What Does Genesis 50:14 Mean?

Joseph returned to Egypt with his brothers and all who had gone up with him to bury his father, after he had buried his father. The burial complete, Joseph returns as promised. The "after he had buried his father" is the narrative's clean closing of the burial episode: the obligation that sent him to Canaan has been fulfilled; he returns to Egypt with all the brothers and the full Egyptian escort. The promise to Pharaoh ("then I will return": verse 5) is kept. Joseph does what he says he will do, as he has throughout the narrative.

The return of the brothers to Egypt is also their return to the life that Jacob's death has now changed. Before Jacob died, the brothers had Jacob as their protection and anchor in Goshen. With Jacob gone, they face the question they will articulate in verse 15: is Joseph's goodness to us a function of Jacob's presence, or is it independent? The burial trip and the return are the transition from the Jacob-mediated relationship to the post-Jacob reckoning the brothers must face.

All who had gone up return together: the brothers, the Egyptian court, the servants of Pharaoh. The international coalition that came from Egypt to Canaan for the burial now returns to Egypt. The return is collective; no one stays in Canaan. The promise of return structures the entire burial episode: go up, bury, return. Joseph and the brothers are people of Egypt now: Goshen-settled, Pharaoh-dependent, Egypt-based: who carry Canaan in their hearts and their covenant memory even as they return to the land of their sojourn.