Bible Commentaries

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Genesis 50

Clinging to a Counterfeit Cross
Introduction

1  The mourning for Jacob.
4  Joseph gets leave of Pharaoh to go to bury him.
7  The funeral.
15  Joseph comforts his brethren, who crave his pardon.
22  His age.
23  He sees the third generation of his sons.
24  He prophesies unto his brethren of their return.
25  He takes an oath of them concerning his bones.
26  He dies, and is put into a coffin.
Verse 1

And Joseph fell upon his father's face, and wept upon him, and kissed him.
fell
46:4, Deuteronomy 6:7,8, Ephesians 6:4
wept
23:2, 2 Kings 13:14, Mark 5:38,39, John 11:35-38, Acts 8:2, 1 Thessalonians 4:13
Verse 2

And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father: and the physicians embalmed Israel.
the physicians
The Hebrew ropheim, from rapha, to heal, is literally the healers, those whose business it was to heal, or restore the body from sickness, by administering proper medicines; and when death took place, to heal or preserve it from decomposition by embalming. The word chanat, to embalm, is also used in Arabic to express the reddening of leather; somewhat analogous to our tanning; which is probably the grand principal in embalming.
embalmed
26, 2 Chronicles 16:14, Matthew 26:12, Mark 14:8, 16:1, Luke 24:1, John 12:7, 19:39,40
Verse 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
We learn from the Greek historians, that the time of mourning was while the body remained with the embalmers, which Herodotus says was seventy days. During this time the body lay in nitre, the use of which was to dry up all its superfluous and noxious moisture: and when, in the space of 30 days, this was sufficiently effected, the remaining forty, the time mentioned by Diodorus, were employed in anointing it with gums and spices to preserve it, which was properly the embalming. This sufficiently explains the phraseology of the text.
mourned
Heb. wept. three-score.
Numbers 20:29, Deuteronomy 21:13, 34:8
Verse 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,
the days
Joseph
Esther 4:2
found grace
18:3
Verse 5

My father made me swear, saying, Lo, I die: in my grave which I have digged for me in the land of Canaan, there shalt thou bury me. Now therefore let me go up, I pray thee, and bury my father, and I will come again.
made me
47:29-31
Lo, I die
24, 48:21, 49:29,30, Deuteronomy 4:22, 1 Samuel 14:43
I have
2 Chronicles 16:14, Isaiah 22:16, Matthew 27:60
bury me
3:19, Job 30:23, Psalms 79:3, Ecclesiastes 6:3, 12:5,7
let me go
Matthew 8:21,22, Luke 9:59,60
Verse 6

And Pharaoh said, Go up, and bury thy father, according as he made thee swear.
as he made
48:21
Verse 7

And Joseph went up to bury his father: and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt,
and with him
14:16
Verse 8

And all the house of Joseph, and his brethren, and his father's house: only their little ones, and their flocks, and their herds, they left in the land of Goshen.
only their
Exodus 10:8,9,26, Numbers 32:24-27
Verse 9

And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen: and it was a very great company.
chariots
41:43, 46:29, Exodus 14:7,17,28, 2 Kings 18:24, Song of Solomon 1:9, Acts 8:2
Verse 10

And they came to the threshingfloor of Atad, which is beyond Jordan, and there they mourned with a great and very sore lamentation: and he made a mourning for his father seven days.
the threshingfloor
This place was situated, according to Jerome, between the Jordan and the city of Jericho, two miles from the former, and three from the latter, where Bethagla was afterwards built. Procopius of Gaza states the same. As aataad signifies thorns, the place might have been remarkable for their production; though all the versions except the Arabic consider it as a proper name. As Moses wrote or revised his history on the east side of Jordan, the term beyond Jordan, in his five books, means westward of Jordan; but in other parts of Scripture it generally means eastward.
beyond
11, Deuteronomy 1:1
seven days
4, Numbers 19:11, Deuteronomy 34:8, 1 Samuel 31:13, 2 Samuel 1:17, Job 2:13, Acts 8:2
Verse 11

