The Death of Joseph and the Beginning of the Egyptian Bondage

Joseph lived in Egypt for more than eighty years — first as a slave, then as viceroy, then as head of a family that grew into a people. He died in 2309, the first of the twelve brothers to go, having made the children of Israel swear that when God remembered them they would carry his bones out of Egypt. His body was embalmed and placed in a coffin — not buried, but held in waiting. While his brothers lived, the Hebrews were treated with respect as the family of the man who had saved the country. Then that generation died out, and the memory faded with it. The Torah puts it in one chilling line: a new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph. What followed was the ordinary logic of fear — they are too many, they are foreign, in a war they will join our enemies. Labour began as a patriotic call, became an obligation, and ended as slavery with no exit. The Israelites built the store-cities Pithom and Raamses out of mortar and brick. Egypt never declared war; it simply changed the rules one decree at a time.