Genesis 50:2-3
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.]
