Text -- Genesis 50:1-8 (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.

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.”