Joseph's Oath to Be Carried Home and God's Fourfold Visitation

Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 227:10

Another interpretation: Joseph said to them, "My father came down here willingly, and I brought him up; I came down against my will. I make you swear that to the place from which you stole me, there you shall return me." And so they did for him, in the manner of what is said (Joshua 24:32), "And the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up, they buried in Shechem." "God will surely visit you" (Genesis 50:24): "visit" you in Egypt, and "will visit" you at the sea; visit you at the sea, and will visit you in the wilderness; visit you in the wilderness, and will visit at the brooks of Arnon; visit you in this world, and will visit you in the world to come - a visitation in Egypt, a visitation at Sinai, a visitation in Nisan, a visitation in Tishrei. "And you shall bring up my bones from here" - I might understand at once; therefore it teaches "with you" (Exodus 13:19), when you go up. And how do we know that the bones of the tribes too were brought up with them? Therefore it teaches "from here with you" - "from here" [mizeh, spelled zayin-heh] equals twelve [the numerical value, hinting at the twelve tribes]. "And they journeyed from Sukkot and camped in Etam" (Exodus 13:20): just as Etam is a place, so Sukkot is a place. Rabbi Akiva says: they were clouds of glory, as it is said, "over all the glory a canopy." I have this only for the past; how do I know for the future? It teaches (Isaiah 4:6), "and a sukkah shall be for shade by day," and it says (Isaiah 35:10), "and the redeemed of the LORD shall return."

Themes