Pt1 Joseph’s Bones in Exodus 13 and Joshua 24: Honor, Completion, and Consequences (Sotah 13a-b)

This is the first part of a two-part series. The outline of the series is below.

The bones of Joseph, mentioned in Exodus 13 and Joshua 24, become the subject of a wide-ranging rabbinic meditation in our sugya.¹ What appears at first to be a straightforward act of filial and national responsibility—carrying Joseph’s bones from Egypt to Shechem—unfolds into a deeply layered discussion about honor, leadership, divine reward, and the moral obligation of completing good deeds.

This sugya traces the unusual journey of Joseph’s coffin, from its concealment in Egypt to its final resting place in the land of his ancestors. Along the way, it highlights Moses’s dedication to mitzvot, the miraculous recovery of Joseph’s remains, and the symbolic meanings attached to his burial. It also probes the spiritual consequences of incomplete actions, the interplay of personal and communal responsibility, and the subtle critiques embedded in how the Torah describes Joseph’s final years.

Verses

Genesis 50:24-25:

ויאמר יוסף אל אחיו

אנכי מת

ואלהים פקד יפקד אתכם

והעלה אתכם מן הארץ הזאת

אל הארץ אשר נשבע לאברהם ליצחק וליעקב

Joseph said to his brothers,

“I am about to die.

God will surely take notice of you

and bring you up from this land

to the land promised on oath to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.”

וישבע יוסף את בני ישראל לאמר

פקד יפקד אלהים אתכם

והעלתם את עצמתי מזה

So Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying,

“When God has taken notice of you,

you shall carry up my bones from here.”

Exodus.13.19:

ויקח משה את עצמות יוסף עמו

כי השבע השביע את בני ישראל לאמר:

פקד יפקד אלהים אתכם

והעליתם את עצמתי מזה אתכם

And Moses took with him the bones of Joseph,

who had exacted an oath from the children of Israel, saying,

“God will be sure to take notice of you:

then you shall carry up my bones from here with you.”

Joshua.24.32:

ואת עצמות יוסף

אשר העלו בני ישראל  ממצרים

קברו בשכם

בחלקת השדה אשר קנה יעקב מאת בני חמור אבי שכם במאה קשיטה

ויהיו לבני יוסף לנחלה

The bones of Joseph,

which the Israelites had brought up from Egypt,

were buried at Shechem,

in the piece of ground that Jacob had bought for a hundred kesitahs from the children of Hamor, Shechem’s father,

and which had become a heritage of the Josephites.

Outline

Intro

1. Verses

The Passage - Joseph’s Bones in Exodus 13 and Joshua 24: Honor, Completion, and Consequences (Sotah 13a-b)

1. Baraita - Moses Prioritizes Mitzvot Over Plunder (Proverbs 10:8)

2. Moses Recovering Joseph’s Coffin From the Nile River Through Serah’s Testimony

   1. Part 1

   2. Part 2

3. Miracle of Iron Floating and the Hierarchy of Prophetic Power (2 Kings 6:5–6): Elisha’s Miracle with the Floating Iron; A Fortiori Inference: Elisha < Elijah < Moses

4. R’ Natan - Alternative Burial Tradition: Crypt of Kings

5. Two Arks in the Desert

6. Questioning the Delegation of Joseph’s Burial to Moses and the People (Joshua 24:32): Doubt Regarding Moses’ Role; The Role of Joseph’s Descendants

7. R’ Ḥama b. Ḥanina - Burial in Shechem as a Moral Return (Joshua 24:32)

8. Incomplete Mitzvot and Their Consequences (Exodus 13:19; Joshua 24:32; Genesis 38:1, 38:12; 46:12): Contradictory Verses on Joseph’s Bones; Credit Given to the One Who Completes the Act; Demotion and Personal Loss as Punishment for Incomplete Mitzvot

