How does Joseph answer his brothers’ fear of repayment after their father’s death?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

Joseph tells them not to fear, says God turned their intended evil into good to raise him up and save many people, and promises to feed them and their children. He comforts them and speaks gently rather than threatening repayment.

Chapter breakdown

Joseph falls upon his father’s face, weeping and kissing him. He orders his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father. Forty days pass as they carry out the commands, the customary period for embalming bodies. Egypt mourns for him seventy days.

After the mourning period, Joseph asks Pharao’s household, if he has found favor with them, to speak to Pharao. His father made him swear to bury him in the tomb he had dug for himself in Chanaan. Joseph asks to go up, bury his father and return. Pharao tells him to go and bury his father as he swore.

Joseph goes up with all the elders of Pharao’s house and all the elders of Egypt. His household and brothers go too, but leave their children, flocks and herds in Gessen. Chariots and horsemen accompany him, making a great company.

They reach the threshing floor of Atad beyond the Jordan and hold funeral rites with great, intense mourning for seven full days. The inhabitants of Chanaan call it a great mourning for the Egyptians, and the place is named “The mourning of Egypt.” Jacob’s sons do as he commanded. They carry him into Chanaan and bury him in the double cave that Abraham bought together with the field from Ephron the Hethite, opposite Mambre, as a burial possession. After the burial, Joseph returns to Egypt with his brothers and everyone who came with him.

With their father dead, Joseph’s brothers are afraid that he may remember the wrong he suffered and repay all the evil they did to him. They send a message saying their father commanded them before his death to ask Joseph to forget their wickedness, sin and malice against him. They also ask him to forgive this wickedness of the servants of his father’s God. Joseph weeps when he hears it. His brothers come, bow in worship with their faces to the ground and say they are his servants.

Joseph answers, “Fear not: can we resist the will of God?” He says, “You thought evil against me: but God turned it into good, that he might exalt me, as at present you see, and might save many people.” He tells them again not to fear and promises to feed them and their children. He comforts them and speaks gently and mildly.

Joseph lives in Egypt with his father’s whole household and reaches a hundred and ten years. He sees Ephraim’s children to the third generation. The account adds, “The children also of Machir, the sons of Manasses, were born on Joseph’s knees.”

Joseph tells his brothers that after his death God will visit them and make them go up from this land to the land sworn to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He makes them swear to carry his bones with them out of this place when God visits them. Joseph dies at a hundred and ten years old. He is embalmed and placed in a coffin in Egypt.

The story inside

The chapter records two duties concerning burial and a conversation about the brothers’ past wrongdoing. Joseph obtains permission to fulfill his father’s oath, and the sons bury Jacob in the purchased cave before returning to Egypt. Their father’s death then brings the brothers’ fear of repayment into the account. Their message and offer of service receive Joseph’s tears, reassurance and promise of food. At the end, Joseph asks for his own bones to be carried out when God visits them. Jacob’s burial is completed here; Joseph’s requested removal is still future when his body is placed in an Egyptian coffin (Genesis 50:4–25).

Lessons worth keeping

1
The funeral account keeps its different periods separate: forty days for embalming, seventy days of Egyptian mourning and seven full days at Atad. It also names the people who travel and the children and livestock left in Gessen. These details make the actual journey traceable (50:2–14).
2
Joseph answers the brothers’ stated fear directly. He names their evil intention and God’s turning it to good, then promises food for them and their children. His response keeps both the wrong and the present care in view without widening “many people” into an unrecorded universal claim (50:15–21).
3
The two burial obligations end differently in this chapter. Jacob’s sons carry out his command in Chanaan; Joseph secures an oath about his bones but is placed in a coffin in Egypt. The distinction preserves what has happened and what Joseph says will happen after God visits them (50:12–14, 23–25).

Test your recall

What fear follows Jacob’s death, what explanation and promise does Joseph give in response, and how does the chapter distinguish Jacob’s completed burial from Joseph’s future request?

