Genesis 50:22-26, “Joseph stayed in Egypt, along with all his father’s family. He lived a hundred and ten years and saw the third generation of Ephraim’s children. Also the children of Makir son of Manasseh were placed at birth on Joseph’s knees.
Then Joseph said to his brothers, ‘I am about to die. But God will surely come to your aid and take you up out of this land to the land he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And Joseph made the sons of Israel swear an oath and said, ‘God will surely come to your aid, and then you must carry my bones up from this place.’
So Joseph died at the age of a hundred and ten. And after they embalmed him, he was placed in a coffin in Egypt.”
Although apparently not enough happens in the rest of Joseph’s life to tell about from Jacob’s death forward, Joseph is important enough to note that he did die. And, of course, that he wished to buried with his father and his father’s fathers. Perhaps this is the importance here, so as to explain why the Israelites spent their time lugging around his corpse for 40 years.
And this is how the first book of the Bible ends. It begins with life, and ends with death. Seems to be the case for many books of the Bible. . . just thinking rather generally about them. Yet, very few talk about the same people at the end as at the beginning. But, of course, this is just the beginning of the story of the people of Israel. We move into Exodus next to see how they were put through the tests of the wilderness to see how they could actually cope as God’s chosen people.
