Context at a Glance
Author:Traditional Attribution
Topic:genesis Chapter 50 Study
This chapter provides a foundational look at the theological themes of genesis, analyzed across multiple historic translations for maximum scholarly depth.
Genesis 50
New Revised Standard Version
1Then Joseph threw himself on his father's face and wept over him and kissed him.
2Joseph commanded the physicians in his service to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel;
3they spent forty days in doing this, for that is the time required for embalming. And the Egyptians wept for him seventy days.
4When the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph addressed the household of Pharaoh, "If now I have found favor with you, please speak to Pharaoh as follows:
5My father made me swear an oath; he said, 'I am about to die. In the tomb that I hewed out for myself in the land of Canaan, there you shall bury me.' Now therefore let me go up, so that I may bury my father; then I will return."
6Pharaoh answered, "Go up, and bury your father, as he made you swear to do."
7So Joseph went up to bury his father. With him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his household, and all the elders of the land of Egypt,
8as well as all the household of Joseph, his brothers, and his father's household. Only their children, their flocks, and their herds were left in the land of Goshen.
9Both chariots and charioteers went up with him. It was a very great company.
10When they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, they held there a very great and sorrowful lamentation; and he observed a time of mourning for his father seven days.
11When the Canaanite inhabitants of the land saw the mourning on the threshing floor of Atad, they said, "This is a grievous mourning on the part of the Egyptians." Therefore the place was named Abel-mizraim; it is beyond the Jordan.
12Thus his sons did for him as he had instructed them.
13They carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field at Machpelah, the field near Mamre, which Abraham bought as a burial site from Ephron the Hittite.
14After he had buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt with his brothers and all who had gone up with him to bury his father.
15Realizing that their father was dead, Joseph's brothers said, "What if Joseph still bears a grudge against us and pays us back in full for all the wrong that we did to him?"
16So they approached Joseph, saying, "Your father gave this instruction before he died,
17'Say to Joseph: I beg you, forgive the crime of your brothers and the wrong they did in harming you.' Now therefore please forgive the crime of the servants of the God of your father." Joseph wept when they spoke to him.
18Then his brothers also wept, fell down before him, and said, "We are here as your slaves."
19But Joseph said to them, "Do not be afraid! Am I in the place of God?
20Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people, as he is doing today.
21So have no fear; I myself will provide for you and your little ones." In this way he reassured them, speaking kindly to them.
22So Joseph remained in Egypt, he and his father's household; and Joseph lived one hundred ten years.
23Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third generation; the children of Machir son of Manasseh were also born on Joseph's knees.
24Then Joseph said to his brothers, "I am about to die; but God will surely come to you, and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob."
25So Joseph made the Israelites swear, saying, "When God comes to you, you shall carry up my bones from here."