   1. R’ Ḥama b. Ḥanina

   2. R’ Elazar - Genesis 38:1

   3. R’ Shmuel bar Naḥmani - Genesis 38:12; 46:12

9. Rav Yehuda citing Rav - Why Joseph Was Called “Bones” During His Lifetime (Genesis 50:25, 43:28; 44:31)

10. Rav Yehuda citing Rav - Joseph’s Early Death Attributed to Authoritative Behavior

11. R’ Elazar - Joseph “Brings Down” Pharaoh’s astrologers (Genesis 39:1)

12. Rav - Potiphar’s Desire and Divine Castration (Genesis 39:1).

Appendix 1 - Joseph’s Burial as Reward (Mishnah Sotah 1:9)

Appendix 2 - Homiletic Readings of Verses from Exodus and Joshua regarding Joseph’s Bones: Organized by Verse

Genesis Verses (Providing Context for Exodus)

1. Genesis 39:1 - “And Joseph was brought down to Egypt”

2. Genesis 43:28, 44:31 - Joseph’s brothers referring to Jacob as “your servant”

3. Genesis 50:13 - “For his sons carried him into the land of Canaan”

Exodus Verses

1. Exodus 13:19 - “And Moses took with him the bones of Joseph”

2. Exodus Desert Journey (not a specific verse)

Joshua Verses

1. Joshua 24:32 - “The bones of Joseph, which the Israelites had brought up from Egypt, were buried at Shechem”

The Passage

Sotah.13a.12-13b.10

Baraita - Moses Prioritizes Mitzvot Over Plunder (Proverbs 10:8)

The Mishnah remarks² on the greatness of Joseph’s burial, emphasizing that Moses himself took responsibility for his coffin.

A baraita highlights Moses’ devotion to mitzvot, noting that while the people plundered Egypt,³ Moses focused on the mitzvah of burying Joseph, fulfilling the verse “The wise in heart will take mitzvot” (Proverbs 10:8).

מי לנו גדול מיוסף כו׳.

תנו רבנן:

בא וראה כמה חביבות מצות על משה רבינו,

שכל ישראל כולן נתעסקו בביזה,

והוא נתעסק במצות,

שנאמר: ״חכם לב יקח מצות וגו׳״.

It states further in the mishna: Who, to us, had a greater burial than Joseph, as it was none other than Moses who involved himself in transporting his coffin.

The Sages taught in the Tosefta (4:6–7):

Come and see how beloved mitzvot are to Moses our teacher.

As, at the time of the Exodus, all the Jewish people were involved in taking the plunder (ביזה) from Egypt,

and he was involved in the performance of mitzvot,

as it is stated: “The wise in heart will take mitzvot” (Proverbs 10:8).

Moses Recovering Joseph’s Coffin From the Nile River Through Serah’s Testimony

Part 1

The Talmud asks how Moses knew where Joseph was buried.

The answer is that Serah, the daughter of Asher, who had survived from the earlier generation, informed him.

She explained that the Egyptians had placed Joseph’s metal casket in the Nile as a form of blessing.

ומנין היה יודע משה רבינו היכן יוסף קבור?

אמרו:

סרח בת אשר נשתיירה מאותו הדור.

הלך משה אצלה,

אמר לה: כלום את יודעת היכן יוסף קבור?

אמרה לו:

ארון של מתכת עשו לו מצרים

וקבעוהו בנילוס הנהר,

כדי שיתברכו מימיו.

The Talmud asks: And from where did Moses our teacher know where Joseph was buried?

The Sages said:

Serah, the daughter of Asher, remained from that generation that initially descended to Egypt with Jacob.

Moses went to her

and said to her: Do you know anything about where Joseph is buried?

She said to him:

The Egyptians fashioned a metal casket for him

and set it in the Nile [Nilus] River as an augury

so that its water would be blessed.

Part 2

Moses went to the riverbank and invoked God’s oath of redemption⁴ and the oath Joseph had made the people swear.⁵

Upon doing so, Joseph’s casket miraculously floated (צף) to the surface.

