this was a “state” funeral with military honors included.
Verse 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: wherefore the name of it was called Abelmizraim, which is beyond Jordan.
Even the Canaanites were surprised at the Egyptian presence in their land for the funeral of just one man. The name ‘Abel Mizraim’ means ‘meadow of Egypt’.
Verses 12-14 And his sons did unto 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 for a possession of a buryingplace of Ephron the Hittite, before Mamre. 14 And Joseph returned into Egypt, he, and his brethren, and all that went up with him to bury his father, after he had buried his father.
Joseph and his family were well aware of the promise of the land situated in Canaan that was to be theirs. They could have used Jacob’s funeral as the means of returning to their land with all the wealth they had accrued in Egypt. But Joseph was a man of his word and returned to continue serving Pharaoh. He never did live in his homeland again.
Verses 15-18 And when Joseph’s brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him. 16 And they sent a messenger unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying, 17 So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren, and their sin; for they did unto thee evil: and now, we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake unto him. 18 And his brethren also went and fell down before his face; and they said, Behold, we be thy servants.
These verses shed light on the mindset of the eleven brothers of Joseph. Apparently, even though Joseph said he had forgiven them, and even though Joseph had set them up in the best land in Egypt and fed them through the famine and nurtured them and their children, they had been thinking that Joseph’s actions were just because he loved his father and wanted to please him, and that he still wanted revenge which he could administer after Jacob was dead.
Verses 19-21 And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God? 20 But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. 21 Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them.
Joseph could have taken offense at their words and at their questioning of his motives. But Joseph was a servant of the LORD and he forgave completely and remained gracious and loving towards his brothers until the day he died. He recognized the LORD’s hand in all that had happened to him and gave God the glory.
Application: Jesus stated to his followers that if they served Him, they would get much persecution from their own families. Like Joseph, family members can be jealous and cruel to believers in Jesus. But the believer, like Joseph, needs to forgive and remain loving towards their brethren because then will the character of God shine through the Christian believer to the unbeliever.
Verses 22- 25 And Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he, and his father’s house: and Joseph lived an 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 upon Joseph’s knees. 24 And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die: and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land unto the land which he sware 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 ye shall carry up my bones from hence.
Joseph was a prophet. He could tell his brethren that they would one day leave Egypt and return to the land given to them by God. When that happened, he wanted to be sure that his body was taken out of Egypt for burial in the land that he never had a chance to live in once he was sold into slavery.
Verse 26 So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years old: and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.
Although both Jacob and Joseph were embalmed, Scripture does not tell the reader if this method of burial was followed by the children of Israel in the land of Goshen.
Just a note here. For those of you who have been following along with this study in Genesis, this writer must apologize for the slowness of the posts in recent weeks. Life often gets in the way and time has been occupied elsewhere. But moving back to Exodus, this writer will try to be more consistent in posting at regular intervals. Thank you for your patience. I hope you are enjoying the study and I hope it is helping you with your walk with the LORD Jesus Christ.