Genesis 49:29--50:14
go <0622> [gathered.]
Bury ..... fathers <06912 01> [bury me.]
cave <04631> [in the cave.]
Ephron <06085> [Ephron.]
Abraham bought <07069 085> [Abraham bought.]
finished <03615> [had made.]
breathed ... last breath <01478> [and yielded.]
Then ... hugged <05307> [fell.]
wept <01058> [wept.]
physicians ........... physicians <07495> [the physicians.]
The Hebrew {ropheim,} from {rapha,} to heal, is literally the healers, those whose business it was to heal, or restore the body from sickness, by administering proper medicines; and when death took place, to heal or preserve it from decomposition by embalming. The word {chanat,} to embalm, is also used in Arabic to express the reddening of leather; somewhat analogous to our tanning; which is probably the grand principal in embalming.
embalm ....... embalmed <02590> [embalmed.]
forty days ....... time ........... days <03117 0705> [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.
<01058> [mourned. Heb. wept. three-score.]
days <03117> [the days.]
Joseph <03130> [Joseph.]
found favor <02580 04672> [found grace.]
swear <07650> [made me.]
die <02009 04191> [Lo, I die.]
dug <03738> [I have.]
Bury ...................... bury <06912> [bury me.]
go <05927> [let me go.]
swear <07650> [as he made.]
up ......... went <05927> [and with him.]
little children <02945> [only their.]
Chariots <07393> [chariots.]
threshing floor <01637> [the threshingfloor.]
This place was situated, according to Jerome, between the Jordan and the city of Jericho, two miles from the former, and three from the latter, where Bethagla was afterwards built. Procopius of Gaza states the same. As {aataad} signifies thorns, the place might have been remarkable for their production; though all the versions except the Arabic consider it as a proper name. As Moses wrote or revised his history on the east side of Jordan, the term beyond Jordan, in his five books, means westward of Jordan; but in other parts of Scripture it generally means eastward.
side <05676> [beyond.]
seven day <07651 03117> [seven days.]
Canaanites <03669> [the Canaanites.]
Abel Mizraim <067> [Abel-mizraim. i.e., The mourning of the Egyptians.]
beyond ... Jordan <03383 05676> [beyond Jordan.]
cave <04631> [the cave.]