Show answer

After Jacob dies, the brothers fear that Joseph will repay the harm they did to him. Joseph says that they intended evil, but God turned it toward good to save many people. He promises to feed them and their children. Jacob’s burial in Chanaan is carried out, and the company returns to Egypt. Joseph later asks that his bones be taken when God brings the family out; at the chapter’s end his embalmed body remains in a coffin in Egypt.

Quotes from Scripture

Exact Scripture quotations from the Douay–Rheims Bible, revised by Bishop Richard Challoner (1749–1752), the same edition used for these chapters. Source: Project Gutenberg no. 1581.

You thought evil against me: but God turned it into good, that he might exalt me, as at present you see, and might save many people.

Genesis 50:20 · Douay–Rheims / Challonerpg1581.txt · lines 5931–5932

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 5860–5874
Genesis Chapter 50 The mourning for Jacob, and his interment. Joseph’s kindness towards his brethren. His death. 50:1. And when Joseph saw this, he fell upon his father’s face, weeping and kissing him. 50:2. And he commanded his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father. 50:3. And while they were fulfilling his commands, there passed forty days: for this was the manner with bodies that were embalmed, and Egypt mourned for him seventy days.
Lines 5875–5885
50:4. And the time of the mourning being expired, Joseph spoke to the family of Pharao: If I have found favour in your sight, speak in the ears of Pharao: 50:5. For my father made me swear to him, saying: Behold I die; thou shalt bury me in my sepulchre which I have digged for myself in the land of Chanaan. So I will go up and bury my father, and return. 50:6. And Pharao said to him: Go up and bury thy father according as he made thee swear.
Lines 5886–5894
50:7. So he went up, and there went with him all the ancients of Pharao’s house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt. 50:8. And the house of Joseph with his brethren, except their children, and their flocks and herds, which they left in the land of Gessen. 50:9. He had also in his train chariots and horsemen: and it was a great company.
Lines 5895–5912
50:10. And they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is situated beyond the Jordan: where celebrating the exequies with a great and vehement lamentation, they spent full seven days. 50:11. And when the inhabitants of Chanaan saw this, they said: This is a great mourning to the Egyptians. And therefore the name of that place was called, The mourning of Egypt. 50:12. So the sons of Jacob did as he had commanded them. 50:13. And carrying him into the land of Chanaan, they buried him in the double cave, which Abraham had bought together with the field for a possession of a burying place, of Ephron, the Hethite, over against Mambre. 50:14. And Joseph returned into Egypt with his brethren, and all that were in his company, after he had buried his father.
Lines 5913–5928
50:15. Now he being dead, his brethren were afraid, and talked one with another: Lest perhaps he should remember the wrong he suffered, and requite us all the evil that we did to him. 50:16. And they sent a message to him, saying: Thy father commanded us before he died, 50:17. That we should say thus much to thee from him: I beseech thee to forget the wickedness of thy brethren, and the sin and malice they practised against thee: we also pray thee, to forgive the servants of the God of thy father this wickedness. And when Joseph heard this, he wept. 50:18. And his brethren came to him; and worshipping prostrate on the ground, they said: We are thy servants.
Lines 5929–5936
50:19. And he answered them: Fear not: can we resist the will of God? 50:20. You thought evil against me: but God turned it into good, that he might exalt me, as at present you see, and might save many people. 50:21. Fear not: I will feed you and your children. And he comforted them, and spoke gently and mildly.
Lines 5937–5941
50:22. And he dwelt in Egypt with all his father’s house; and lived a hundred and ten years. And he saw the children of Ephraim to the third generation. The children also of Machir, the sons of Manasses, were born on Joseph’s knees.
Lines 5942–5954
50:23. After which he told his brethren: God will visit you after my death, and will make you go up out of this land, to the land which he swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 50:24. And he made them swear to him, saying: God will visit you, carry my bones with you out of this place: 50:25. And he died, being a hundred and ten years old. And being embalmed, he was laid in a coffin in Egypt.