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 concerned with the funeral of Jacob; it first gives an account how Joseph was affected with his father's death, of his orders to the physicians to embalm... [ Continue Reading ]
AND JOSEPH FELL UPON HIS FATHER'S FACE,.... Laid his own face to the cold face and pale cheeks of his dead father, out of his tender affection for him, and grief at parting with him; this shows that Joseph had been present from the time his father sent for him, and all the while he had been blessing... [ Continue Reading ]
AND JOSEPH COMMANDED HIS SERVANTS, THE PHYSICIANS, TO EMBALM HIS FATHER,.... Which he did, not merely because it was the custom of the Egyptians, but because it was necessary, his father's corpse being to be carried into Canaan to be interred there, which would require time; and therefore it was pro... [ Continue Reading ]
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... [ Continue Reading ]
AND WHEN THE DAYS OF HIS MOURNING WERE PAST,.... The forty days before mentioned, in which both the Egyptians and Jacob's family mourned for him. An Arabic writer g says, the Egyptians mourned for Jacob forty days, which was the time of embalming; but the text is express for sventy days: JOSEPH SPA... [ Continue Reading ]
MY FATHER MADE ME SWEAR, SAYING, LO, I DIE,.... Having reason to believe he should not live long, he sent for Joseph, and took an oath of him to do as follows; this Joseph would have observed to Pharaoh, to show the necessity of his application to him, and the reasonableness of his request. The word... [ Continue Reading ]
AND PHARAOH SAID,.... To Joseph, by the courtiers that waited upon him at Joseph's request, who having delivered it to him had this answer: GO UP, AND BURY THY FATHER, AS HE MADE THEE SWEAR; the oath seems to be the principal thing that influenced Pharaoh to grant the request, it being a sacred thi... [ Continue Reading ]
AND JOSEPH WENT UP TO BURY HIS FATHER,.... According to his request; having obtained leave of Pharaoh, and being desirous of paying his last respects, and doing his last office to so dear a parent, with all the honour and decency this service could be done with: AND WITH HIM WENT UP ALL THE SERVANT... [ Continue Reading ]
AND ALL THE HOUSE OF JOSEPH, AND HIS BRETHREN, AND HIS FATHER'S HOUSE,.... Joseph and his two sons, and his servants, and his eleven brethren and their sons that were grown up, and as many of his father's domestics as could be spared attended the funeral: ONLY THEIR LITTLE ONES, AND THEIR FLOCKS, A... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THERE WENT UP WITH HIM BOTH CHARIOTS AND HORSEMEN,.... Which was done both for the sake of honour and grandeur, and for safety and defence, should they be attacked by robbers in the deserts, or opposed by the Canaanites, and be refused the use of the cave of Machpelah, and the right to it disput... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THEY CAME TO THE THRESHINGFLOOR OF ATAD,.... Which was either the name of a man the owner of it, or of a place so called from the thorns and brambles which grew here, and with which the threshingfloor was surrounded, as Jarchi says, see Judges 9:14 and it was usual to make a hedge of thorns roun... [ Continue Reading ]
AND WHEN THE INHABITANTS OF THE LAND, THE CANAANITES,.... Who were at this time in the possession of the country where the threshingfloor of Atad was: when they SAW THE MOURNING IN THE FLOOR OF ATAD; for so large a company of people, and such a grand funeral procession, brought multitudes from all... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HIS SONS DID UNTO HIM ACCORDING AS HE COMMANDED THEM. Not only Joseph, but all the sons of Jacob were concerned in the burial of him, being all charged by him with it, and who were obedient to his commands as follows; see Genesis 49:29.... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR HIS SONS CARRIED HIM INTO THE LAND OF CANAAN,.... That is, they took care that he was carried there, as he desired to be; for it cannot be thought that they carried him on their shoulders thither, in like manner as the devout men carried Stephen to his burial, Acts 8:2 AND BURIED HIM IN THE CAV... [ Continue Reading ]
