Burial and Reconciliation
- Break out the tissues. The family mourns Jacob's death, and Joseph orders his physicians to embalm Jacob. Yep, they're making him a mummy.
- Joseph requests permission from Pharaoh to leave Egypt to bury his father in Canaan, and sure enough, they bury him according to his wishes in the cave at Machpelah.
- The brothers ask for forgiveness.
- Joseph credits God with the good fortune that resulted from their devious action. Compare what he says here with what he says in 45:4-10. Now try to unpack the implications of that theology.
- Everything is all good between Joseph and his brothers. Joseph will continue to take care of them. That's what fam is for.
- Joseph dies, is turned into a mummy, and is placed in a coffin in Egypt.
- And that, Shmoopers, is the end of the beginning.