About Genesis

Genesis is the book of beginnings, recording the creation of the world, the origin of humanity, the entrance of sin, and the beginning of God's plan of redemption through the family of Abraham.

Author: MosesWritten: c. 1445-1405 BCReading time: ~3 minVerses: 26
CreationFall of ManCovenantFaithProvidenceRedemption

King James Version

Genesis 50

26 verses with commentary

The Burial of Jacob

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

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KJV Study Commentary

<strong>And Joseph fell upon his father's face, and wept upon him, and kissed him....</strong> This passage is part of the Joseph narrative, a masterfully crafted account demonstrating God's sovereign providence working through human choices and circumstances to accomplish His redemptive purposes. The Joseph cycle shows how God transforms evil intentions into instruments of salvation.<br><br>Centr...
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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

**5. thy two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh--**It was the intention of the aged patriarch to adopt Joseph's sons as his own, thus giving him a double portion. The reasons for this procedure are stated (1Ch 5:1, 2). **are mine--**Though their connections might have attached them to Egypt and opened to them brilliant prospects in the land of their nativity, they willingly accepted the adoption (He 11:...
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And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father: and the physicians embalmed Israel.

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KJV Study Commentary

<strong>And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father: and the physicians embalmed I...</strong> This passage is part of the Joseph narrative, a masterfully crafted account demonstrating God's sovereign providence working through human choices and circumstances to accomplish His redemptive purposes. The Joseph cycle shows how God transforms evil intentions into instruments ...
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Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers

L. BURIAL OF JACOB, AND HAPPY OLD AGE OF JOSEPH. (2) **The physicians embalmed Israel.**—The command given first by Jacob to Joseph (Genesis 47:29-30), and then urged earnestly upon all his sons, and with the reminder that the cave of Machpelah had been purchased and belonged to him by right (Genesis 49:29-32), made it specially necessary that the patriarch’s body should be prepared for so long a ...
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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. mourned: Heb. wept

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KJV Study Commentary

<strong>And forty days were fulfilled for him; for so are fulfilled the days of those which are embalmed: an...</strong> This passage is part of the Joseph narrative, a masterfully crafted account demonstrating God's sovereign providence working through human choices and circumstances to accomplish His redemptive purposes. The Joseph cycle shows how God transforms evil intentions into instruments ...
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Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers

(3) **Forty days.**—Herodotus (ii. 86) describes the process of embalming as occupying seventy days, but he was speaking of what he saw at Thebes, whereas Memphis was the Egyptian capital in Joseph’s time; and the mummies of Thebes are, we are told, far more perfectly preserved than those of Memphis. Diodorus agrees very nearly with the periods mentioned here, saying (i. 91) that the embalming too...
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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,

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KJV Study Commentary

<strong>And when the days of his mourning were past, Joseph spake unto the house of Pharaoh, saying, If now ...</strong> This passage is part of the Joseph narrative, a masterfully crafted account demonstrating God's sovereign providence working through human choices and circumstances to accomplish His redemptive purposes. The Joseph cycle shows how God transforms evil intentions into instruments ...
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Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers

(4) **Joseph spake unto the house of Pharaoh.**—It may seem at first sight strange that Joseph should make his request through mediators, but probably no one in the attire of mourning might enter the royal presence. (Comp. Esther 4:2.) The dress of a mourner was squalid, his beard unshorn, his hair in disorder, and while these outward signs of grief were maintained, he was also expected to confine...
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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.

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KJV Study Commentary

<strong>My father made me swear, saying, Lo, I die: in my grave which I have digged for me in the land of Ca...</strong> This passage is part of the Joseph narrative, a masterfully crafted account demonstrating God's sovereign providence working through human choices and circumstances to accomplish His redemptive purposes. The Joseph cycle shows how God transforms evil intentions into instruments ...
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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

**9. Bring them, I pray thee, unto me, and I will bless them--**The apostle (He 11:21) selected the blessing of Joseph's son as the chief, because the most comprehensive, instance of the patriarch's faith which his whole history furnishes.

