THE FIRST BOOK OF

MOSES,
called
G E N E S I S

Genesis 50

1The mourning for Jacob. 4Joseph getteth leave of Pharaoh to go to bury him. 7The funeral. 14Joseph returneth to Egypt with his brethren. 15They appeal to him for pardon of the wrong they had done him; he comforteth them. 22His age: he seeth the third generation of his sons, 24he prophesieth unto his brethren of their return, and taketh an oath of them concerning his bones. 26He dieth, and is put into a coffin.


1AND Joseph fell upon his father's face, and wept upon him, and 1kissed him.

1 And no doubt he has likewise shut his eyes, according as God had promised unto Jacob, Gen. 46:4.

2And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians 2to embalm 3his father: and the physicians embalmed Israel.

2 That is, the dead corpse of his father.

3 This embalming was a very ancient custom of those eastern nations, whereby they bestowed and filled the exenterated corpse with fragrant herbs and odoriferous spices, and anointed it with ointments made of the same; which custom the Gentiles kept up out of superstition, but the Israelites retained it with a sanctified remembrance, as a testimony of the future immortality and incorruptibility of our bodies. See 2 Chron. 16:14; 21:19; Mark 16:1; John 19:40.

3And 4forty days were fulfilled 5for him; for so are fulfilled the days of those which are embalmed: and the Egyptians mourned for him 6threescore and ten days.

4 Namely, that by this continued application of embalming, the virtue and efficacy of those precious herbs, drugs, and ointments, might so much the better diffuse themselves, and penetrate and incorporate through all the parts of the body.

5 Namely, to Jacob.

6 Longer than the Israelites after bewailed Aaron and Moses, which lasted but thirty days, Num. 20:29; Deut. 34:8. Though some perceive that in these seventy days the foresaid forty for embalming are to be comprehended; in which sense the bewailing itself would have lasted but thirty days.

4And when the days of his mourning were past, Joseph spake unto the 7house of Pharaoh, saying, If now I have found 8grace in your eyes, speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh, saying,

7 Understand the princes, counselors and friends of Pharaoh who were daily about his person; for Joseph being in mourning himself, he might not come into the king’s presence, according to the custom of Egypt, and of other countries. Compare Esther 4:2.

8 See Gen. 18 on verse 3.

5My father madea me swear, saying, 9Lo, I die: in my grave 10which 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.

a Gen. 47:29.

9 See Gen. 48 on verse 21, and here verse 24.

10 So did others likewise, while they were alive yet, cause their graves to be made ready against their time of death. See 2 Chron. 16:14; Isa. 22:16; Mat. 27:60.

6And Pharaoh said, Go up, and bury thy father, according as he made thee swear.

7¶And Joseph went up to bury his father: and with him went up 11all the 12servants of Pharaoh, the 13elders of his 14house, and all 15the elders of the land of Egypt,

11 That is, a great many, or the most part, or all such as were not presently employed and could be spared from home; compare Mat. 3:5.

12 That is, courtiers, gentlemen, attendants. See Gen. 20 on verse 8.

13 His counselors, senators, and statesmen.

14 That is, court-family. See Gen. 34 on verse 19.

15 Princes, chief officers, and prominent people of the land.

8And all the 16house of Joseph, and his brethren, and his father's house: only their little ones, and their 17flocks, and their herds, they left in the land of Goshen.

16 That is, all his family, retinue, servants, and attendants. Compare the annotation on the foregoing verse and Gen. 7 on verse 1.

17 That is, their cattle, both great and small; see Gen. 12 on verse 16.

9And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen: and it was a very 18great company.

18 That is, numerous in multitude. Thus it is called much people, Num. 20:20, which is explained so great a people in 1 Kings 3:9; 2 Chron. 1:10. See likewise 1 Kings 10:2, and 2 Kings 6:14.

10And they came to the 19threshingfloor of 20Atad, which is 21beyond 22Jordan, and there they 23mourned with a great and very sore lamentation: and he made a mourning for his father 24seven days.

19 Understand here a plain, bare and open field, overgrown or perhaps hedged in with thorns, or about which there grew a great quantity of bramble bushes.

20 Or, the bramble bush. The same word we have in Judges 9:14; Psalm 58:9. The Hebrew word Atad, as the proper name of this place, has been retained in the text.

21 Namely, in regard of the place where Moses was when he wrote this.

22 See Gen. 13 on verse 10.

23 Hebr. there they lamented a lamentation.

24 That is, Joseph appointed seven days to accommodate all things requisite for the solemnity of the mourning and funeral of his father. See Ecclesiasticus 22:12.