And when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning in the floor of Atad, they said, This is a grievous mourning to the Egyptians: wherefore the name of it was called Abelmizraim, which is beyond Jordan.
the Canaanites
10:15-19, 13:7, 24:6, 34:30
Abel-mizraim
i.e., The mourning of the Egyptians.
1 Samuel 6:18
beyond Jordan
10, Deuteronomy 3:25,27, 11:30
Verse 12

And his sons did unto him according as he commanded them:
47:29-31, 49:29-32, Exodus 20:12, Acts 7:16, Ephesians 6:1
Verse 13

For his sons carried him into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which Abraham bought with the field for a possession of a buryingplace of Ephron the Hittite, before Mamre.
the cave
23:16-18, 25:9, 35:27,29, 49:29-31, 2 Kings 21:18
Verse 15

And when Joseph's brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him.
their father
27:41,42
Joseph
42:17, Leviticus 26:36, Job 15:21,22, Psalms 14:5, 53:5, Proverbs 28:1, Romans 2:15
Verse 16

And they sent a messenger unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying,
sent
Heb. charged.
Proverbs 29:25
Verse 17

So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren, and their sin; for they did unto thee evil: and now, we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake unto him.
Forgive
Matthew 6:12,14,15, 18:35, Luke 17:3,4, Ephesians 4:32, Colossians 3:12,13
they did
20, Job 33:27,28, Psalms 21:11, Proverbs 28:13, James 5:16
servants
31:42, 49:25, Matthew 10:42, 25:40, Mark 10:41, Galatians 6:10,16, Philemon 1:8-20
wept
42:21-24, 45:4,5,8
Verse 18

And his brethren also went and fell down before his face; and they said, Behold, we be thy servants.
fell
27:29, 37:7-11, 42:6, 44:14, 45:3
Verse 19

And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God?
fear not
45:5, Matthew 14:27, Luke 24:37,38
for am I
It belongs to God to execute vengeance, and Joseph did not intend to usurp his prerogative. Thus he instructed his brethren not to fear him, but to fear God; to humble themselves before God, and to seek his forgiveness.
30:2, Deuteronomy 32:35, 2 Kings 5:7, Job 34:19-29, Romans 12:19, Hebrews 10:30
Verse 20

But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.
ye thought
37:4,18-20, Psalms 56:5
God meant
45:5-8, Psalms 76:10, 105:16,17, 119:71, Isaiah 10:7, Acts 2:23, 3:13-15,26, Romans 8:28
Verse 21

Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them.
I will nourish
45:10,11, 47:12, Matthew 5:44, 6:14, Romans 12:20,21, 1 Thessalonians 5:15, 1 Peter 3:9
kindly unto them
Heb. to their hearts.
34:3, Isaiah 40:2; *marg:
Verse 22

And Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he, and his father's house: and Joseph lived an hundred and ten years.
an hundred
Joseph's life was the shortest of all the patriarchs; for which Bp. Patrick gives this reason, he was the son of his father's old age.
Verse 23

And Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third generation: the children also of Machir the son of Manasseh were brought up upon Joseph's knees.
the children
48:19, 49:12, Numbers 32:33,39, Joshua 17:1, Job 42:16, Psalms 128:6
brought up
Heb. born. Joseph's.
30:3
Verse 24

And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die: and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
I die
5, 3:19, Job 30:23, Ecclesiastes 12:5,7, Romans 5:12, Hebrews 9:27
visit you
21:1, Exodus 4:31
you out
15:14-16, 26:3, 35:12, 46:4, 48:21, Exodus 3:16,17
sware
12:7, 13:15,17, 15:7,18, 17:8, 26:3, 28:13, 35:12, 46:4, Exodus 33:1, Numbers 32:11, Deuteronomy 1:8, 6:10
Verse 25

And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence.
took an
5, 47:29-31
and ye
Exodus 13:19, Joshua 24:32, Acts 7:16, Hebrews 11:22
Verse 26

So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years old: and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.
being an hundred and ten years old
Ben meah weâiser shanim; "the son of an hundred and ten years;" the period he lived being personified.
22, 47:9,28, Joshua 24:29
they embalmed
2,3

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