26And Joseph died, being one hundred ten years old; he was embalmed and placed in a coffin in Egypt. EXODUS
124EXODUS Introduction The book of Exodus is named after the focus of the first fifteen chapters of the book: the liberation of Israel from Egypt by "the God of Abraham... Isaac, and... Jacob" (3.15). The Exodus, however, is not a goal until itself; the book continues with various laws which distinguish the community (chs 20-23, 34), as well as the instructions for the construction of the tabernacle (chs 25-40), which are narrated in great detail, and assure that a holy God will reside among the people. It is impossible to discern what historical events lie behind the book of Exodus. Given the lack of contemporaneous evidence outside the Bible, we can hope only to attain a plausible reconstruction. Reconstructions run the gamut from identifying the Pharaoh of the plagues with Rameses II (1279-1213 BCE) to asserting that the entire story is metaphorical, and Israel was never in Egypt. Those favoring a historical reading of the book have noted that no nation is likely to make up a story that its ancestors had been slaves. Those favoring a metaphorical reading have suggested that the tyranny experienced reflects Egypt's political and economic domination of the land of Canaan in the Lat Bronze Age. They emphasize the continuity of Israelite culture with Canaanite (rather than Egyptian) culture in architecture, crafts, language, and worship. There is also uncertainty about most of the place names in the book, even about the location of Mount Sinai. Nor is there a consensus on the authorship and date of the various parts of this complex work. Some sections are Priestly (cf. 20.8-11 with Gen 2.1-3, and note with interest in the priestly tabernacle in chs 25-40), other sections are clearly reminiscent of Deuteronomy (cf. 23.23-33 with Deut 7), and some contain material usually ascribed to JE, traditionally considered to be the earliest sources of the Pentateuch. Underlying the final form of the book is a complicated literary prehistory, in which the sources or "documents" of the Pentateuch (J, E, and P) have been EXODUS
125combined in a way that values the preservation of divergent traditions more than a superficial consistency. The book also includes an often bewildering variety of smaller unites from various stages of Israel's history. These include hymns and hymnic fragments, itineraries, ritual traditions, and legal codifications, along with elements of myth and folklore and birth and contest narratives. Some of these traditions are relatively ancient and may well reflect authentic historical memory. In the absence of a consensus concerning the book's historicity and composition, it is best to read Exodus as a finished narrative, a story — though never forgetting that it has a pre-history, and that in its final form within the larger story of the Torah or Pentateuch, it is the definitive story of the establishment of Israel as a people freed from human tyranny who became slaves to their own loving God. God's purpose in liberating Israel is expressed in several similar ways: in order to establish an exclusive relationship ("I will take you as my people, and I will be your God," 6.7; "I... brought you to myself," 19.4), to make them unique ("my treasured possession out of all the peoples,.... a priestly kingdom and a holy nation," 19.5-6), and to "dwell among them" (29.46). Indeed, the Exodus is inextricably tied to the provisions of the covenant by providing reason and motivation for much of what God expects of the people. In worship, the experience of liberation from slavery prompts the Israelites to reinterpret ancient festivals, instilling them with completely new meaning: passover (12.113), unleavened bread (12.14-20), and sacrifice of firstborn (13.1-2). Likewise, in late biblical legislation, the festival of booths comes to commemorate the wilderness wandering (Lev 23.39-43), and in postbiblical Judaism, the festival of weeks celebrates the giving of the covenant at Sinai (19.1). The central commandment, "you shall have no other gods before me," is immediately preceded by the identification of God as the one "who brought you out of the land of Egypt" (20.1-3). An important component of the upbringing of children is to be explanation of customs on the basis of liberation (12.24-27). Ethically, God uses the experience of oppression to motivate the covenant partner: Israel's memory of being aliens in Egypt gives them empathy for aliens within Israel (22.21; 23.9). Thus, the Exodus is truly the central, unifying focus of the book. EXODUS
