Genesis 50:7

Genesis 50:7, in plain English

Joseph travels to Canaan for the burial, and Pharaoh sends along his entire official household and the elders of Egypt to show respect. It's an enormous, dignified procession.

Why it's here

This isn't just Joseph and his family sneaking off to bury someone. Pharaoh is making a statement—he's honoring Jacob by sending Egypt's leadership class. Imagine seeing Egyptian officials traveling to a foreign country to pay respects at a funeral. It's remarkable and would've been shocking to the Canaanites.

Who's speaking

The narrator describing who accompanies Joseph

Where it sits in the story

God is publicly vindicating Joseph's family and the covenant line. Jacob was just a foreign shepherd, but he's being honored as if he were royalty. This foreshadows how God sees the descendants of Abraham—not as insignificant nomads, but as heirs to His greatest promises.

The scholarly reading

Joseph processes toward Canaan accompanied by the highest Egyptian officials and court dignitaries, a funeral cortege of extraordinary political significance.

Language and setting

The phrase 'all the servants of Pharaoh' (עַבְדֵי־פַרְעֹה, 'avdê-Parʿōh) and 'elders of Pharaoh's household' and 'elders of the land' indicates a state funeral of the highest order. This public procession—with Egypt's political establishment joining a Semitic patriarch's burial—would have been remarkable to Egyptian observers and represents Joseph's unprecedented integration into Egyptian power structures. The geographic movement is also significant: Joseph is taking Egypt's elite into Canaan, a symbolic crossing of borders.

Voice

The narrator, describing the composition of the funeral cortege.

Significance

This pageantry demonstrates how the covenant family has grown in influence while remaining 'strangers and pilgrims' seeking a city whose builder and maker is God (Hebrews 11:13-16). The spectacle of Egyptian power serving Israel's patriarchal burial anticipates how God will eventually exalt His people beyond their enemies' expectations.

5my father made me swear an oath when he said, ‘I am about to die. You must bury me in the tomb that I dug for myself in the land of Canaan.’ Now let me go and bury my father, and then return.”

6Pharaoh replied, “Go up and bury your father, as he made you swear to do.”

7Then Joseph went to bury his father, and all the servants of Pharaoh accompanied him—the elders of Pharaoh’s household and all the elders of the land of Egypt—

8along with all of Joseph’s household, and his brothers, and his father’s household. Only their children and flocks and herds were left in Goshen.

9Chariots and horsemen alike went up with him, and it was an exceedingly large procession.

Read all of Genesis 50 — Joseph looks his brothers in the eye and speaks one of the most redemptive sentences in Scripture.