Bible Commentaries

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 50:1-11 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 of absence direct to Pharaoh, possibly because as a mourner, he was unclean, hardly because absence might seem to veil some traitorous design, though Joseph explicitly promises to return (Genesis 49:5). To do his father honour, an immense company of Egyptians of high rank accompanies the body. The way to Machpelah did not pass E. of the Jordan, so that if the text of Genesis 49:10 f. is right, it is possible that in one tradition the tomb was located on the E. of Jordan. Abel-mizraim means "meadow" (not "mourning") "of Egypt." The actual account of the burial is not preserved in J or E.

Genesis 50:14-26. Joseph Reassures his Brothers. Joseph's Death.

Genesis 49:14 belongs to J, Genesis 49:15-26 to E. The request for pardon put in Jacob's mouth (Genesis 49:17) is not elsewhere recorded. Genesis 49:20 f. suggests that the famine was over. According to P Jacob was in Egypt seventeen years (Genesis 47:28), in Genesis 45:11 we learn that the famine lasted five years after his arrival. Joseph survives to see the great-grandchildren of his younger son, but the VSS read "grandchildren." Machir was a powerful Manassite clan; his children are adopted by Joseph. The length of Joseph's life, 110 years, was regarded in Egypt as ideal. Convinced that the Israelites will go back to Canaan, he extracts an oath from them to take his bones with them, that he may participate in the return and rest in the promised land. So he, too, was embalmed and the body placed in a mummy case. The fulfilment of the pledge is recorded in Exodus 13:19, Joshua 24:32.