Genesis 50:6

6 Then Pharaoh said, "Go up and bury your father as he made you 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 When the days of his weeping had passed, Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh, saying, "If I have found favor in your eyes, please speak in the hearing of Pharaoh, saying,

5 'My father made me swear, saying, "Behold, I [am about] to die. In the tomb that I have hewed out for myself in the land of Canaan--there you must bury me." So then, please let me go up and let me bury my father; then I will return.'"

6 Then Pharaoh said, "Go up and bury your father as he made you swear."

7 So Joseph went up to bury his father. And all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his household, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, went up with him,

8 with all the household of Joseph, his brothers, and the household of his father. They left only their little children and their flocks and their herds in the land of Goshen.