🌱WEB · Genesis 50:4
What does Genesis 50:4 mean?
"When the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph spoke to the house of Pharaoh, saying, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, please speak in the ears of Pharaoh, saying,"
— Genesis 50:4 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
Joseph fell on his father’s face, wept on him, and kissed him.
Joseph commanded his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father; and the physicians embalmed Israel.
Forty days were fulfilled for him, for that is how many the days it takes to embalm. The Egyptians wept for him for seventy days.
When the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph spoke to the house of Pharaoh, saying, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, please speak in the ears of Pharaoh, saying,
‘My father made me swear, saying, “Behold, I am dying. Bury me in my grave which I have dug for myself in the land of Canaan.” Now therefore, please let me go up and bury my father, and I will come again.’”
Pharaoh said, “Go up, and bury your father, just like he made you swear.”
Joseph went up to bury his father; and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, all the elders of the land of Egypt,
Explanation
Genesis 50:4 comes right after Jacob, Joseph's father, has died in Egypt. The verse tells us that once the official period of mourning for Jacob had ended, Joseph approached the members of Pharaoh's court—not Pharaoh himself directly—and asked them to relay a request on his behalf. He wanted them to speak to Pharaoh about something important to him, and he prefaced this with humble, courteous language: "If now I have found favor in your eyes, please speak in the ears of Pharaoh." The verse sets up what Joseph is about to ask, which the following verses reveal: permission to leave Egypt temporarily and bury his father in the land of Canaan, fulfilling Jacob's dying wish to be laid to rest with his ancestors.
To understand this verse well, it helps to remember Joseph's position. He had risen from slavery to become the most powerful official in Egypt under Pharaoh, essentially second-in-command over the entire nation. Despite this enormous authority, Joseph does not simply announce that he is leaving to bury his
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