6 Bible Verses about Exhumations

Promise me that you will take my body with you when God leads you to that land.

When the king of Egypt let the people go God did not take them on the road that goes up the coast to Philistia, although it was the shortest way. God thought: I do not want the people to change their minds and return to Egypt when they see that they are going to have to fight. He led them by way of the desert by the Red Sea. The Israelites were armed for battle. Moses took the body of Joseph with him. Joseph made the Israelites solemnly promise to do so. Joseph said: When God rescues you, you must carry my body with you from this place.

The body of Joseph, which the people of Israel had brought from Egypt, was buried at Shechem, in the piece of land that Jacob had bought from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, for a hundred pieces of silver. Joseph's descendants inherited this land.

David took the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan from the citizens of Jabesh Gilead. They had stolen them from the public square of Beth Shean, where the Philistines hung them the day they killed Saul at Gilboa. David brought the bones of Saul and Jonathan. His men also gathered the bones of those who had been executed. Then they buried the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan in the land of Benjamin, at Zela, in the tomb of Saul's father Kish. They did everything the king ordered. After that God answered the prayers for the land.

Josiah turned and saw the tombs on the hill. He sent men to take the bones out of the tombs and burn them on the altar to make it unclean. This fulfilled the word of Jehovah announced by the man of God. What is that headstone I see over there? Josiah asked. The men of the town said: It is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah. The one who foretold all these things you have done to the altar of Bethel. He said: Let him be. Do not move his bones. So they let his bones be with the bones of the prophet who came from Samaria.

By faith Joseph, when his end was near, mentioned the departure of the children of Israel. Then he gave orders concerning his bones.