Chapter 50

1 The mourning for Jacob. 4 Joseph getteth leave of Pharaoh to go to bury him. 7 The funeral. 15 Joseph comforteth his brethren, who craved his pardon. 22 His age. 23 He seeth the third generation of his sons. 24 He prophesieth unto his brethren of their return. 25 He taketh an oath of them for his bones. 26 He dieth, and is chested.

1. Joseph fell upon his father’s face. Joseph had no doubt closed the eyes of his beloved father, as God had promised (ch. 46:4). That only Joseph’s grief is described in this passage does not imply that the other sons did not sorrow for their father. Perhaps their grief was less demonstrative than that of Joseph, since the heart of Joseph appears to have been peculiarly susceptible to tender emotions. The grief of Joseph is representative of the grief of all, and we may assume that their sorrow was just as real.

2. Embalmed Israel. The ancient Egyptian method of embalming has been described, both by Herodotus (ii. 86) and by Diodorus (i. 91). The accuracy of their descriptions has been confirmed in the main by ancient Egyptian documents and by an examination of the mummies themselves. The process was expensive, costing as much as $1,000. The brain was first extracted through the nostrils by means of a crooked piece of metal, and the skull was then thoroughly cleansed of any remaining portions by rinsing it with drugs. Through an opening in the left side made with a sharp knife, the viscera were removed and placed in separate jars, the so-called canopic jars. The empty abdomen was purified with palm wine and an infusion of aromatics, and then filled with various spices. After the opening had been sewed up, the stuffed form was submerged for many days (up to 70) in a bath of natron solution. Then it was washed, wrapped in a linen shroud, smeared over with gum, and finally painted to resemble the natural features of the deceased.

3. Forty days. It is known from Egyptian documents that the length of the period from the death of a man to his burial varied. In one case the embalming occupied 16 days, the bandaging 35 days, and the burial 70 days, 121 days in all. In another case the embalming occupied 66 days, preparations for burial 4 days, and the burial itself 26 days, in all 96 days. Elsewhere we are told that the embalming lasted for 70 or 80 days, and the burial 10 months (see E. A. W. Budge, The Mummy). The time involved depended upon the wealth of the family of the deceased and the period of Egyptian history. Jacob, being the father of the prime minister, received the best care of the time. His embalming continued for 40 days, and the preparations for his burial another 70 days. This was proclaimed an official period of mourning.

4. The house of Pharaoh. It has been a matter of conjecture among commentators why Joseph, at the end of this period of mourning, did not place his request before the king personally, rather than through other courtiers. His reasons for this apparently strange procedure are unknown, but it may have been perfectly normal in his time. Some have suggested that Joseph did so in recognition of the courtiers and to earn their good will. Perhaps the men through whom Joseph addressed the king were priests, and as such directly concerned with the interment of the dead. It is possible that Joseph, having allowed his beard and hair to grow, incident to the customs of mourning, could not enter the king’s presence without first being shaved. The suggestion made by some, that Joseph’s authority had been restricted after the famine, or that another Pharaoh who was less friendly to Joseph had come to the throne, is without foundation. Jacob’s death was mourned by the Egyptians, and this would not have been the case had the popularity of Joseph waned. Again, Joseph’s procedure of approaching the king through mediaries may have been due to nothing more than the Oriental tendency to transact important personal business through a middleman.

5. In my grave. Jacob’s claim to have dug the tomb in which his grandfather Abraham had been interred, has been criticized as a contradiction of facts presented in ch. 23. However, it is not necessary to assume that Jacob here attributed to himself what had really been done by Abraham. Jacob may either have enlarged the original cave at Machpelah to make room for additional bodies or prepared in it the special niche he intended to occupy. Or, the expression may simply be Joseph’s way of informing Pharaoh that the burial would not take place in Egypt, but in Canaan, and that therefore permission was requested to go thither.

7. Joseph went up. The king’s permission having been granted, the corpse was carried to Canaan, attended by a large company. With Joseph, there went up the leading officers of the court, together with all members of the family. As an escort through the desert and into the foreign land of Canaan, a large company of chariots and horsemen probably accompanied them. The splendid retinue of Egyptian officers may be explained, in part, from the esteem in which Joseph was held in Egypt and, in part, from the fondness of the Egyptians for such funeral processions.

10. The threshingfloor of Atad. The threshing floor was a large open area for the trampling out of grain by oxen, and was most convenient for the accommodation of a large body of people such as accompanied Joseph. Atad was either the name of the owner or, since Хat\ad is the Hebrew name for buckthorn, it may have indicated that buckthorn grew abundantly.

Beyond Jordan. The funeral procession did not take the shortest route, by Gaza, through the country of the Philistines, nor through Beersheba, but around the Dead Sea. The reasons for this long detour are unknown, but may have been political. Very little is known of the general relations between Egypt and Palestine during the period of the Hyksos, and a state of insecurity in southern Palestine may have been responsible for the extraordinary route Joseph took to reach Hebron.

