Genesis 50:4

_AND WHEN THE DAYS OF HIS MOURNING WERE PAST, JOSEPH SPAKE UNTO THE HOUSE OF PHARAOH, SAYING, IF NOW I HAVE FOUND GRACE IN YOUR EYES, SPEAK, I PRAY YOU, IN THE EARS OF PHARAOH, SAYING,_ Joseph spake, ... Care was taken to let it be known that the family grave was provided, before leaving Canaan, and that an oath bound his family to convey the remains there. Besides, Joseph deemed it right to apply for a special leave of absence; and, being unfit as a mourner to appear in the royal presence, as well as from regard to the priestly statutes, he made the request through the medium of others....

4._Joseph spake unto the house of Pharaoh_. A brief narration is here inserted of the permission obtained for Joseph, that, with the goodwill and leave of the king, he might convey his father’s remains to the sepulcher of the double cave. Now, though he himself enjoyed no common decree of favor, he yet makes use of the courtiers as his intercessors. Why did he act thus, unless on the ground that the affair was in itself odious to the people? For nothing (as we have said before) was less tolerable to the Egyptians, than that their land, of the sanctity of which they made their especial boast, should be despised. Therefore Joseph, in order to transfer the offense from himself to another, pleads necessity: as if he would say, that the burying of his father was not left to his own choice, because Jacob had laid him under obligation as to the mode of doing it, by the imposition of an oath. Wh...

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 50:4. _SPEAK, I PRAY YOU, IN THE EARS OF PHARAOH_.] But why did not Joseph apply himself? Because he was now in his _mourning_ _habits_, and in such none must appear in the presence of the eastern monarchs. See Esther 4:2....

- 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 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 SPAKE UNTO THE HOUSE OF PHARAOH; to the court of Pharaoh, the principal men there; so the Targum of Jonathan and the Septuagint version, to the great men or princes of the house of Pharaoh: it may seem strange that Joseph, being next to Pharaoh in the administration of the government, should make use of any to speak for him to Pharaoh on the following account. It may be, that Joseph was not in so high an office, and in so much power and authority, as in the seven years of plenty and the seven years of famine; and it is certain that that branch of his office, respecting the corn, must have ceased;...

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

JOSEPH SPAKE UNTO THE HOUSE OF PHARAOH— Affliction and decorum forbidding Joseph to appear at court during the days of mourning; see Esther 4:1. he addresses himself to the great officers of Pharaoh, to inform the king of the death and last request of Jacob, concerning his burial. Those in a state of mourning were looked upon as in a state of defilement; and no one durst appear before the eastern kings in a mourning habit. Every thing which contributes to put the great men of the world in mind of death, is odious, says _Saurin;_ and the princes of the East carried this nicety to the utmost excess....