Text -- Genesis 50:1-17 (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. 50:11 When the Canaanites who lived in the land saw them mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, they said, “This is a very sad occasion for the Egyptians.” That is why its name was called Abel Mizraim, which is beyond the Jordan. 50:12 So the sons of Jacob did for him just as he had instructed them. 50:13 His sons carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, near Mamre. This is the field Abraham purchased as a burial plot from Ephron the Hittite. 50:14 After he buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt, along with his brothers and all who had accompanied him to bury his father. 50:15 When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “What if Joseph bears a grudge and wants to repay us in full for all the harm we did to him?” 50:16 So they sent word to Joseph, saying, “Your father gave these instructions before he died: 50:17 ‘Tell Joseph this: Please forgive the sin of your brothers and the wrong they did when they treated you so badly.’ Now please forgive the sin of the servants of the God of your father.” When this message was reported to him, Joseph wept.

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.

NET Notes: Gen 50:11

¹ tn Heb “this is heavy mourning for Egypt.”

² tn The verb has no expressed subject and so it may be translated as passive.

³ sn The name Abel Mizraim means “the mourning of Egypt.”

NET Notes: Gen 50:15

¹ tn The imperfect tense could be a simple future; it could also have a desiderative nuance.

² tn The infinitive absolute makes the statement emphatic, “repay in full.”

³ tn Or “evil.”

NET Notes: Gen 50:16

¹ tn The verb means “command,” but they would hardly be commanding him. It probably means they sent their father’s instructions to Joseph.

NET Notes: Gen 50:17

¹ tn Heb “and Joseph wept when they spoke to him.”