There they mourned. Sculptured reliefs and painted murals in ancient Egyptian tombs reveal that the Egyptians were very demonstrative and vehement in their public lamentations for the dead. They rent their garments, beat their breasts, threw dust and mud on their heads, and chanted funeral hymns to the music of a tambourine from which the tinkling plates had been removed.

11. The name of it. When the procession made a halt of seven days at the threshing floor of Atad (v. 10), for a special mourning, the inhabitants of the surrounding countryside were much impressed by the way the Egyptians mourned the father of one of their dignitaries. This unusual event was the reason the Canaanites of that region called the place Abel-mizraim, the “meadow of Egypt.” This name represents a play on the words “mourning,” Хebel, and “meadow,” Хabel, both having the same consonants.

13. His sons carried him. It seems that the Egyptians remained at the threshing floor of Atad, while Joseph and his brothers proceeded alone to Canaan for the burial of their father, in the cave of Machpelah at Hebron. For the history of this burial place, see on chapter 23.

14. Joseph returned. The time had not yet arrived for the descendants of Jacob to settle permanently in Canaan. They were first to become “a great nation” (ch. 46:3).

16. Thy father did command. Joseph’s brothers were now filled with alarm, fearing that he might avenge himself for their cruelty. They thought that Joseph’s tender love for his aged father might have restrained him from taking revenge so long as he lived. Literally, “they charged Joseph,” meaning they sent one of their number, possibly Benjamin, to appeal to Joseph to honor the desire expressed by their father before his death and to implore forgiveness. There is no reason for regarding the appeal to their father’s wish as a mere pretense. The fact that no reference was made to their sin by Jacob in his blessings proves that he, as their father, had forgiven the sin of his sons, in view of the fact that the grace of God had made their crime the means of his family’s salvation.

17. Joseph wept. Inasmuch as the brothers did not personally appear before Joseph, it would perhaps be better to translate, “Joseph wept at their address to him.” He was hurt that they should for a single moment have entertained such a misconception of his love.

18. His brethren also went. Assured that Joseph had no intention of taking revenge, they dared to meet him personally, offering themselves as his slaves. But any thought of revenge was far from Joseph’s thinking. The spirit of his inner life was permeated with forgiveness. Though acquainted by experience with human treachery, he had never entertained any thoughts of bitterness or hatred. He hastened to assure his brothers that they had nothing to fear of him, but could trust him completely.

22. Joseph lived an hundred and ten years. Since Joseph had been born when his father was 91 years of age (see on chs. 27:1; 47:9), he was 56 at his father’s death, and consequently outlived his father by 54 years.

23. Joseph saw Ephraim’s children. It is not certain whether Ephraim’s great-grandchildren or his grandchildren are meant. In the second commandment of the Decalogue the expression “third and fourth generation” (Ex. 20:5; Deut. 5:9) apparently includes the fathers, and means the grandchildren and great-grandchildren. It is used in the same sense in Num. 14:18. However, in Ex. 34:7, where the following sequence is given, fathers, children, children’s children, third and fourth generation, the latter two generations obviously refer to great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren. Since sometimes the father is included in the number of generations mentioned, and sometimes excluded, it is uncertain, in Joseph’s case, what was meant. At the same time it is perfectly clear that Moses desired to show that Joseph lived to see the beginning of the fulfillment of his father’s blessing. There is no practical difficulty in Joseph’s seeing the great-grandsons of Ephraim. Since his 2 sons were born before he himself was 37 years old (ch. 41:50), he may have had grandsons by the time he was 56 or 60, and great-grandsons 20 years later at the age of 80. Great—grandsons may thus have been born when he was approximately 100 years old.

The children also of Machir. In the case of Manasseh’s children Moses is more definite, stating specifically that Joseph saw his own great-grandchildren.

Upon Joseph’s knees. Literally, “were born upon Joseph’s knees” (see on ch. 30:3).

I die. As Joseph saw death approaching, he expressed to his brothers firm belief in the fulfillment of the divine promise (see chs. 46:4, 5; 15:16). He placed them under oath, that when God should lead them to the Promised Land they would bury his bones there. This desire was carried out. When he died he was embalmed, like his father (see on vs. 2, 3), and placed in a coffin. His body probably was accorded a temporary burial in a previously prepared tomb, according to Egyptian custom, and remained in Egypt until the time of the Exodus. At that time the Israelites, fulfilling his desire, carried his remains to Canaan and buried them at Shechem, in the piece of land that had been bought by Jacob and given to his son Joseph (Gen. 33:19; 48:22; Joshua 24:32).

In an act of faith on the part of the dying Joseph the history of the patriarchal period ends. His coffin, or tomb, became to the sojourners in Egypt a constant reminder of the promises of God, that their permanent abode was to be the land of Canaan and not Egypt. It remained a standing exhortation to them to turn their eyes from Egypt to Canaan, and to wait in patience and faith for the fulfillment of the promise God had made to their fathers.

Ellen G. White comments

15-26PP 239-240