Genesis 50:1-8

The Burials of Jacob and Joseph

50:1 Then Joseph hugged his father’s face. ¹  He wept over him and kissed him. 50:2 Joseph instructed the physicians in his service ²  to embalm his father, so the physicians embalmed Israel. 50:3 They took forty days, for that is the full time needed for embalming. ³  The Egyptians mourned ⁴  for him seventy days. ⁵ 

50:4 When the days of mourning ⁶  had passed, Joseph said to Pharaoh’s royal court, ⁷  “If I have found favor in your sight, please say to Pharaoh, ⁸  50:5 ‘My father made me swear an oath. He said, ⁹  “I am about to die. Bury me ¹⁰  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.” ¹¹ 

50:7 So Joseph went up to bury his father; all Pharaoh’s officials went with him – the senior courtiers ¹²  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.

[50:1]  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.

[50:2]  ² tn Heb “his servants the physicians.”

[50:3]  ³ tn Heb “and forty days were fulfilled for him, for thus are fulfilled the days of embalming.”

[50:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “wept.”

[50:3]  ⁵ sn Seventy days. This probably refers to a time of national mourning.

[50:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “weeping.”

[50:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “the house of Pharaoh.”

[50:4]  ⁸ tn Heb “in the ears of Pharaoh.”

[50:5]  ⁹ tn Heb “saying.”

[50:5]  ¹⁰ tn The imperfect verbal form here has the force of a command.

[50:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “he made you swear on oath.”

[50:7]  ¹² tn Or “dignitaries”; Heb “elders.”