What does Genesis 50:7 mean?

By the time Jacob got the unexpected news that his son, Joseph, was alive, he was already 130 years old (Genesis 47:9). He had made some preparations for his own death, by then (Genesis 50:5). Some seventeen years later, his burial will be an event well beyond anything Jacob might have imagined.

In addition to a seventy-day period of official mourning for Jacob (Genesis 50:3), Pharaoh sent a huge delegation to Canaan for the funeral. The Egyptians sent on this journey included Pharaoh's servants, the elders of his household, and all the elders of the land of Egypt. At the time Jacob's family moved into Egypt, they numbered seventy people (Genesis 46:27). Even seventeen years later (Genesis 47:28), it's likely there were more Egyptian dignitaries at Jacob's funeral than members of his own family. Pharaoh truly held Joseph and his father in great esteem.

Of course, God is the one ultimately responsible for returning Jacob's body to the Promised Land of Canaan. As Jacob was leaving Canaan 17 years earlier, God told him directly, "I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again" (Genesis 46:4). God has kept another of His promises to Jacob.