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Text -- Genesis 50:3 (NET)

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Context
50:3 They took forty days, for that is the full time needed for embalming. The Egyptians mourned for him seventy days.
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Names, People and Places, Dictionary Themes and Topics

Names, People and Places:
 · Egyptians descendants of Mizraim


Dictionary Themes and Topics: Rulers | Quotations and Allusions | NUMBER | Mourning | Mourn | Joseph | Jacob | GENESIS, 1-2 | Forty | Embalming | Egyptians | EGYPT | Children | more
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Word/Phrase Notes
Wesley , JFB , Clarke , Calvin , TSK

Word/Phrase Notes
Barnes , Poole , Gill

Verse Notes / Footnotes
NET Notes , Geneva Bible

Verse Range Notes
TSK Synopsis , MHCC , Matthew Henry , Keil-Delitzsch , Constable , Guzik

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Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per phrase)

Wesley: Gen 50:3 - -- He observed the ceremony of solemn mourning for him. Forty days were taken up in embalming the body, which the Egyptians had an art of doing so curiou...

He observed the ceremony of solemn mourning for him. Forty days were taken up in embalming the body, which the Egyptians had an art of doing so curiously, as to preserve the very features of the face unchanged. All this time, and thirty days more, seventy in all, they either confined themselves and sat solitary, or when they went out, appeared in the habit of close mourners, according to the decent custom of the country. Even the Egyptians, many of them, out of the respect they had for Joseph, put themselves into mourning for his father.

JFB: Gen 50:3 - -- The Egyptians mourned, &c. It was made a period of public mourning, as on the death of a royal personage.

The Egyptians mourned, &c. It was made a period of public mourning, as on the death of a royal personage.

Clarke: Gen 50:3 - -- Forty days - The body it appears required this number of days to complete the process of embalming; afterwards it lay in natron thirty days more, ma...

Forty days - The body it appears required this number of days to complete the process of embalming; afterwards it lay in natron thirty days more, making in the whole seventy days, according to the preceding accounts, during which the mourning was continued.

Calvin: Gen 50:3 - -- 3.And forty days were fulfilled for him. We have shown already that Moses is speaking of a ceremonial mourning; and therefore he does not prescribe i...

3.And forty days were fulfilled for him. We have shown already that Moses is speaking of a ceremonial mourning; and therefore he does not prescribe it as a law, or produce it as an example which it is right for us to follow. For, by the laws, certain days were appointed, in order that time might be given for the moderating of grief in some degree; yet something also was conceded to ambition. Another rule, however, for restraining grief is given to us by the Lord. And Joseph stooped, more than he ought, to the perverted manners of the Egyptians; for the world affects to believe that whatever is customary is lawful; so that what generally prevails, carries along everything it meets, like a violent inundation. The seventy days which Moses sets apart to solemn mourning, Herodotus, in his second book, assigns to the embalming. But Diodorus writes that the seasoning of the body was completed in thirty days. Both authors diligently describe the method of embalming. And though I will not deny that, in the course of time, the skill and industry in practicing this art increased, yet it appears to me probable that this method of proceeding was handed down from the fathers. 219

TSK: Gen 50:3 - -- forty days : We learn from the Greek historians, that the time of mourning was while the body remained with the embalmers, which Herodotus says was se...

forty days : We learn from the Greek historians, that the time of mourning was while the body remained with the embalmers, which Herodotus says was seventy days. During this time the body lay in nitre, the use of which was to dry up all its superfluous and noxious moisture, and when, in the space of 30 days, this was sufficiently effected, the remaining forty, the time mentioned by Diodorus, were employed in anointing it with gums and spices to preserve it, which was properly the embalming. This sufficiently explains the phraseology of the text.

mourned : Heb. wept

threescore : Num 20:29; Deu 21:13, Deu 34:8

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Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per Verse)

Barnes: Gen 50:1-26 - -- - The Burial of Jacob 10. אטד 'āṭâd Atad, "the buck-thorn." 11. מצרים אבל 'ābêl - mı̂tsrayı̂m , Abel-Mits...

- The Burial of Jacob

10. אטד 'āṭâd Atad, "the buck-thorn."

11. מצרים אבל 'ābêl - mı̂tsrayı̂m , Abel-Mitsraim, "mourning of Mizraim,"or meadow of Mizraim.

