CRITICAL NOTES.—
Genesis 50:2. The physicians.] The Egyptians had special physicians for each disease; the embalmers forming a class by themselves.—
Genesis 50:3. Mourned for him three score and ten days.] The seventy days of mourning included the forty required for embalming.—
Genesis 50:5. My grave which I have digged for me.] “This term is applied to the preparation of a tomb (2 Chronicles 16:14). He thus speaks of having himself done what had been done by Abraham (Genesis 24); though it is not impossible that he had made preparations there for himself when he buried Leah.” (Jacobus.)—
Genesis 50:7. The elders of his house.] The court officials. The elders of the land of Egypt.] The state officials.—
Genesis 50:10. Beyond Jordan.] Considered, not as written from the position of Moses, but as bearing the usual meaning—East of the Jordan.—
Genesis 50:11. Abel-mizraim.] “This name, like many in the East, has a double meaning. The word Abel no doubt at first meant mourning, though the name would be used by many, ignorant of its origin, in the sense of a meadow.” (Murphy.)—
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH— Genesis 50:1-13
THE HONOUR PAID TO THE DEPARTED JACOB
This was of two kinds.
I. Private. The dead body of Jacob was honoured.
1. By the tears of his family. All the sons loved their father. They performed their last office for him by laying him in the grave. (Genesis 50:12-13.) They mourned for him with true affection. But in Joseph especially is this strong filial love manifested. He fell with tears and kisses upon the dead face of his beloved father. (Genesis 50:1.) When he stood by the old man’s bedside with his two sons, he listened calmly to the prophetic words which were uttered; he could bear up and control his feelings; but when the last spark of life was gone, he gave way. A crowd of overwhelming thoughts rushed upon him, and held to that dear embrace he abandons himself to grief. Jacob was honoured also.
2. By the respect paid to his last wishes. He desired to be buried in the sepulchre of his fathers, around which gathered so many tender and solemn memories. His sons carried out that wish. (Genesis 50:4-5; Genesis 50:12-13.) It was a bold thing for Joseph to ask so much of Pharaoh, for the journey to the grave was about three hundred miles. The embalming would be necessary in order to prepare the body to be borne such a long distance. Thus the desire of the dying man was fully accomplished. He was laid, the latest occupant, in the sepulchre whose denizens he had but a short time before enumerated. (Genesis 49:31).
II. Public. Public mourning was ordered. “The Egyptians mourned for him threescore and ten days.” (Genesis 50:3). This fell but a little short of a royal mourning. Jacob was honoured by a great nation with a public funeral, on an imposing and magnificent scale. In the funeral procession there were court and state officials, a military escort of chariots and horsemen;” it was a very great company. (Genesis 50:9.) The Canaanites were impressed with the sight, and called the place where the funeral procession halted by a name which signifies, the mourning of the Egyptians. (Genesis 50:11). 1 This might be objected to as merely formal. In the customs of polite nations, in the matter of court mourning, there is, no doubt, much that is mere outward form. Yet even these ought not to be despised as having no value. They are an outward witness of what men ought to be, and what they ought to feel. They show respect for departed worth, sympathy with survivors, and a thoughtful and solemn recognition of our common mortality.
2. This might be objected to as utilitarian. Some would say, this was altogether an unnecessary expense, time and labour wasted to no profit: “To what purpose is this waste.” (Matthew 26:8.) The disciples of our Lord objected to the costly ointment poured upon Him, in this same utilitarian spirit. But Christ discovered a native beauty in actions far surpassing the value of their outward form and use. Thus truth, goodness, and charity may be profitable in what they bestow; but they are also lovely in themselves. They are to be admired apart from the benefits they render. As they cannot be gotten for gold, so they are not to be compared with it. This mourning was imposing in its expensive grandeur, yet it produced feelings and impressions of more value than mere wealth. It produced respect for goodness. Men could not help reflecting upon that greatness of character which had won so much public homage. It strengthened the finest and noblest human feelings,—love, sympathy, compassion for those in sorrow. It invited to seriousness, giving men time to pause in the midst of busy life, so that they might think upon another world. And unless this inward life of noble thoughts and feelings is encouraged, of what use is a nation’s wealth and splendour?
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Genesis 50:1. We are not told what Reuben or Simeon felt on this occasion; their sensibilities were not so strong as those of Joseph, but theirself-reflections must have been bitter. Joseph’s tears were attended with secret consolation.—(Bush.)
Genesis 50:2. With wonderful propriety does Joseph unite in his own person the Israelitish truthfulnes with that which was of most value in the Egyptian customs and usages.—(Lange.)
Jacob was embalmed, according to the custom of Egypt. This was done to retard the progress of corruption; for so long as the body was there, their friend seemed still among them. In that we find an intimation of immortality.—(Robertson.)
Genesis 50:3. All the Egyptians saw how dear Jacob was to their lord, and thought they could not pay a more suitable token of respect to him than by mourning for his father. When good and great men die, it is proper that the general heart of the community should feel the stroke of Providence. A loud voice comes from their graves, proclaiming that soon we shall be with them. Shall we not, then, prepare for the decease which we must so soon accomplish?—(Bush.)
Genesis 50:4. Joseph could not apply in person to Pharaoh, because he was in mourning attire. It had been a long established custom in the time of Esther, to exclude all such from the courts of kings. (Esther 4:2.) The palace was regarded as the image of heaven, the region of life and gladness, and therefore, the visible signs and symbols of death could not be permitted to enter.
Genesis 50:5-6. The Egyptians were very jealous of the honour of their country which they esteemed “the glory of all lands.” They might have thought that Joseph, who had received such honours in their land, did not discover a grateful sense of their favours, if he had carried his father’s body to be buried in another land without giving a good reason for it. The old man had himself, moreover, been treated with great generosity by Pharaoh. Joseph wished to obviate any such reflections, and therefore produced reasons for his request.—(Bush.)
Genesis 50:7-13. The mourning train of Jacob, a presignal of Israel’s return to Canaan. The dead Jacob draws beforehand the living Israel to Canaan. Before all is the dying Christ.—(Lange.)
In this there was fulfilled the promise made. (Genesis 46:4.) Jacob was literally brought back from Egypt to Canaan; since for his body did God prepare this prophetic journey.—(Starke.)
So great a cavalcade attending Jacob to his long home through a part of two different countries would spread the fame of the good man, and revive the remembrance of him in the land of Canaan. And it was much for the interest of religion that his name should be known. In his life he had eminently displayed the virtues by which religion is recommended.—(Bush.)