NOTES for Gen 50:1-26
1 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. |
4 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. |
6 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. |
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 Abel-mizraim, which is beyond Jordan. |
12 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. |
15 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. |
19 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. |
22 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 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. |
26 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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As can be seen, Joseph's brothers cannot bring themselves to believe that he has really forgiven them. Of course, in principle there is nothing strange about this: in those days people forgave rarely and reluctantly, and all the more after what Joseph's brothers had done to him. Now they feared revenge, for their father had died and there was no one left to restrain Joseph.
But Joseph himself does not intend to take revenge. He says words to his brothers that they do not seem to understand completely: it was not you who sold me into slavery; it was God who brought me to Egypt in order to save all of you from death by famine.
What is this: an excuse meant to calm his brothers? Hardly. Joseph was sufficiently open with his brothers. He clearly really believes that, whether his brothers wanted it or not, God was acting through their hands. Of course, this in no way excuses the brothers themselves, for when they got rid of Joseph they were thinking least of all about the future of their kin. Everything turned out for the better only by the will of God, not because of their efforts but in spite of them. Joseph, however, focuses precisely on the will of God and leaves the brothers' intentions aside.
Of course, this decision was preceded by a certain formative process, to use modern language, during which Joseph made his brothers understand and feel what it means to suffer guilt without being guilty. He apparently did everything to lead them to repentance. But judging by the fear that continued to torment them, they never experienced true repentance. Perhaps that is exactly why it is so hard for them to believe in forgiveness.
And Joseph forgives them with the will of God in mind: after all, a person can truly forgive only in this way, only by looking at the situation, so to speak, through God's eyes. Joseph managed to do this. But the perspective of God's providence, alas, remained hidden from his brothers.
Readings for 12 July 2025
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