Genesis 50:3

_AND FORTY DAYS WERE FULFILLED FOR HIM; FOR SO ARE FULFILLED THE DAYS OF THOSE WHICH ARE EMBALMED: AND THE EGYPTIANS MOURNED FOR HIM THREESCORE AND TEN DAYS._ Forty days were fulfilled for him. Diodorus says, generally 'upwards of thirty days were allotted for the completion of the process.' THE EGYPTIANS MOURNED FOR HIM THREESCORE AND TEN DAYS. This included the whole period of embalming. Both 70 and 72 days are mentioned as the full number, the first being ten weeks of seven days, or seven decades; the other, 12 + 6 = 72, the duodecimal calculation being also used in Egypt. The manner of their mourning was this-`The family mourned at home, singing the funeral dirge, very much as is now done in Egypt; and during this time they abstained from the bath, wine, delicacies of the table, and rich clothing. On the death in any house of a person of consequence, immediately the women plaster t...

3._And forty days were fulfilled for him_. We have shown already that Moses is speaking of a ceremonial mourning; and therefore he does not prescribe it as a law, or produce it as an example which it is right for us to follow. For, by the laws, certain days were appointed, in order that time might be given for the moderating of grief in some degree; yet something also was conceded to ambition. Another rule, however, for restraining grief is given to us by the Lord. And Joseph stooped, more than he ought, to the perverted manners of the Egyptians; for the world affects to believe that whatever is customary is lawful; so that what generally prevails, carries along everything it meets, like a violent inundation. The seventy days which Moses sets apart to solemn mourning, Herodotus, in his second book, assigns to the embalming. But Diodorus writes that the seasoning of the body was completed...

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....

Verse Genesis 50:3. _FORTY DAYS_] The body it appears required this number of days to complete the process of embalming; afterwards it lay in _natron_ thirty days more, making in the whole seventy days, according to the preceding accounts, during which the mourning was continued....

- 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....

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 d says, that having laid more than thirty days in such a state, it was delivered to the kindred of the deceased: AND THE EGYPTIANS MOURNED FOR HIM SEVENTY DAYS; during the time of their embalming him; for longer than seventy days the body might not lie in the pickle, as before observed, from Herodotus. According to Diodorus Siculus e, the Egyptians used to mourn for their kings seventy two days: the account he gives is, that "upon the death of a king, all Egypt went into a common mourning, tore their garments, shut up their temples, forbid sacrifices, kept not the feasts for seventy two days...

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 FORTY DAYS WERE FULFILLED FOR HIM— The reader will find, in the first volume of Univ. Hist. 8vo. p. 489, a minute account of the manner of embalming, which was done without disfiguring the body; so that the very hairs remained on the brows and eyelids, and the resemblance of the countenance was preserved. At the expiration of the days allowed for embalming, they washed the whole body, and bound fillets of fine linen round every part, covering it with gum, which the AEgyptians used instead of glue. The embalmers having performed their parts, the relations received the corpse, and put it into a wooden coffin, shaped like a man, which they set upright against the wall of the edifice designed for that purpose; for several of the AEgyptians kept their dead at home with them above ground in magnificent apartments, having, by this method, the pleasure of seeing the lineaments of their ances...