And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence.

And he made them swear to him, saying: God will visit you, Carry my bones with you out of this place:

And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will certainly visit you; and ye shall carry up my bones hence.

And Joseph causeth the sons of Israel to swear, saying, 'God doth certainly inspect you, and ye have brought up my bones from this place.'

Then Joseph made the children of Israel take an oath, saying, God will certainly give effect to his word, and you are to take my bones away from here.

And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying: 'God will surely remember you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence.'

Et adjuravit Joseph filios Israel, dicendo, visitando visitabit Deus vos, et tolletis ossa mea hinc.

God will surely visit you. By these words he intimates that they would be buried as in oblivion, so long as they remained in Egypt: and truly that exile was as if God had turned his back on them for a season. Nevertheless, Joseph does not cease to fix the eyes of his mind on God; as it is written in the Prophet, "I will wait upon the Lord that hideth his face from the house of Jacob." (Isaiah 8:17.) This passage also clearly teaches what was the design of this anxious choice of his sepulcher, namely, that it might be a seal of redemption: for after he has asserted that God was faithful, and would, in his own time, grant what he had promised, he immediately adjures his brethren to carry away his bones. These were useful relics, the sight of which plainly signified that, by the death of men, the eternal covenant in which Joseph commands his posterity safely to rest, had by no means become extinct; for he deems it sufficient to adduce the oath of God, to remove all their doubts respecting their deliverance. End of the Commentaries on the first book of Moses called Genesis.

Ye shall carry up my bones - That I may finally rest with my ancestors in the land which God gave to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and which is a pledge as it is a type of the kingdom of Heaven. Thus says the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, Hebrews 11:22 : "By Faith Joseph, when he died, (τελευτων, when dying), made mention of the departure (εξοδου, of the Exodus) of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his bones. From this it is evident that Joseph considered all these things as typical, and by this very commandment expressed his faith in the immortality of the soul, and the general resurrection of the dead. This oath, by which Joseph then bound his brethren, their posterity considered as binding on themselves; and Moses took care, when he departed from Egypt, to carry up Joseph's body with him, Exodus 13:19; which was afterwards buried in Shechem, Joshua 24:32, the very portion which Jacob had purchased from the Amorites, and which he gave to his son Joseph, Genesis 48:22; Acts 7:16. See the reason for this command as given by Chrysostom, vol. ii., p. 695, sec. D.E.

And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, (h) God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence.
(h) He speaks this by the spirit of prophecy, exhorting his brethren to have full trust in God's promise for their deliverance.

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.

And ye shall carry up my bones from hence - Herein he had an eye to the promise, Genesis 15:13-14, and in God's name assures them of the performance of it. In Egypt they buried their great men very honourably, and with abundance of pomp; but Joseph prefers a plain burial in Canaan, and that deferred almost two hundred years, before a magnificent one in Egypt. Thus Joseph by faith in the doctrine of the resurrection, and the promise of Canaan, gave commandment concerning his bones, Hebrews 11:22. He dies in Egypt; but lays his bones at stake, that God will surely visit Israel, and bring them to Canaan.