In the heavy heat of the Egyptian delta around 1600 b.c., sons bewail a dead patriarch. The physical act of mourning demands severe exhaustion. Men tear heavy linen tunics and throw dry dirt over bare shoulders. The air hangs thick with the smell of myrrh and natron salt. Egyptian law dictates seventy days of wailing and fasting for a man of status. This labor of sorrow leaves the human body completely drained.
Simeon breathes his last breath in a foreign territory. His sons prepare his body according to strict local customs. They place his remains in a heavy cedar box. The family must stay in a hostile nation. They cannot transport a corpse across miles of harsh desert without a military escort. Survival dictates they wait for a mass exodus. The bones sit in the dark for generations.
A sealed cedar coffin acts as a physical anchor for delayed grief. Men bury dead fathers temporarily when they lack the strength or freedom to return home. The box serves as a crude promise of future movement. It forces a family to tie ultimate closure to a political rebellion. The dead wait on the living to secure a safe route.
A wooden box built for travel means a family has not yet found a place to rest.
The sons of Simeon maintained these remains in Egypt until a violent political uprising broke the empire. Moses eventually carried these specific bones out of the delta and into the desert.