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

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KJV Study Commentary

<strong>And Pharaoh said, Go up, and bury thy father, according as he made thee swear....</strong> This passage is part of the Joseph narrative, a masterfully crafted account demonstrating God's sovereign providence working through human choices and circumstances to accomplish His redemptive purposes. The Joseph cycle shows how God transforms evil intentions into instruments of salvation.<br><br>C...
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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,

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KJV Study Commentary

<strong>And Joseph went up to bury his father: and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders ...</strong> This passage is part of the Joseph narrative, a masterfully crafted account demonstrating God's sovereign providence working through human choices and circumstances to accomplish His redemptive purposes. The Joseph cycle shows how God transforms evil intentions into instruments ...
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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.

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KJV Study Commentary

<strong>And all the house of Joseph, and his brethren, and his father's house: only their little ones, and t...</strong> This passage is part of the Joseph narrative, a masterfully crafted account demonstrating God's sovereign providence working through human choices and circumstances to accomplish His redemptive purposes. The Joseph cycle shows how God transforms evil intentions into instruments ...
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And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen: and it was a very great company.

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KJV Study Commentary

<strong>And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen: and it was a very great company....</strong> This passage is part of the Joseph narrative, a masterfully crafted account demonstrating God's sovereign providence working through human choices and circumstances to accomplish His redemptive purposes. The Joseph cycle shows how God transforms evil intentions into instruments of salvation....
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Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers

(9) **A very great company.**—Heb., *camp, *the word following immediately upon the mention of the chariots and horsemen which went as the escort of the elders. These were the chief officers of Pharaoh’s household, and also of the districts into which Egypt was divided, of which each had its separate governor. Of the Israelites only the men of rank, Jacob’s own sons, and the officers of his house ...
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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

**13. Joseph took them both--**The very act of pronouncing the blessing was remarkable, showing that Jacob's bosom was animated by the spirit of prophecy.

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.

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KJV Study Commentary

<strong>And they came to the threshingfloor of Atad, which is beyond Jordan, and there they mourned with a g...</strong> This passage is part of the Joseph narrative, a masterfully crafted account demonstrating God's sovereign providence working through human choices and circumstances to accomplish His redemptive purposes. The Joseph cycle shows how God transforms evil intentions into instruments ...
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Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers

(10) **Threshingfloor of Atad.**—Atad means “a thorn-bush,” the *rhamnus paliurus *of Linnaeus, translated “bramble” in Judges 9:14. As agriculture was only beginning to be practised in Canaan, this threshing. floor would be common property, situated in some place easy of access, and probably a village would grow up near it. **Beyond Jordan.**—It is disputed whether this means on the east or on th...
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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. Abelmizraim: that is, The mourning of the Egyptians

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KJV Study Commentary

<strong>And when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning in the floor of Atad, they sa...</strong> This passage is part of the Joseph narrative, a masterfully crafted account demonstrating God's sovereign providence working through human choices and circumstances to accomplish His redemptive purposes. The Joseph cycle shows how God transforms evil intentions into instruments ...
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Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers

(11) **Abel-mizraim.**—There is here an example of that play upon words that is always dear to Orientals. The word for “mourning” is *êbel, *while *abel *means a meadow, and is often found prefixed to the names of towns. When the Versions were made no vowel points were as yet affixed to the Hebrew consonants, and they all read Ebel-mizraim, *the mourning of Egypt. *The Hebrew text alone, as at pre...
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And his sons did unto him according as he commanded them:

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KJV Study Commentary

<strong>And his sons did unto him according as he commanded them:...</strong> This passage is part of the Joseph narrative, a masterfully crafted account demonstrating God's sovereign providence working through human choices and circumstances to accomplish His redemptive purposes. The Joseph cycle shows how God transforms evil intentions into instruments of salvation.<br><br>Central themes include...
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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.

