Genesis 50
Summary for Gen 50:1-6: 50:1-6 a As with his father and grandfather, Jacob’s death brought the end of an era.50:2 b Jacob’s body was embalmed for burial in typical Egyptian fashion.
50:3 c the Egyptians mourned for Jacob for seventy days, just two days short of the mourning period for a pharaoh. This showed the great respect that the Egyptians had for Joseph.
Summary for Gen 50:4-6: 50:4-6 d Joseph needed Pharaoh’s permission to leave his post temporarily to bury his father in Canaan. Pharaoh readily granted this freedom to the former slave.
Summary for Gen 50:7-9: 50:7-9 e This was Joseph’s first return to his homeland in thirty-nine years. The trip was temporary. Centuries later, the family of Israel would permanently leave Egypt, taking Joseph’s bones with them for burial in the land of promise (see 50:25 f).
Summary for Gen 50:10-13: 50:10-13 g This journey into Canaan was made in sorrow to bury a man; the next journey into the land would be to live there.
Summary for Gen 50:15-18: 50:15-18 h The brothers pleaded for Joseph’s forgiveness, referring to themselves as Joseph’s slaves (cp. 37:7 i; 44:16 j, 33 k). The brothers were afraid that Joseph’s earlier reconciliation with them had been motivated only by his desire to see his father again. With neither Jacob nor Pharaoh to restrain him, they feared that he might now take revenge on them. But Joseph ... wept because they still feared reprisal.
Summary for Gen 50:19-21: 50:19-21 l Joseph reassured his brothers that God planned to fulfill the promised blessing (cp. 45:5 m, 7-9 n), and he promised kindness and provision (cp. 45:11 o).
Summary for Gen 50:22-23: 50:22-23 p Joseph lived to see his great-great-grandchildren by Ephraim, and his great-grandchildren by Manasseh—a sign of God’s blessing (see Ps 128:6 q; Prov 17:6 r; Isa 53:10 s).
50:23 t whom he claimed as his own (literally who were born on Joseph’s knees): Placing them on his knees at their birth was a symbolic act signifying that they came from him and belonged to him (cp. Job 3:12 u).
Summary for Gen 50:24-25: 50:24-25 v God will surely come to help you (literally visit you): These words of Joseph, given twice, summarize the hope expressed throughout both the Old Testament and the New Testament. God’s visitation in the person of the Messiah, the offspring of Abraham, would bring the curse to an end and establish the long-awaited blessing of God in a new creation. The company of the faithful would wait in expectation for that to happen.
• Like his father before him, Joseph made his brothers promise that his bones would be taken out of Egypt when God would come to take them (to help you and lead you back) to Canaan (see Exod 13:19 w; Josh 24:32 x; Heb 11:22 y).
50:26 z Joseph’s death signified the end of his generation (see study notes on 25:7-8; 35:1-29) and of the patriarchal age. From this point forward, God dealt with Israel as a nation.
• Joseph’s body was kept in Egypt as a pledge of hope for slaves awaiting the Promised Land (see Exod 13:19 aa; Heb 11:39-40 ab). He was eventually buried in Shechem (see Josh 24:32 ac), where Jacob had originally sent him (Gen 37:13 ad).
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