The First Book of Moses, called Genesis
Genesis 50
Chapter L · Vol. I, pp. 295–296
1 The mourning for Jacob. 4 Joseph getteth leave of Pharaoh to go to bury him. 7 The funeral. 15 Joseph comforteth his brethren, who craved his pardon. 22 His age. 23 He seeth the third generation of his sons. 24 He prophesieth unto his brethren of their return. 25 He taketh an oath of them for his bones. 26 He dieth, and is chested.
1 AND Joseph afell upon his father's face, and wept upon him, and kissed him.
a ch. 46.4; 23.2. 2 Ki. 13.14. Mar. 5.38. Jn. 11.35,36.
2 And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to bembalm his father: and the physicians embalmed Israel.
A.M. 2315. B.C. 1689.
b 2 Ch. 16.14; 21.19; 32.33. Jn. 19.39,40.
3 And forty days were fulfilled for him; (for so are fulfilled the days of those which are embalmed;) and the Egyptians cmourned for him threescore and ten days.
4 And when the days of his mourning were past,9 Joseph dspake unto the house of Pharaoh, saying, If now I have efound grace in your eyes, speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh, saying,
9 It was against rule for any person, how great soever, in mourning apparel, to appear in public, and especially in the royal presence, because in that state they were looked upon as defiled; and therefore Joseph does not go himself, but desires some of the courtiers to carry his request to the king; and this request he was the rather bound to make, because the retinue and guard which the pomp of the funeral, and the danger of molestation from enemies, made necessary, could not be obtained without the king's leave.—Musculas.
d Es. 4.2.
e See ch. 18.3.
5 Myf father made me swear, saying, Lo, I die: in my grave which I have gdigged for me in the land of Canaan, there shalt thou hbury me. Now therefore let me go up, I pray 1thee, and bury my father, and I will come again.
f ch. 47.29-31; 48.21; 49.29,30.
g 2 Ch. 16.14. Is. 22.16. Mat. 27.60.
h ch. 3.19. Ec. 6.3; 12.5,7. Job 30.23, with Ps. 79.3.
1 It is customary even in European nations for the official attendants on royal courts never to withdraw without the special leave of their sovereign.—C.
6 And Pharaoh said, Go up, and bury thy father, according as he made thee swear.
7 And Joseph went up to bury his father: and with him went up all the servants2 of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt,
2 Officers, counsellors.
8 And all the house of Joseph, and his brethren, and his father's house: only their little ones, and their flocks, and their herds, they left in the land of Goshen.
9 And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen: and it was a very great company.
10 And they came to the thrashing-floor of Atad, which is ibeyond Jordan;3 and there they mourned with a great and very sore lamentatation: and khe made a mourning for his father seven days.
i Westward from Jordan, De. 1.? 1.
3 Not from Egypt, whence the funeral procession went, but from near Mount Sinai in the wilderness, where Moses wrote.
k Nu. 19.11. 1 Sa. 31.13. Job 2.13.
11 And when lthe inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning in the floor of Atad, they said, This is a grievous mourning to the Egyptians: wherefore the name of it was called Abel-mizraim,4 which is beyond Jordan.
13 For nhis sons carried him into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which Abraham obought with the field, for a possession of a burying-place, of Ephron the Hittite, before Mamre.
n Ac. 7.16.
o ch. 23.16-18; 25.9; 35.27,29; 49.29-31.
14 And Joseph returned into Egypt, he, and his brethren, and all that went up with him to bury his father, after he had buried his father.
15 And when Joseph's brethren saw that their father was dead,5 they said, pJoseph will peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him.
5 As soon as their father was buried, Joseph's brethren began to reflect on the wrongs they had formerly done him, and were not a little apprehensive that as he had the power, he might have it in his intention, to avenge himself of them; and therefore they consulted together and framed this message:—That it was their father's earnest request that he should forget all past injuries, and continue them under his protection as formerly. This, when Joseph heard, such was his compassionate temper, that he could not refrain from weeping, and therefore to remove their fears, he sent immediately for them, and receiving them with the same kind affection as when their father was alive, excused the actions committed against him in such an obliging manner, and gave them such assurances of his future love and adherence to them upon all occasions, as made them return to their families full of joy and satisfaction.—Stackhouse.
16 And they sent a messenger unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying,
17 So shall ye say unto Joseph, qForgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren, and their sin; for they did unto thee evil: and now, we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the rservants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake unto him.
q Mat. 6.12,14,15. Ep. 4.32. Lu. 17.3,4. Col. 3.12,13.
r Mar. 10.41. Mat. 10.42; 25.40. Phile. 8-16. Ga. 6.10,16.
18 And his brethren also went and sfell down before his face; and they said, Behold, we be thy servants.
s ch. 37.7,9; 42.6; 23.7,12; 44.14; 45.3.
19 And Joseph said unto them, tFear not; for am uI in the place of God?6
A.M. 2315. B.C. 1689.
t ch. 45.5.
u ch. 30.2. Job 34.19-29. De. 32.35. Ro. 12.19.