This chapter records the burial of Jacob and the death of Joseph, and so completes the history of the chosen family, and the third bible for the instruction of man.

Gen 50:1-3

After the natural outburst of sorrow for his deceased parent, Joseph gave orders to embalm the body, according to the custom of Egypt. "His servants, the physicians."As the grand vizier of Egypt, he has physicians in his retinue. The classes and functions of the physicians in Egypt may be learned from Herodotus (ii. 81-86). There were special physicians for each disease; and the embalmers formed a class by themselves. "Forty days"were employed in the process of embalming; "seventy days,"including the forty, were devoted to mourning for the dead. Herodotus mentions this number as the period of embalming. Diodorus (i. 91) assigns upwards of thirty days to the process. It is probable that the actual process was continued for forty days, and that the body lay in natron for the remaining thirty days of mourning. See Hengstenberg’ s B. B. Mos. u. Aeg., and Rawlinson’ s Herodotus.

Gen 50:4-6

Joseph, by means of Pharaoh’ s courtiers, not in person, because he was a mourner, applies for leave to bury his father in the land of Kenaan, according to his oath. This leave is freely and fully allowed.

Gen 50:7-14

The funeral procession is now described. "All the servants of Pharaoh."The highest honor is conferred on Jacob for Joseph’ s sake. "The elders of Pharaoh, and all the elders of the land of Mizraim."The court and state officials are here separately specified. "All the house."Not only the heads, but all the sons and servants that are able to go. Chariots and horsemen accompany them as a guard on the way. "The threshing-floor of Atari, or of the buck-thorn."This is said to be beyond Jordan. Deterred, probably, by some difficulty in the direct route, they seem to have gone round by the east side of the Salt Sea. "A mourning of seven days."This is a last sad farewell to the departed patriarch. Abel-Mizraim. This name, like many in the East, has a double meaning. The word Abel no doubt at first meant mourning, though the name would be used by many, ignorant of its origin, in the sense of a meadow. "His sons carried him."The main body of the procession seems to have halted beyond the Jordan, and awaited the return of the immediate relatives, who conveyed the body to its last resting-place. The whole company then returned together to Egypt.

Gen 50:15-21

His brethren supplicate Joseph for forgiveness. "They sent unto Joseph,"commissioned one of their number to speak to him. now that our common father has given us this command. "And Joseph wept"at the distress and doubt of his brothers. He no doubt summons them before him, when they fall down before him entreating his forgiveness. Joseph removes their fears. "Am I in God’ s stead?"that I should take the law into my own hands, and take revenge. God has already judged them, and moreover turned their sinful deed into a blessing. He assures them of his brotherly kindness toward them.

Gen 50:22-26

The biography of Joseph is now completed. "The children of the third generation"- the grandsons of grandsons in the line of Ephraim. We have here an explicit proof that an interval of about twenty years between the births of the father and that of his first-born was not unusual during the lifetime of Joseph. "And Joseph took an oath."He thus expressed his unwavering confidence in the return of the sons of Israel to the land of promise. "God will surely visit."He was embalmed and put in a coffin, and so kept by his descendants, as was not unusual in Egypt. And on the return of the sons of Israel from Egypt they kept their oath to Joseph Exo 13:19, and buried his bones in Shekem Jos 24:32.

The sacred writer here takes leave of the chosen family, and closes the bible of the sons of Israel. It is truly a wonderful book. It lifts the veil of mystery that hangs over the present condition of the human race. It records the origin and fall of man, and thus explains the co-existence of moral evil and a moral sense, and the hereditary memory of God and judgment in the soul of man. It records the cause and mode of the confusion of tongues, and thus explains the concomitance of the unity of the race and the specific diversity of mode or form in human speech. It records the call of Abraham, and thus accounts for the preservation of the knowledge of God and his mercy in one section of the human race, and the corruption or loss of it in all the rest. We need scarcely remark that the six days’ creation accounts for the present state of nature. It thus solves the fundamental questions of physics, ethics, philology, and theology for the race of Adam. It notes the primitive relation of man to God, and marks the three great stages of human development that came in with Adam, Noah, and Abraham. It points out the three forms of sin that usher in these stages - the fall of Adam, the intermarriage of the sons of God with the daughters of men, and the building of the tower of Babel. It gradually unfolds the purpose and method of grace to the returning penitent through a Deliverer who is successively announced as the seed of the woman, of Shem, of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Judah. This is the second Adam, who, when the covenant of works was about to fall to the ground through the failure of the first Adam, undertook to uphold it by fulfilling all its conditions on behalf of those who are the objects of the divine grace.

