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Genesis 50

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Genesis 50 Overview

Genesis 50 closes the book with mourning, burial, forgiveness, and future hope. Joseph has Jacob embalmed, and a large Egyptian-Canaanite procession carries him to Machpelah for burial. After Jacob’s death, Joseph’s brothers fear retaliation and appeal for forgiveness. Joseph weeps and answers that although they meant evil against him, God meant it for good to save many people alive. Joseph lives to see later generations, then dies at 110 after making Israel swear to carry his bones up when God visits them and brings them to the promised land.

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Before you read Genesis 50

Coming from

Genesis 49 gives Jacob’s final prophetic words to his sons and records his death after commanding burial in Canaan.

In this chapter

Genesis ends with reconciliation and providence, but also with a coffin in Egypt and a promise still awaiting fulfillment: God will surely visit his people and bring them up.

Leads into

Exodus begins with Jacob’s descendants in Egypt, a new Pharaoh, oppression, and the fulfillment of the promised national deliverance.

Key understanding

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Truth 1

Jacob’s burial physically reconnects the family to the promised land.

Truth 2

The brothers still struggle to believe Joseph’s forgiveness.

Truth 3

Joseph distinguishes human evil intention from God’s good providential intention.

Truth 4

Forgiveness removes personal vengeance while acknowledging wrong.

Truth 5

Joseph dies in faith that God will visit Israel and fulfill the land promise.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Connection 1

Exodus 13:19 records Moses carrying Joseph’s bones out of Egypt.

Connection 2

Joshua 24:32 records Joseph’s bones buried at Shechem.

Connection 3

Hebrews 11:22 specifically praises Joseph’s faith concerning Israel’s departure and his bones.

Connection 4

Romans 8:28 resonates with the providence principle, though Genesis 50:20 gives the specific historical example.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Keep this clear 1

“God meant it unto good” does not mean the brothers’ act ceased to be evil; the verse explicitly preserves both intentions.

Keep this clear 2

Joseph’s forgiveness is not based on denying justice but on refusing to place himself in God’s position.

Keep this clear 3

The request framed as Jacob’s command in verses 16–17 is not otherwise recorded; the narrative focuses on Joseph’s gracious response rather than verifying every detail of the brothers’ message.

Keep this clear 4

Genesis intentionally ends before the promise is fully realized, pushing the reader into Exodus.

Read Genesis 50 watching for…Explore deeper

The scale of Jacob’s funeral procession.

The brothers’ fear after the father is gone.

Joseph’s tears.

The exact wording of Genesis 50:20.

The final words about God visiting Israel and Joseph’s bones.

Chapter outline4 sections

1-6Joseph mourns Jacob and receives permission to bury him 7-14Jacob is buried in Canaan 15-21Joseph comforts his fearful brothers 22-26Joseph dies in Egypt with hope of God's promise

And Joseph fell upon his father's face, and wept upon him, and kissed him.

And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father: and the physicians embalmed Israel.

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.

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,

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.

And Pharaoh said, Go up, and bury thy father, according as he made thee swear.

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,

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.

And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen: and it was a very great company.

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.

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.

And his sons did unto him according as he commanded them:

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.

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.

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.

And they sent a messenger unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying,

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.

And his brethren also went and fell down before his face; and they said, Behold, we be thy servants.

And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God?

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.

Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them.

And Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he, and his father's house: and Joseph lived an hundred and ten years.

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.

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.

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.

So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years old: and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.

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Genesis 50:17

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