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KJV Study Commentary

<strong>For his sons carried him into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpel...</strong> This passage is part of the Joseph narrative, a masterfully crafted account demonstrating God's sovereign providence working through human choices and circumstances to accomplish His redemptive purposes. The Joseph cycle shows how God transforms evil intentions into instruments ...
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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.

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KJV Study Commentary

<strong>And Joseph returned into Egypt, he, and his brethren, and all that went up with him to bury his fath...</strong> This passage is part of the Joseph narrative, a masterfully crafted account demonstrating God's sovereign providence working through human choices and circumstances to accomplish His redemptive purposes. The Joseph cycle shows how God transforms evil intentions into instruments ...
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Joseph Reassures His Brothers

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.

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KJV Study Commentary

<strong>And when Joseph's brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate ...</strong> This passage is part of the Joseph narrative, a masterfully crafted account demonstrating God's sovereign providence working through human choices and circumstances to accomplish His redemptive purposes. The Joseph cycle shows how God transforms evil intentions into instruments ...
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Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers

(15) **Joseph will peradventure . . . —**Heb., *What if Joseph should hate us, *&c. They had not seen any change in his treatment of him, but if it were the case that he cherished feelings of revenge, they felt that they were now in his power.

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

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KJV Study Commentary

<strong>And they sent a messenger unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying,...</strong> This passage is part of the Joseph narrative, a masterfully crafted account demonstrating God's sovereign providence working through human choices and circumstances to accomplish His redemptive purposes. The Joseph cycle shows how God transforms evil intentions into instruments of salv...
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Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers

(16, 17) **Thy father did command . . . —**Many Jewish expositors consider that this was untrue, and that Jacob was never made aware of the fact that his brethren had sold Joseph into slavery. It is, however, probable, from Genesis 49:6, that Jacob not only knew of it, but saw in Simeon and Levi the chief offenders. But besides the father’s authority the message brings a twofold influence to bear ...
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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.

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KJV Study Commentary

<strong>So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren, and their sin; ...</strong> This passage is part of the Joseph narrative, a masterfully crafted account demonstrating God's sovereign providence working through human choices and circumstances to accomplish His redemptive purposes. The Joseph cycle shows how God transforms evil intentions into instruments ...
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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

**21. Israel said unto Joseph, Behold, I die--**The patriarch could speak of death with composure, but he wished to prepare Joseph and the rest of the family for the shock. **but God shall be with you--**Jacob, in all probability, was not authorized to speak of their bondage--he dwelt only on the certainty of their restoration to Canaan.

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

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KJV Study Commentary

<strong>And his brethren also went and fell down before his face; and they said, Behold, we be thy servants....</strong> This passage is part of the Joseph narrative, a masterfully crafted account demonstrating God's sovereign providence working through human choices and circumstances to accomplish His redemptive purposes. The Joseph cycle shows how God transforms evil intentions into instruments ...
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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

**22. moreover I have given to thee one portion above thy brethren--**This was near Shechem (Ge 33:18; Joh 4:5; also Jos 16:1; 20:7). And it is probable that the Amorites, having seized upon it during one of his frequent absences, the patriarch, with the united forces of his tribe, recovered it from them by his sword and his bow.

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

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KJV Study Commentary

<strong>And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God?...</strong> This passage is part of the Joseph narrative, a masterfully crafted account demonstrating God's sovereign providence working through human choices and circumstances to accomplish His redemptive purposes. The Joseph cycle shows how God transforms evil intentions into instruments of salvation.<br><br>Central theme...
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Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers

(19) **Am I in the place of God?**—That is, *am I to act as judge, and punish? *Judges are sometimes in Hebrew even called God (as in Exodus 21:6; Exodus 22:8-9; 1Samuel 2:25), as exercising His authority.

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.

