Genesis 50:1

_AND JOSEPH FELL UPON HIS FATHER'S FACE, AND WEPT UPON HIM, AND KISSED HIM._ Joseph fell upon his father's face ... On him, as the principal member of the family, devolved the duty of closing the eyes of his venerable parent (Genesis 40:4), and imprinting on his forehead the farewell kiss....

1._And Joseph fell upon his father’s face_. In this chapter, what happened after the death of Jacob, is briefly related. Moses, however, states that Jacob’s death was honored with a double mourning — natural (so to speak) and ceremonial. That Joseph falls upon his father’s face and sheds tears, flows from true and pure affection; that the Egyptians mourn for him seventy days, since it is done for the sake of honor, and in compliance with custom, is more from ostentation and vain pomp, than from true grief: and yet the dead are generally mourned over in this manner, that the last debt due to them may be discharged. Whence also the proverb has originated, that the mourning of the heir is laughter under a mask. And although sometimes minds are penetrated with real grief; yet something is added to it, by the affectation of making a show of pious sorrow, so that they indulge largely in tears...

1-6 Though pious relatives and friends have lived to a good old age, and we are confident they are gone to glory, yet we may regret our own loss, and pay respect to their memory by lamenting them. Grace does not destroy, but it purifies, moderates, and regulates natural affection. The departed soul is out of the reach of any tokens of our affection; but it is proper to show respect to the body, of which we look for a glorious and joyful resurrection, whatever may become of its remains in this world. Thus Joseph showed his faith in God, and love to his father. He ordered the body to be embalmed, or wrapped up with spices, to preserve it. See how vile our bodies are, when the soul has forsaken them; they will in a very little time become noisome, and offensive....

CHAPTER L _Joseph bewails the death of his father, and commands the_ _physicians to embalm him_, 1, 2. _The Egyptians mourn for him seventy days_, 3. _Joseph begs permission from Pharaoh to accompany his father's_ _corpse to Canaan_, 4, 5. _Pharaoh consents_, 6. _Pharaoh's domestics and elders, the elders of Egypt, Joseph and_ _his brethren, with chariots, horsemen, c., form the funeral_ _procession_, 7-9. _They come to the_ threshing-floor _of_ Atad, _and mourn there_ seven days

- The Burial of Jacob 10. אטד _'āṭâd_ Atad, “the buck-thorn.” 11. מצרים אבל _'ābêl_-_mı̂tsrayı̂m_, Abel-Mitsraim, “mourning of Mizraim,” or meadow of Mizraim. This chapter records the burial of Jacob and the death of Joseph, and so completes the history of the chosen family, and the third bible for the instruction of man. Genesis 50:1 After the natural outburst of sorrow for his deceased parent, Joseph gave orders to embalm the body, according to the custom of Egypt. “His servants, the physicians.” As the grand vizier of Egypt, he has physicians in his retinue. The classes and functions of the physicians in Egy

EXPOSITION GENESIS 50:1 AND JOSEPH FELL UPON HIS FATHER'S FACE, AND WEPT UPON HIM, AND KISSED HIM. Joseph had no doubt closed the eyes of his revered and beloved parent, as God had promised to the patriarch that he would (Genesis 46:4), and now, in demonstration both of the intensity of his love and of the bitterness of his sorrow, he sinks upon the couch upon which the lifeless form is lying, bonding over the pallid countenance with warm tears, and imprinting kisses of affection on the cold and irresponsive lip. It is neither unnatural nor irreligious to mourn for the dead; and he must be callous indeed who can see a parent die without an outburst of tender grief....

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 the tribes, and giving orders about his funeral: AND WEPT UPON HIM; which to do for and over the dead is neither unlawful nor unbecoming, provided it is not carried to excess, as the instances of David, Christ, and others show: AND KISSED HIM; taking his farewell of him, as friends used to do, when parting and going a long journey, as death is. This was practised by Heathens, who had a notion that the soul went out of the body by the mouth, and they in this way received it into themselves: so Augustus Caesar died in the kisses of Livia, and Drusius in the embraces and kisses of Caesar w. Jo...

CHAPTER 50 THE BURIAL OF JACOB AND JOSEPH'S RETURN AND DEATH _ 1. The grief of Joseph (Genesis 50:1)_ 2. The burial (Genesis 50:4) 3. The return to Egypt (Genesis 50:14) 4. The death of Joseph (Genesis 50:24) This great book which begins with the perfect and good creation of God ends with a burial and the last words are “a coffin in Egypt.” What havoc sin has wrought. Jacob died 147 years old and after his body was embalmed was carried to Canaan. Read in connection with Joseph's death Exodus 13:19,...

GENESIS 49:28 _ b_ - GENESIS 50:13. DEATH AND BURIAL OF JACOB. Genesis 49:28 _b_ - GENESIS 49:33; GENESIS 50:12 F. are in the main from P; Genesis 50:1 in the main from J. The dying charge requires no comment. The body is embalmed simply because burial could not be immediate; the motive for the Egyptian practice was that the body might be preserved for the _ka_ or double to reanimate it. Joseph does not make his request for leave

AND JOSEPH FELL UPON HIS FATHER'S FACE— Thus what God had promised, ch. Genesis 46:4. that Joseph _should close his father's eyes,_ was fulfilled: and after having performed this last and tender office, he, according to the custom of those times, parted from the body with a kiss; expressing all the filial sorrow which such a loss could inspire....