126One way to express the movement in Exodus is to say that chs 1-15 tell the story of freedom from while chs 16-40 tells the story of freedom to: liberation from slavery is followed by liberation to accomplish a new thing. This is explicitly reflected in 7.16, where the Lord sent Moses to demand of the Pharaoh: "Let my people go, so that they may worship me" (emphasis added; cf. 4.23). The people are still servants, but the change of masters makes all the difference. Additionally, Israel was forced to serve Pharaoh, while it freely decides to serve the Lord (24.3, 7). Another way to understand the book is to visualize its geographical movement. Chapters 1-15 tell the story of leaving the city where the evil Pharaoh reigns and enslaves the Hebrews; chs 16-40 tell the story of arriving at the mountain where a holy God reigns and creates the people of Israel. In Egypt a royal construction program enslaves Hebrews; Hebrew boys are killed, and in the end God claims the lives of all the firstborn of Egypt, human and animal alike. At Sinai all the firstborn males of Israel, human and animal alike, are equally claimed by God. A new royal construction program is inaugurated, for building the portable tabernacle that assures the continuing presence of God among the new people as they travel to the promised land. Indeed, this geographical movement can be understood more specifically as a pilgrimage undertaken first by Moses alone (chs 2-4), then by all the people (chs 13-40). Each pilgrimage proceeds from the evil land where Pharaoh reigns through the desert to the holy mountain where the God of Sinai reigns. The goal of each pilgrimage is experiencing God through a theophany and receiving a commission. The first theophany is for Moses alone (3.1-6), the second is for all Israel (19.16-19) but is too much for them to bear (20.18-21), so the third is for the leaders only (24.9-11), and the fourth is for Moses alone as covenant mediator (24.15-18). While Moses' commission is to act as God's agent in freeing the people (chs 3-4), Israel's commission is to act as God's holy people in all areas of life (chs 19-24) and to build a shrine so that God may dwell in their presence (chs 25-31). The first effort to fulfill each commission fails: Moses' first appearance before Pharaoh only makes the oppression worse (ch 5), and Israel's first impatient attempt to ensure God's continuing presence among them, the construction of the EXODUS
127calf, almost brings complete destruction (ch 32). but after each commission is restated (6.2-7.7; 34.10-28 after the fifth theophany, again for Moses alone, 33.17-34.9), the second attempt is successful. Moses finally leads the slaves to freedom (chs 7-15), and Israel finally builds the tabernacle so that God may dwell among them (chs 35-40). There is more than one way to outline the book, since many of the stories it narrates point both backward and forward. For example, the hymn in ch
15points backward to celebrate the victories of the divine warrior, while it also points ahead to anticipate the terror of the other peoples and the march forward to God's mountain. Thus, the following suggest structure of the book is necessarily mono-dimensional. • • • • • 1.1-15.21. 15.22-18.27. 19.1-31.18. 32.1-34.35. 35.1-40.38. God liberates Israel from slavery by defeating Pharaoh God journeys with Israel to Mount Sinai God establishes the covenant with Israel Israel breaks the covenant, but God reestablishes it Israel obeys instructions, and God takes up residence with them Many recurrent words and themes tie the book's different parts together. For example, some of the themes that frame the first part of the story, that of liberation, are women's activities (15.19-21), a lifethreatening body of water with reeds (2.3), a loud cry (2.23), the plundering of Egypt (3.21-22), God's claim on the firstborn son (4.22-23), and ritual with blood (as protection against death at God's hand, 4.2426). The Hebrew word for heaviness (5.9), referring not only to the "hardening" of Pharaoh's heart (7.14; 8.15, 32; 9.7, 34; 10.1) but also to God's "glory" (14.4, 17-18; 16.7, 10; 24.16-17; 29.43; 33.18, 22; 40.34-35), unifies the book. Other themes tie the parts of the story together: knowledge, or better, acknowledgment of God (5.2); the distinction between Israel and other peoples (Egypt, 8.22-23; other peoples, 15.1318); and proper service/worship: first the right object of service, not the Pharaoh, but God; second, the right means of worship, not a golden calf (ch 32) but a tabernacle (chs 25-31; 35-40). Several of the themes that frame the first part of the story, liberation, recur in the second EXODUS
128half, covenant, thus linking the two sections together: the treasures of Egypt used both to break and to keep the covenant (3.21-22); the firstborn (4.22-23); and ritual with blood (now sealing the covenant between God and Israel, 24.3-8; and consecrating the priests, 29.20-21). Another predominant pattern is God's precise command followed by Moses' exact obedience. It can be seen (7.6) in Moses' two commissions, the plagues, the victory at the sea, several incidents during the journey, and preeminently the instructions for making the tabernacle (chs 2531). The one case of disobedience, the construction of the golden calf (ch 32), disrupts this theme. Moses must intercede four times, many Israelites must die, and three chapters are required before the story can get back on track. Finally the commands of chs 25-31 are carried out in chs 35-40, and God indeed takes up residence among the people.