‘And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, “God will surely visit you and you will carry my bones from here.”
Joseph is so certain that they will be returning to Canaan that he makes his brothers and their sons, the ‘children' of Israel their father, swear an oath to take his bones with them when they go. He longs for his final resting place to be in the land of the covenant, the promised land. So does he affirm his strong belief in that covenant that has been his mainstay throughout his life, even in the courts of Egypt.