Hence, the Lord establishes his covenant successively with Adam, Noah, and Abraham; with Adam after the fall tacitly, with Noah expressly, and with both generally as the representatives of the race descending from them; with Abraham especially and instrumentally as the channel through which the blessings of salvation might be at length extended to all the families of the earth. So much of this plan of mercy is revealed from time to time to the human race as comports with the progress they have made in the education of the intellectual, moral, and active faculties. This only authentic epitome of primeval history is worthy of the constant study of intelligent and responsible man.

\brdrb \brdrs \brdrw30 \brsp20

Poole: Gen 50:3 - -- For him i.e. for his embalming; that so the drugs or spices which were applied might more effectually reach to all the parts of the dead body, and ke...

For him i.e. for his embalming; that so the drugs or spices which were applied might more effectually reach to all the parts of the dead body, and keep it from corruption. And the effect of their diligence and so long continuance in this work was, that bodies have been preserved uncorrupt for some thousand of years.

Threescore and ten days i.e. thirty days, (according to the custom of the Hebrews, Num 20:29 Deu 34:8 , to which doubtless the Egyptians in this case did accommodate themselves,) besides the forty days spent in embalming him, which also was a time of mourning. And thus I suppose the Egyptians reckoned those seventy-two days which Diodorus Siculus saith they spent in mourning for their deceased kings.

Gill: Gen 50:3 - -- Forty days were fulfilled for him,.... Were spent in embalming him: for so are fulfilled the days of those that are embalmed; so long the body lay ...

Forty days were fulfilled for him,.... Were spent in embalming him:

for so are fulfilled the days of those that are embalmed; so long the body lay in the pickle, in ointment of cedar, myrrh and cinnamon, and other things, that it might soak and penetrate thoroughly into it: and so Diodorus Siculus d says, that having laid more than thirty days in such a state, it was delivered to the kindred of the deceased:

and the Egyptians mourned for him seventy days; during the time of their embalming him; for longer than seventy days the body might not lie in the pickle, as before observed, from Herodotus. According to Diodorus Siculus e, the Egyptians used to mourn for their kings seventy two days: the account he gives is, that"upon the death of a king, all Egypt went into a common mourning, tore their garments, shut up their temples, forbid sacrifices, kept not the feasts for seventy two days, put clay upon their heads f, girt linen clothes under their breasts; men and women, two or three hundred together, went about twice a day, singing in mournful verses the praises of the deceased; they abstained from animal food, and from wine, and all dainty things; nor did they use baths, nor ointments, nor lie in soft beds, nor dared to use venery, but, as if it was for the death of a beloved child, spent the said days in sorrow and mourning.''Now these seventy days here are either a round number for seventy two, or two are taken from them, as Quistorpius suggests, to make a difference between Jacob, and a king of theirs, who yet being the father of their viceroy, they honoured in such a manner. Jarchi accounts for the number thus, forty for embalming, and thirty for mourning; which latter was the usual time for mourning with the Jews for principal men, and which the Egyptians added to their forty of embalming; see Num 20:29.

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Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Gen 50:3 Seventy days. This probably refers to a time of national mourning.

Geneva Bible: Gen 50:3 And forty days were fulfilled for him; for so are fulfilled the days of those which are embalmed: and the Egyptians mourned for him ( b ) threescore a...

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Commentary -- Verse Range Notes

TSK Synopsis: Gen 50:1-26 - --1 The mourning for Jacob.4 Joseph gets leave of Pharaoh to go to bury him.7 The funeral.15 Joseph comforts his brethren, who crave his pardon.22 His a...

MHCC: Gen 50:1-6 - --Though pious relatives and friends have lived to a good old age, and we are confident they are gone to glory, yet we may regret our own loss, and pay ...

Matthew Henry: Gen 50:1-6 - -- Joseph is here paying his last respects to his deceased father. 1. With tears and kisses, and all the tender expressions of a filial affection, he t...