הלך משה ועמד על שפת נילוס,

אמר לו:

יוסף! יוסף!

הגיע העת שנשבע הקדוש ברוך הוא שאני גואל אתכם,

והגיעה השבועה שהשבעת את ישראל.

• אם אתה מראה עצמך --

  • מוטב,

• אם לאו —

  • הרי אנו מנוקין משבועתך.

מיד צף ארונו של יוסף.

Moses went and stood on the bank of the Nile.

He said to Joseph:

Joseph! Joseph!

the time has arrived about which God took an oath saying that I, i.e., God, will redeem you.

And the time for fulfillment of the oath that you administered to the Jewish people that they will bury you in Eretz Yisrael has arrived.

• If you show yourself —

  • it is good,

• but if not —

  • we are clear from your oath.

Immediately, the casket of Joseph floated to the top of the water.

Miracle of Iron Floating and the Hierarchy of Prophetic Power (2 Kings 6:5–6): Elisha’s Miracle with the Floating Iron; A Fortiori Inference: Elisha < Elijah < Moses

The passage recounts how Elisha, in response to a distressed student whose borrowed axe head fell into water, miraculously caused the iron to float by throwing in a stick (II Kings 6:5–6).⁶

The argument follows a kal vaḥomer:

if Elisha, merely a disciple of Elijah (who himself was only a student of Moses and his Torah), could perform such a miracle, then certainly Moses—who stands higher in the prophetic hierarchy—could do so even more easily.

ואל תתמה היאך ברזל צף,

שהרי כתיב:

״ויהי האחד מפיל הקורה

ואת הברזל נפל אל המים וגו׳

אהה אדוני

והוא שאול.

ויאמר איש האלהים: אנה נפל?

ויראהו את המקום

ויקצב עץ

וישלך שמה

ויצף הברזל״.

And do not wonder how iron can float, as it is written in the verses describing how Elisha was able to cause iron to float:

“But as one was felling a beam,

the ax head fell into the water;

and he cried, and said: Alas, my master!

For it was borrowed.

And the man of God said: Where did it fall?

And he showed him the place.

And he cut down a stick,

and cast it in there,

and the iron floated up” (II Kings 6:5–6).

והלא דברים קל וחומר:

• ומה אלישע

  • תלמידו של אליהו,

  • ואליהו תלמידו של משה —

    • צף ברזל מפניו,

• מפני משה רבינו —

  • על אחת כמה וכמה.

And are these matters not inferred a fortiori:

• And if for Elisha --

  • who was a mere student of Elijah,

  • and Elijah was a mere student of Moses, as Elijah studied the Torah of Moses,

    • was able to cause the iron to float before him,

• before Moses our teacher himself --

  • all the more so would it float

R’ Natan - Alternative Burial Tradition: Crypt of Kings

A second tradition holds that Joseph was buried in a royal tomb.⁷

As in the previous tradition, Moses invoked Joseph’s oath, causing the coffin to vibrate (נזדעזע - “tremble”) among the others, identifying itself so Moses could retrieve it.

רבי נתן אומר: בקברניט של מלכים היה קבור.

הלך משה

ועמד על קברניט של מלכים,

אמר:

יוסף!

הגיע עת שנשבע הקדוש ברוך הוא שאני גואל אתכם,

והגיעה שבועה שהשבעת את ישראל.

• אם אתה מראה עצמך —

  • מוטב,

• ואם לאו —

  • הרי אנו מנוקין משבועתך.

באותה שעה נזדעזע ארונו של יוסף,

נטלו משה, והביאו אצלו.

The Talmud now presents a different version of where Joseph was buried. R’ Natan says: Joseph was buried in the crypt [kabbarnit] of kings.

Moses went

and stood by the crypt of kings

and said:

Joseph!

the time has arrived about which God took an oath saying that: I will redeem you.

