Thursday, December 16, 2010

Genesis 50: 1-26 (Israel is buried and Joseph dies)

Joseph was very sad when his father, Israel, passed away. And since he was such a bad-ass at Egyptian politics, so was the rest of Egypt.

He asked the Pharoah if he could bury his father in his homeland, and the Pharoah agreed and sent his whole court to accompany Joseph and his family. Which is strange. . .

They all poured into this valley near the Jordan, and observed seven days of lamenting and rending of clothes, and the people around that area referred to the place ever after as "Egyptians sobbing."

They reached the special cave, bought squarely and fairly, you'll remember, from Ephron the Hittite, so it was perfectly legal that they bury their father there, and they did.

They all returned to Egypt.

Joseph reassured his brothers that they needn't fear him now that their father was dead. He wouldn't exact any kind of revenge or anything. They were well relieved.

Joseph lived 110 years in total, and when he died he told his brothers (also very old, presumably) that one day their god would come through for them, and lead them back to the land of their people and out of perfectly fine Egypt. I'm sure they were excited to hear that.

Then he died.

1 comment:

Ishie said...

Yet again, I missed a ton of updates and got some welcome reading. Huzzah!