AND JOSEPH RETURNED INTO EGYPT,.... As he promised he would, Genesis 50:5 HE AND HIS BRETHREN; the eleven sons of Jacob; for though they had not made the same promise, nor Joseph for them, yet they returned, having left their little ones, flocks and herds, in Egypt: AND ALL THAT WENT UP WITH HIM... [ Continue Reading ]
AND WHEN JOSEPH'S BRETHREN SAW THAT THEIR FATHER WAS DEAD,.... And buried; for this and what follows were after their return to Egypt, from the burial of their father; though some think it was before, and as soon as they saw their father was dead, when they thought it a proper time, while Joseph's h... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THEY SENT A MESSENGER UNTO JOSEPH,.... Not Bilhah, as the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem, nor her sons, Dan and Naphtali, as Jarchi, grounding it on Genesis 37:1 though it is not improbable that some from among themselves were deputed, who were most interested in Joseph; since it is not very... [ Continue Reading ]
SO SHALL YE SAY UNTO JOSEPH, FORGIVE, I PRAY THEE NOW, THE TRESPASS OF THY BRETHREN, AND THEIR SIN,.... Their very great sin, and therefore more words than one are used to express it: unless this repetition should be intended, and signifies that their crime was a trespass against God, and a sin agai... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HIS BRETHREN ALSO WENT,.... The messengers being returned to them, and acquainting them with what Joseph had said, they took courage and went from Goshen to Joseph's house or palace, be it where it may: AND FELL DOWN BEFORE HIS FACE; in an humble suppliant manner: AND THEY SAID, BEHOLD, WE BE... [ Continue Reading ]
AND JOSEPH SAID UNTO THEM, FEAR NOT,.... That any hurt would be done by him to them, or that he would use them ill for their treatment of him: FOR AM I IN THE PLACE OF GOD? to receive such homage from you, that you should be my servants, as Saadiah Gaon gives the sense; or rather to take vengeance... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT AS FOR YOU, YE THOUGHT EVIL AGAINST ME,.... That must be said and owned, that their intentions were bad; they thought to have contradicted his dreams, and made them of none effect, to have token away his life, or however to have made him a slave all his days: [BUT] GOD MEANT IT UNTO GOOD; he de... [ Continue Reading ]
NOW THEREFORE, FEAR YE NOT,.... Which, is repeated to dispossess them of every fear they might entertain of him on any account whatever: I WILL NOURISH YOU, AND YOUR LITTLE ONES; provide food for them, and their families, not only for themselves and their sons, now grown up, but their grandchildren... [ Continue Reading ]
AND JOSEPH DWELT IN EGYPT, HE, AND HIS FATHER'S HOUSE,.... Comfortably, quietly, and in great prosperity, not only he, but his brethren and their families, as long as he lived: AND JOSEPH LIVED ONE HUNDRED AND TEN YEARS; and all but seventeen of them in Egypt, for at that age it was when he was bro... [ Continue Reading ]
AND JOSEPH SAW EPHRAIM'S CHILDREN OF THE THIRD GENERATION,.... His great grandchildren's children; and which shows, as most interpreters observe, that Jacob's prediction, that Ephraim should be the greatest and most numerous, very early began to take place: AND THE CHILDREN ALSO OF MACHIR, THE SON... [ Continue Reading ]
AND JOSEPH SAID UNTO HIS BRETHREN, I DIE,.... Some time before his death he called them together, and observed to them, that he expected to die in a little time, as all must: AND GOD WILL SURELY VISIT YOU; not in a way of wrath and vindictive justice, as he sometimes does, but in a way of love, gra... [ Continue Reading ]
AND JOSEPH TOOK AN OATH OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL,.... Not of his brethren only, but of their posterity, as many of them as were now grown up, that so it might be communicated from one to another, and become well known to that generation which should depart out of Egypt: SAYING, GOD WILL SURELY VIS... [ Continue Reading ]
SO JOSEPH DIED, BEING AN HUNDRED AND TEN YEARS OLD,.... The exact age assigned him by Polyhistor x, from Demetrius an Heathen. The Jewish writers y say, that he died the first of the twelve patriarchs, though he was the youngest of them; he died, according to Bishop Usher z, in the year of the world... [ Continue Reading ]