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KJV Study Commentary

<strong>But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is t...</strong> This passage is part of the Joseph narrative, a masterfully crafted account demonstrating God's sovereign providence working through human choices and circumstances to accomplish His redemptive purposes. The Joseph cycle shows how God transforms evil intentions into instruments ...
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Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers

(20) **Ye thought **. . . **God meant.**—The verb in the Heb. is the same, and contrasts man’s purpose with God’s purpose. In Genesis 45:7 Joseph had already pointed out that the Divine providence had overruled the evil intentions of his brethren for good. At the end of the verse “much people,” or *a great people, *means the Egyptians.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

CHAPTER 49 Ge 49:1-33. Patriarchal Blessing. **1. Jacob called unto his sons--**It is not to the sayings of the dying saint, so much as of the inspired prophet, that attention is called in this chapter. Under the immediate influence of the Holy Spirit he pronounced his prophetic benediction and described the condition of their respective descendants in the last days, or future times. Ge 49:3, ...
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Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them. kindly: Heb. to their hearts

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KJV Study Commentary

<strong>Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spak...</strong> This passage is part of the Joseph narrative, a masterfully crafted account demonstrating God's sovereign providence working through human choices and circumstances to accomplish His redemptive purposes. The Joseph cycle shows how God transforms evil intentions into instruments ...
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Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers

(21) **Your little ones.**—Heb., *your *“*tafs*” rendered in the LXX., “your households,” and in the Syriac, “your families,” your dependents—its usual translation in that Version.

The Death of Joseph

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

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KJV Study Commentary

<strong>And Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he, and his father's house: and Joseph lived an hundred and ten years....</strong> This passage is part of the Joseph narrative, a masterfully crafted account demonstrating God's sovereign providence working through human choices and circumstances to accomplish His redemptive purposes. The Joseph cycle shows how God transforms evil intentions into instruments of ...
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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. brought: Heb. born

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KJV Study Commentary

<strong>And Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third generation: the children also of Machir the son of Ma...</strong> This passage is part of the Joseph narrative, a masterfully crafted account demonstrating God's sovereign providence working through human choices and circumstances to accomplish His redemptive purposes. The Joseph cycle shows how God transforms evil intentions into instruments ...
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Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers

(23) **The third generation.**—These would be Joseph’s great-grandchildren. Thus Eran, son of Shuthelah, son of Ephraim, was to be born in Joseph’s lifetime (Numbers 26:35-36). **Were brought up . . . —**Heb., *were born upon Joseph’s knees, *that is, were adopted by him. (See Note on Genesis 30:3.) They would not form tribes, as this prerogative was reserved for the sons of Jacob (Genesis 48:5), ...
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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.

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KJV Study Commentary

<strong>And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die: and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this l...</strong> This passage is part of the Joseph narrative, a masterfully crafted account demonstrating God's sovereign providence working through human choices and circumstances to accomplish His redemptive purposes. The Joseph cycle shows how God transforms evil intentions into instruments ...
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Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers

(24) **God will . . . bring you out of this land.**—This is, first, a proof of Joseph’s faith, commended in Hebrews 11:22; and, secondly, it is a preparation for the next book (Exodus). Joseph’s faith thus unites the two books together.

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.

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KJV Study Commentary

<strong>And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and ye shall c...</strong> This passage is part of the Joseph narrative, a masterfully crafted account demonstrating God's sovereign providence working through human choices and circumstances to accomplish His redemptive purposes. The Joseph cycle shows how God transforms evil intentions into instruments ...
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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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KJV Study Commentary

<strong>So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years old: and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffi...</strong> This passage is part of the Joseph narrative, a masterfully crafted account demonstrating God's sovereign providence working through human choices and circumstances to accomplish His redemptive purposes. The Joseph cycle shows how God transforms evil intentions into instruments ...
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Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers

(26) **A coffin.**—The word means a case or chest of wood. The mummy-cases were generally of sycamore-wood. As it would not be possible for the Israelites, now that their great protector was no more, to go with a military escort to Hebron to bury him, Joseph orders that his embalmed body should be placed in some part of Goshen, whence it would be easy to remove it when the time of deliverance had ...
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