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Genesis 50 - Dummelow John R - Bible Commentary

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Genesis 50

1 And Joseph fell upon his father's face, and wept upon him, and kissed him.

2 And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father: and the physicians embalmed Israel.

3 And forty days were fulfilled for him; for so are fulfilled the days of those which are embalmed: and the Egyptians mourned for him threescore and ten days.

4 And when the days of his mourning were past, Joseph spake unto the house of Pharaoh, saying, If now I have found grace in your eyes, speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh, saying,

5 My father made me swear, saying, Lo, I die: in my grave which I have digged for me in the land of Canaan, there shalt thou bury me. Now therefore let me go up, I pray thee, and bury my father, and I will come again.

6 And Pharaoh said, Go up, and bury thy father, according as he made thee swear.

7 And Joseph went up to bury his father: and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt,

8 and all the house of Joseph, and his brethren, and his father's house: only their little ones, and their flocks, and their herds, they left in the land of Goshen.

9 And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen: and it was a very great company.

10 And they came to the threshingfloor of Atad, which is beyond Jordan, and there they mourned with a great and very sore lamentation: and he made a mourning for his father seven days.

11 And when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning in the floor of Atad, they said, This is a grievous mourning to the Egyptians: wherefore the name of it was called Abel-mizraim, which is beyond Jordan.

12 And his sons did unto him according as he commanded them:

13 for his sons carried him into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which Abraham bought with the field for a possession of a buryingplace of Ephron the Hittite, before Mamre.

14 And Joseph returned into Egypt, he, and his brethren, and all that went up with him to bury his father, after he had buried his father.

Death of Joseph

15 And when Joseph's brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him.

16 And they sent a messenger unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying,

17 So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren, and their sin; for they did unto thee evil: and now, we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake unto him.

18 And his brethren also went and fell down before his face; and they said, Behold, we be thy servants.

19 And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God?

20 But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.

21 Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them.

22 And Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he, and his father's house: and Joseph lived an hundred and ten years.

23 And Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third generation: the children also of Machir the son of Manasseh were brought up upon Joseph's knees.

24 And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die: and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

25 And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence.

26 So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years old: and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.

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Genesis 50

The Burial of Jacob, and Death of Joseph

2. For the importance attached by the Egyptians to the preservation of the corpse see on Gen 40:19. The process, which was so thorough that mummies of Joseph's time may be seen in our museums in a state of good preservation, was briefly as follows. The brain and intestines were removed, and the stomach cleansed and filled with spices (embalmed). The body was then steeped in a mixture of salt and soda (called natron), for forty or more days, to preserve it from decay. Next, it was bound up in strips of linen smeared with a sort of gum; and finally it was placed in a wooden case, shaped like the human body, and deposited in a sepulchral chamber.

4. When the days of his mourning were past] It could not have been that cause which prevented Joseph from going personally to Pharaoh. 'More probably it was not usual to take steps in a matter which personally concerned the minister, without the mediation of other exalted personages' (D.).

10. Threshing floor of Atad] unknown. Beyond Jordan] i.e. E. of Jordan, implying that the writer is in Canaan: see on Deu 1:1.

11. Abel-mizraim] 'the meadow of Egypt.' 'The name may be historically explained owing to the long period of Egyptian domination in Palestine in pre-Mosaic times, as we learn from the Tel-el Amarna letters, but the narrator connects the name with Ebel, “mourning”' (D.).

19. Am I in the place of God?] i.e. to judge or to punish.

20. The selling of Joseph by his brethren had been a sinful action, but through his coming to Egypt God had brought about a great blessing to many. So He often brings good out of evil, though evil is not to be done in order that good may come. Joseph himself here sums up the great lesson of his career, so far at least as his brethren are concerned.

23. Were brought up upon] RV 'were born upon.' Joseph took the newborn children on his lap and so recognised them as his descendants: see Gen 30:3.

25. Cp. Heb 11:22,; 'By faith Joseph when he died made mention of the departure of the children of Israel, and gave commandment concerning his bones.' Joseph's instructions were carried out at the time of the exodus (Exo 13:19) and his body was buried at Shechem: see Jos 24:32.




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Rights in the Authorized (King James) Version in the United Kingdom are vested in the Crown. Published by permission of the Crown’s patentee, Cambridge University Press.
Cambridge Univ. Press & BFBS
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