And the time for fulfillment of the oath that you administered to the Jewish people that they will bury you in Eretz Yisrael has arrived.

• If you show yourself —

  • it is good,

• but if not —

  • we are clear from your oath.

At that moment, the casket of Joseph shook among the caskets.

Moses took it and brought it over to himself.

Two Arks in the Desert

During the Israelites’ wanderings, Joseph’s coffin traveled alongside the Ark of the Covenant.⁸

When questioned, the people explained that Joseph’s life embodied the Torah contained in the Ark, so the pairing was fitting: “This one fulfilled everything written in that one.”

וכל אותן שנים שהיו ישראל במדבר,

היו שני ארונות הללו:

• אחד

  • של מת,

• ואחד

  • של שכינה,

מהלכין זה עם זה,

והיו עוברין ושבין אומרים: מה טיבן של שני ארונות הללו?

אמרו:

• אחד

  • של מת,

• ואחד

  • של שכינה.

וכי מה דרכו של מת להלך עם שכינה?!

אמרו: קיים זה כל מה שכתוב בזה.

And all those years that the Jewish people were in the wilderness,

these two arks (ארונות):

• one

  • a casket of a dead man, Joseph,

• and one

  • the Ark of the Shekhina, i.e., the Ark of the Covenant,

were traveling together,

and passersby would say: What is the nature of these two arks?

They said to them:

• One

  • is of a dead person

• and one

  • is of the Shekhina.

The passersby would ask: And in what way is it the manner of a dead person to travel with the Shekhina?!

They said in response:

This one, i.e., the deceased Joseph, fulfilled all that is written in this. Therefore, it is fitting that the two arks should lie side by side.

1. For other parts of the broader extended aggadic sugya, see the general index of my Talmud pieces, section “Sotah“.

For the part right after this, see my recent two-part series, “The Death and Burial of Moses in Deuteronomy 31-34 (Sotah 13b-14a)“, final part here.

For the Mishnah that this sugya is taking off from, see my “Divine Reciprocity: Biblical Instances of Measure-for-Measure (‘Midah Keneged Midah’) Punishment and Reward (Mishnah Sotah 1:7-9)“, section “Chain of burials“.

2. Ibid. (previous footnote), sub-section “Moses buries Joseph (Exodus 13:19)“.

3. Referring to Exodus 12:36:

And YHWH had given the people favor in the eyes of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked;

thus they plundered Egypt (וַיְנַצְּלוּ אֶת־מִצְרָיִם).

Another earlier verse describes the planned plunder, in Exodus 11:2:

Let every man ask from his neighbor… articles of silver and gold.

4. Likely referring to the divine oath during the “Covenant of the pieces“ of future redemption, in Genesis 15:13-14:

Know well that your descendants will be strangers…

but afterward they will go free with great wealth.

5. Referring to Joseph’s adjuration of the Israelites in Genesis 50:24-25, see my intro where I quote the verses.

6. See a summary of the story in Wikipedia, “2 Kings 6“, section “The axe head recovered (6:1–7)“:

The passage shows how Elisha helped his disciples, even for something seemingly trivial.

Elisha’s followers lost a borrowed axe in the water […], and the prophet came to help by using “a kind of analogical magic” on the last spot of the axe, before letting the disciple picked it up out of the water.

7. קברניט.

This word typically has the connotation in Talmudic literature of “ship captain” (from Greek kybernetes, cognate with Modern English cybernetics; see Hebrew Wikipedia). However, in this context, it clearly means “tomb, crypt”. Jastrow derives its etymology here from “labyrinth.”

8. On the Ark in the Wilderness in the Talmud, compare my recent piece on an aggadic sugya later in the tractate, “The Miraculous Crossing of the Jordan River in Joshua 3-4 (Sotah 33b-34a)“, section “Baraita - The Ark’s Unique Role in Crossing the Jordan (Joshua 3:11,13): The Ark’s Usual Position; The Ark’s Position on This Day; Who Carried the Ark“.