11And when the 25inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning in the floor of Atad, they said, This is a grievous mourning to the Egyptians: wherefore 26the name of it was called 27Abel-mizraim, 28which is beyond Jordan.

25 Hebr. the inhabitant. Also in the following the Canaanite.

26 Namely, of the foresaid place.

27 That is, the mourning of the Egyptians, or, the mourning ones of the Egyptians.

28 Thus in verse 10.

12And his sons did unto 29him according as 30he commanded them:

29 Namely, Jacob.

30 See Gen. 49:29.

13For hisb sons carried him into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of 31Machpelah,c which Abraham bought with the field for a possession of a buryingplace of Ephron the Hittite, before 32Mamre.

b Acts 7:15, 16.

31 See Gen. 49:30.

c Gen. 23:16.

32 See Gen. 49 on verse 30.

14¶And Joseph returned into Egypt, he, and his brethren, and all that went up with him to bury his father, after he had buried his father.

15¶And when Joseph's brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will 33certainly requite us all the evil which we 34did unto him.

33 Hebr. requiting requite, or, return.

34 Hebr. requited, or, have returned. To wit, for all those humble and submissive requests and friendly entreaties, whereby, when he was in our hands, he besought us to spare him, we rejected them all. See Gen. 42:11, and so below verse 17.

16And they 35sent a messenger unto Joseph, saying, 36Thy father did command before he died, saying,

35 Hebr. they charged to or unto Joseph, that is, they dispatched some persons to Joseph whom they charged to serve him something on their behalf.

36 They desire forgiveness from Joseph, using four arguments to that end: first, that their father (say they) desired it before his death; second, because they were brethren; third, they were sorry for and confessed their sins; fourth, because they were all of one religion with him.

17So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespassd of thy brethren, and their sin; for they did unto thee evil: and now, we pray thee, forgive the trespass 37of the servants 38of the God of thy father. And Joseph 39wept when they spake unto him.

d sin, transgression

37 Serving the same God with thee, Who hath commanded us to forgive one another’s trespasses, as we desire Him to forgive ours graciously.

38 See Gen. 26 on verse 24, and Gen. 31 on verse 42.

39 Doubtless because they spoke in very feeling terms of a matter which he could not hear but be sensible of it, the rather that he perceived thereby their apprehension of revenge and punishment, and their suspicion of his goodness.

1840And his brethren also went and fell down before his face; and they said, Behold, we be thy servants.

40 Namely, after they heard the report of their messengers, whom they had sent to Joseph.

19And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for 41am I ine the place of God?

41 That is, am I God, that I would have any power to do you any hurt or ill, since God is pleased to do you good and preserve you by me?

e Gen. 45:5.

20But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, 42as it is this day, to save much people alive.

42 That is, as is now apparent and manifest before all people.

21Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and 43spake kindly unto them.

43 See Gen. 34 on verse 3.

22¶And Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he, and his father's house: and Joseph lived an hundred and ten years.

23And Joseph saw Ephraim’s 44children of the third generation: the children also of Machirf the son of Manasseh were brought up 45upon Joseph’s knees.

44 Hebr. children of the third; that is, in the third generation, that is, children of children’s children. See of a similar blessing, Job 42:16, and Psalm 128:6. Here begins the fulfilment of Jacob’s prophecy, Gen. 48:19.

f Num. 32:39.

45 That is, Joseph took pleasure to let them, in their infancy, sit upon his lap to dandle them after the manner of playing with small children. Compare Gen. 30:3.

24And Joseph said unto his brethren, 46I die:g and God will surely 47visit you, and bring you out of this land unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

46 See verse 5.

g Heb. 11:22.

47 Hebr. visiting visit you, that is, He shall for certain visit you, namely, in His mercy, to do you good, and to make good His promises unto you. See Gen. 21 on verse 1, and here the next verse.

25And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and ye 48shall carry up my bonesh from hence.

48 This he charges upon them, not out of any superstition, but out of the assurance of his faith whereby he was sure that his posterity would possess the land of Canaan, and that the same was to them all a type and pledge of the heavenly Canaan; desiring for these reasons that his bones might at last be transported thither. See Heb. 11:22.

h Exod. 13:19; Joshua 24:32.

26So Joseph died, being an 49hundred and ten years old: and they 50embalmed him, and he was put in a 51coffin in Egypt.

49 Hebr. a son of an hundred and ten years.

50 See on verse 2.

51 Wherein his dead body was kept, until in due time it might be carried into the land of Canaan, which happened within an hundred fifty and five years after, when the children of Israel went forth out of Egypt.