6 Am I in the place of God, to avenge myself upon you for the wrongs you did me?
20 But as for you, xye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.
x ch. 37.4,18,28; 45.5. Ps. 119.71. Ro. 8.28. Is. 10.7.
21 Now therefore fear ye not: yI will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them.
22 And Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he, and his father's house: and Joseph lived an 7hundred and ten years.8
7 2635.?
8 At the death of Jacob the Israelites were seventeen years in Egypt; and at the death of Joseph seventy-one years. The book of Genesis here ends, having given a summary of history from Adam—a period of about 2369 years.—P.
23 And Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third generation: zthe children also of Machir, the son of Manasseh, were brought up upon Joseph's knees.9
24 And Joseph said unto his brethren, aI die: and bGod will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land, unto the land which he csware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
25 And dJoseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence.
d He. 6.16; 11.22. ch. 47.30,31; ver. 5. Ex. 13.19. Jos. 24.32. Ac. 7.16.
26 So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years old: and they embalmed him; and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.
Notes
Ver. 2. It has been customary with many nations to embalm the dead bodies of persons of rank, taking out the bowels, and so seasoning the body with salt and spices, &c., as to preserve it long from putrefaction. In Egypt they carried this art to such a degree, that bodies embalmed remained uncorrupted for thousands of years; which are now sometimes sold in Europe under the name of mummies.
Ver. 3. It was the custom of the Egyptians to mourn seventy days for their dead, and of the Hebrews to mourn seven, 1 Sa. 31. 13; and just so long the joy of the latter lasted at their solemn weddings, ch. 29. 27; Ju. 14. 17.—[The process of embalming was tedious and expensive. The brain and intestines were first removed, and the head and body filled with spices. The corpse was then steeped in natrum for seventy days, and then washed, wrapped in bandages of linen covered with gum, and placed in a wooden case. The whole body was thus preserved so well that the features remained almost unchanged for centuries. The mummy preserved in its case was carried with the greatest care, and placed in the cave of Machpelah. That cave has been deemed sacred ever since. May it not be, therefore, that the remains of Jacob exist still, and shall one day be brought to light by some enterprising explorer? P.]
Ver. 10. Beyond Jordan, in the books of Moses, denotes the west side of Jordan, as he delivered his writings on the east of it. In other parts of Scripture the phrase denotes the east of Jordan, as the writers lived on the west of it. Some, however, think that the Hebrew word signifies either beyond or on this side.—[The route of the funeral-procession was no doubt the direct one from Egypt across the desert to Gaza and Hebron. The 'thrashing-floor of Atad' was probably somewhere to the south-west of Hebron. The expression 'beyond Jordan' does not always mean east of that river. Its meaning must depend on the point of view of the writer or speaker. Here it must evidently signify west. P.]
Ver. 11. [Mourning for the dead is both lawful and salutary for believers; provided it be not accompanied with murmuring against God, and be mingled with the blessed hope of the immortality of the spirit, 2 Co. 5. 8, or the resurrection of the body, 2 Th. 4. 13. C.]
Ver. 16. [Thy father did command before he died. There is no reason to infer, because this command is not previously mentioned, that therefore it is a fiction of Joseph's brethren. Joseph's employment about the court, and his brethren's residence in Goshen, allowed but little time for intimacy, and that full restoration of confidence which is best confirmed by habitual intercourse. Their recollection of their offence against Joseph makes them anxious for a renewed confirmation of his forgiveness.—Note, How should the recollection of our offences against Christ, our brother (He. 2. 11), lead us, with Peter, to 'weep bitterly' at the 'throne of grace, that we may both obtain mercy, and find grace to help us in time of need,' He. 4. 16. C.]
Ver. 17. Joseph wept, pitying their perplexity, and grieved at their jealousy of his good-will.
Reflections.—With tender affection ought children and others to take their last farewell of dying friends; and with due care should they be decently interred. Yea, in every case it is kind and dutiful, by partaking, to alleviate the sorrows of the afflicted. It is proper that servants have their master's permission to attend work of their own, be it ever so necessary; nor should that permission be withheld upon a reasonable request. What a loss to a country, what an alarming call to preparation for eternity, is the death of one of God's true children! But it is comely to have an amicable correspondence settled between friends on the occasion of the death of their common relations. And it is altogether unlike a Christian to make the death of friends, especially parents, a mean of commencing strife and debate, on account of some carnal bequeathments. Difficult is the work of quieting a guilty conscience, if thoroughly awakened: but it were hard-hearted, indeed, to refuse forgiveness of injuries, especially when requested by such as are at once our brethren and the servants of the God of our fathers. And when penitential confessions of injury done meet with a ready forgiveness from the receiver, it is highly ornamental and becoming; at the same time it is necessary for offenders principally to deal with God himself, through the blood of his Son. But to finish a religious life in the vigorous exercises of faith on God's promises, and in high friendship with his people, must be the summit of the true Christian's desire. Meanwhile, amidst the deaths of useful relations, that our God cannot die, cannot leave us, and can and will deliver us out of all our distresses, is a source of unfailing comfort and abiding consolation.