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.
Ver. 3. And the Egyptians mourned for him seventy days.] Longer than Joseph mourned; they did it through "ignorance," and as men "without hope"; for both which, see 1 Thessalonians 4:13. Joseph could look through his own loss, and see his father's gain beyond it. Besides, he could say, as Jerome a in like case, Tulisti, Domine, patrem, quem ipse dederas: Non coutristor quid recepisti; ago gratias, quod dedisti. And if epicures could comfort themselves in their greatest dejections, ex praeteritarum voluptatum recordatione; b how much more could Joseph now; not only by calling to mind this last seventeen years' enjoyment of his dear father, beyond all hope and expectation; but chiefly, that happy change his father had made, from darkness to light, from death to life, from sorrow to solace; from a factious world, to a heavenly habitation, where he drinks of that torrent of pleasure, without let or loathing.
a Jerome, ad Julian.
b Cic., De Finib., lib. ii.