Text -- Genesis 50:1-10 (NET)

The Burials of Jacob and Joseph

50:1 Then Joseph hugged his father’s face. He wept over him and kissed him. 50:2 Joseph instructed the physicians in his service to embalm his father, so the physicians embalmed Israel. 50:3 They took forty days, for that is the full time needed for embalming. The Egyptians mourned for him seventy days. 50:4 When the days of mourning had passed, Joseph said to Pharaoh’s royal court, “If I have found favor in your sight, please say to Pharaoh, 50:5 ‘My father made me swear an oath. He said, “I am about to die. Bury me in my tomb that I dug for myself there in the land of Canaan.” Now let me go and bury my father; then I will return.’” 50:6 So Pharaoh said, “Go and bury your father, just as he made you swear to do.” 50:7 So Joseph went up to bury his father; all Pharaoh’s officials went with him– the senior courtiers of his household, all the senior officials of the land of Egypt, 50:8 all Joseph’s household, his brothers, and his father’s household. But they left their little children and their flocks and herds in the land of Goshen. 50:9 Chariots and horsemen also went up with him, so it was a very large entourage. 50:10 When they came to the threshing floor of Atad on the other side of the Jordan, they mourned there with very great and bitter sorrow. There Joseph observed a seven day period of mourning for his father.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Gen 50:1

¹ tn Heb “fell on.” The expression describes Joseph’s unrestrained sorrow over Jacob’s death; he probably threw himself across the body and embraced his father.

NET Notes: Gen 50:2

¹ tn Heb “his servants the physicians.”

NET Notes: Gen 50:3

¹ tn Heb “and forty days were fulfilled for him, for thus are fulfilled the days of embalming.”

² tn Heb “wept.”

³ sn Seventy days. This probably refers to a time of national mourning.

NET Notes: Gen 50:4

¹ tn Heb “weeping.”

² tn Heb “the house of Pharaoh.”

³ tn Heb “in the ears of Pharaoh.”

NET Notes: Gen 50:5

¹ tn Heb “saying.”

² tn The imperfect verbal form here has the force of a command.

NET Notes: Gen 50:6

¹ tn Heb “he made you swear on oath.”

NET Notes: Gen 50:7

¹ tn Or “dignitaries”; Heb “elders.”

NET Notes: Gen 50:9

¹ tn Heb “camp.”

NET Notes: Gen 50:10

¹ sn The location of the threshing floor of Atad is not certain. The expression the other side of the Jordan could refer to the eastern or western bank, depending on one’s perspective. However, it is commonly used in the OT for Transjordan. This would suggest that the entourage came up the Jordan Valley and crossed into the land at Jericho, just as the Israelites would in the time of Joshua.

² tn Heb “and they mourned there [with] very great and heavy mourning.” The cognate accusative, as well as the two adjectives and the adverb, emphasize the degree of their sorrow.