Keil-Delitzsch: Gen 50:1-3 - -- Burial of Jacob. - Gen 50:1-3. When Jacob died, Joseph fell upon the face of his beloved father, wept over him, and kissed him. He then gave the bod...

Constable: Gen 11:27--Exo 1:1 - --II. PATRIARCHAL NARRATIVES 11:27--50:26 One of the significant changes in the emphasis that occurs at this point...

Constable: Gen 37:2--Exo 1:1 - --E. What Became of Jacob 37:2-50:26 Here begins the tenth and last toledot in Genesis. Jacob remains a ma...

Constable: Gen 49:29--Exo 1:1 - --15. Deaths and a promise yet to be fulfilled 49:29-50:26 Joseph received permission from Pharaoh...

Constable: Gen 49:29--50:15 - --Plans to bury Jacob in Canaan 49:29-50:14 Jacob again expressed his faith in God's promi...

Guzik: Gen 50:1-26 - --Genesis 50 - The Burial of Jacob; the Death of Joseph A. Jacob is buried in Canaan. 1. (1-3) Jacob is embalmed and mourned. Then Joseph fell on hi...

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Commentary -- Other

Bible Query: Gen 50:3 Q: In Gen 50:3, why did they take 40 days to embalm Jacob’s body, and not more or less? A: There is no need to try to read in an allegorical meani...

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Introduction / Outline

JFB: Genesis (Book Introduction) GENESIS, the book of the origin or production of all things, consists of two parts: the first, comprehended in the first through eleventh chapters, gi...

JFB: Genesis (Outline) THE CREATION OF HEAVEN AND EARTH. (Gen 1:1-2) THE FIRST DAY. (Gen 1:3-5) SECOND DAY. (Gen 1:6-8) THIRD DAY. (Gen 1:9-13) FOURTH DAY. (Gen 1:14-19) FI...

TSK: Genesis (Book Introduction) The Book of Genesis is the most ancient record in the world; including the History of two grand and stupendous subjects, Creation and Providence; of e...

TSK: Genesis 50 (Chapter Introduction) Overview Gen 50:1, The mourning for Jacob; Gen 50:4, Joseph gets leave of Pharaoh to go to bury him; Gen 50:7, The funeral; Gen 50:15, Joseph comf...

Poole: Genesis 50 (Chapter Introduction) CHAPTER 50 Joseph bewails his father’ s death; and embalms him, Gen 50:1,2 . The Egyptians mourn for him seventy days, Gen 50:3 . Joseph with ...

MHCC: Genesis (Book Introduction) Genesis is a name taken from the Greek, and signifies " the book of generation or production;" it is properly so called, as containing an account of ...

MHCC: Genesis 50 (Chapter Introduction) (Gen 50:1-6) The mourning for Jacob. (Gen 50:7-14) His funeral. (Gen 50:15-21) Joseph's brethren crave his pardon, He comforts them. (Gen 50:22-26)...

Matthew Henry: Genesis (Book Introduction) An Exposition, with Practical Observations, of The First Book of Moses, Called Genesis We have now before us the holy Bible, or book, for so bible ...

Matthew Henry: Genesis 50 (Chapter Introduction) Here is, I. The preparation for Jacob's funeral (Gen 50:1-6). II. The funeral itself (Gen 50:7-14). III. The settling of a good understanding be...

Constable: Genesis (Book Introduction) Introduction Title Each book of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testam...

Constable: Genesis (Outline) Outline The structure of Genesis is very clear. The phrase "the generations of" (toledot in Hebrew, from yalad m...

Constable: Genesis Bibliography Aalders, Gerhard Charles. Genesis. The Bible Student's Commentary series. 2 vols. Translated by William Hey...

Haydock: Genesis (Book Introduction) THE BOOK OF GENESIS. INTRODUCTION. The Hebrews now entitle all the Five Books of Moses, from the initial words, which originally were written li...

Gill: Genesis (Book Introduction) INTRODUCTION TO GENESIS This book, in the Hebrew copies of the Bible, and by the Jewish writers, is generally called Bereshith, which signifies "in...

Gill: Genesis 50 (Chapter Introduction) INTRODUCTION TO GENESIS 50 This chapter contains a short account of what happened from the death of Jacob to the death of Joseph, and is chiefly co...

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