Genesis 50:25

25 Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear an oath, and he said, “When God comes to help you and lead you back, you must take my bones with you.”

Genesis 50:25 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 50:25

And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel
Not of his brethren only, but of their posterity, as many of them as were now grown up, that so it might be communicated from one to another, and become well known to that generation which should depart out of Egypt:

saying, God will surely visit you;
which he repeats for the certainty of it, and that it might be observed:

and ye shall carry up my bones from hence;
when they should go from thence to Canaan's land; he did not desire them to carry him thither when he should die, which he knew would give umbrage to the Egyptians, and they would not be so able to obtain leave to do it as he had for his father. This was accordingly done; when Israel went out of Egypt, Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, and they were buried in Shechem; see ( Exodus 13:19 ) ( Joshua 24:32 ) .

Genesis 50:25 In-Context

23 He lived to see three generations of descendants of his son Ephraim, and he lived to see the birth of the children of Manasseh’s son Makir, whom he claimed as his own.

24 “Soon I will die,” Joseph told his brothers, “but God will surely come to help you and lead you out of this land of Egypt. He will bring you back to the land he solemnly promised to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.”

25 Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear an oath, and he said, “When God comes to help you and lead you back, you must take my bones with you.”

26 So Joseph died at the age of 110. The Egyptians embalmed him, and his body was placed in a coffin in Egypt.