Genesis 50:6

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

Genesis 50:6 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 50:6

And Pharaoh said
To Joseph, by the courtiers that waited upon him at Joseph's request, who having delivered it to him had this answer: go up, and bury thy father, as he made thee swear;
the oath seems to be the principal thing that influenced Pharaoh to grant the request, it being a sacred thing, and not to be violated; otherwise, perhaps, he would not have chosen that Joseph should have been so long absent from him, and might have thought a grave in Egypt, and an honourable interment there, which he would have spared no cost to have given, might have done as well, or better.

Genesis 50:6 In-Context

4 And when the days of his mourning were past, Joseph spoke 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,

5 `My father made me swear, saying, "Lo, I die; in my grave which I have dug for myself 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.'"

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

7 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,

8 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.